I’ve been looking at race schedules and can’t find reference to any weekend time trials anywhere near Massachusetts. Not even a MA state TT championship. Am I looking in the wrong place or is there just pretty much no time trials in this area other than the weekly series?
Just the 3 weekly series: Charlie Baker in Concord, Pegasus (every other week) in Duxbury, and ECV in Hamilton. There was a NE Champs in Colebrook, CT until 2006, when it didn’t happen for, I believe, logistical issues. You can’t swing a stick without hitting a rock star triathlete at any one of these on most nights. It is humbling, yet strangely addictive…
That’s a bummer. The Charlie Baker should be a fast course and is in a convenient location for me, but how to get to Concord by 6pm? Not real easy unless I leave work before 5.
Leaving from where? The city?
In addition to the series mentioned by kdw, there are some informal TT series as well. There is a long-standing TT series in Dover run at 6:30 on the first Wednesday of each month, the course is a bit hillier than the Charlie Baker. Course record used to be held by Tony Delogne. Typically 2-3 dozen riders show up. http://www.markdionne.com/tt.html
The Sharon Road club holds a TT at 8:30 am on the 3rd Saturday of each month, typically a dozen or so riders show up. http://home.comcast.net/~sharonroadbikeclub/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
A small informal series may happen in Norfolk, but there’s nothing on the Web about it and not sure it’s formal enough to even mention.
I was planning to run an informal 40K tt in southeastern Mass, but was just too busy with work and family to put it together.
Hopefully the NE district TT will be resuscitated, it’s a real drag it didn’t happen last year. I heard rumors of a Mass state TT championship, but nothing materialized. Anecdotally there seems to be a lot of interest in TTs among stronger fitness riders, as well as triathletes looking to step up their abilities, but the cycling establishment is still primarily oriented around crits & road races.
Most likely Cambridge, but I still have to get from the financial district to Cambridge first.
In addition to the series mentioned by kdw, there are some informal TT series as well. There is a long-standing TT series in Dover run at 6:30 on the first Wednesday of each month, the course is a bit hillier than the Charlie Baker. Course record used to be held by Tony Delogne. Typically 2-3 dozen riders show up. http://www.markdionne.com/tt.html
…and Andy Boone had the '06 best at Charlie Baker, so the triathletes definitely hold their own in the TTs (although Andy is a fast roadie as well).
JB
I can’t believe there isn’t at least a state TT, kind of pathetic really. I’m relocating from Iowa and we have tons of TTs around here. I bought myself a new QR Seduza and 808s with PTSL as a graduation/new job present and I’m not going to have anything to do with them. I wanted to go for a sub 58-min 40k and it doesn’t even look like there is a 40k.
How about duathlons. Are there any/many of those?
I don’t think there are any 40k TT’s in the state. As for duathlons, I think there are 5 all year, 2 late in the fall on the same day. Has anyone here ridden the Baker course? I’ve done it a couple times and found a couple areas very bumpy and sketchy (downhill with lots of potholes).
I think the Baker course is basically what I did a lot of my rides on this summer because it guaranteed I wouldn’t get lost. I usually went the opposite direction though. I though the course was ridiculously fast because of lack of wind. Don’t remember any sketchiness. There are potholes everywhere in Massachusetts though.
There are two places where the CBTT gets a bit bumpy, but I wouldn’t call it sketchy.
ericlambi, if you thought it was fast on a training ride, you should try it on the Wednesday nights with Karen Smyers 30 seconds behind and Boone 2 minutes behind at the start. If that doesn’t get your HR up nothing will.
As far as getting lost, when you get to the CBTT course from Boston, you are just getting to where the good riding starts. Check out the crw.org site for the cued rides. They are pretty well marked, and riding out through Acton/Stow/Bolton/Harvard is great. My current favorite is the pi ride through all the apple orchards.
I can’t believe there isn’t at least a state TT, kind of pathetic really. I’m relocating from Iowa and we have tons of TTs around here. I bought myself a new QR Seduza and 808s with PTSL as a graduation/new job present and I’m not going to have anything to do with them. I wanted to go for a sub 58-min 40k and it doesn’t even look like there is a 40k.
I feel your pain. I’ve become a bit of a TT specialist and it seems that every TT I can find to do is a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hour drive away. That’s a long haul for a race that’s, at most, 25 miles. This year I drove 3 hours each way 9 TIMES to race in a time trial series where the races were only 10 miles. We did have a 40k state TT championship (South Carolina), but it was clear across the state. At least in your case, Mass. is small and you can look at events in all the surrounding states.
One thing I do is triathlon relays. I advertise to folks in the local tri club that I’m always ready to do the bike leg in any relay. I probably raced 7 or 8 tri relays, from sprints to 1/2 IMs. It’s the next best thing to a pure TT, but pretty expensive.** **They’re also VERY fun.
Good luck with your move and with finding races.