Since I couldn't do the Kings Tour of the Quabbin this year, due to the college reunion conflict, I had been thinking to get my own double metric in. The route north of New Boston was going to be new, so didn't know what to expect. I woke earlier than I had anticipated, so I got on the road by 5:05 AM. The weather to start was just perfect: about 60-62 F, clear, low humidity, and calm. The first 1/3 up to Amherst, NH, and then New Boston, NH, was just lovely. The first hour through Ayer, Groton, and Pepperell was calm, with relatively few cars. Then inevitably as I moved onto Rt 122, there were more cars, but at least I was going largely counter the commuter direction. I decided to keep going at Amherst, so that the first stop was about 1/3 into the trip. So that meant doing the first climb New Boston Rd/Brook Street in Amherst about mile 45. Turns out it was completely torn up with paving going on, so I had a hard pack dirt climb, which presaged roads later in the day. After descending and merging back on to 13 N, you get the nice long descent to New Boston. But it was a school day so I had to stop repeatedly for a school bus…on a downhill! How frustrating. Stopped at Dodge’s Store in the middle of New Boston. Met a nice local cyclist there, Landon, and told me about the area. Proceeded on a side road (Tucker Mill Rd) instead of 77 initially, and it had some steep sections and turned into nice hardback dirt partway through, but was nice to be of the main roads for a few miles. Then the fun began: back onto 77, then 114 from South Weare to Bradford, I started to get pummeled by strong, gusty northerly headwinds. It was a 20+ mile stretch, where I had to briefly stop 2 times and scream at the headwind. I thought it was never going to end and it wasn’t even the midway points and I was thinking I could not do that for an additional 65 miles. But then I thought about my friend Mark Longwell who had been enduring 110+ F weather in the Mojave Desert on the Race Arcross the West and I just resolved not to give in. Along the way, near Henniker, I saw the first of three Gilbert delta deposits that are exposed in the sandy aggregate quarrels. That proved a good enough reason to stop and take a photo instead of pedaling into a headwind. Eventually 114 crossed 103 and the road was more protected and going a little easterly, which was a welcome respite. Then the climbing up to New London felt more manageable than the infernal headwind. I climbed up to New London, passed Colby Sawyer College, and went into Tuckers for lunch just before 11am at about mile 85. Got the Tribal Bowl with eggs, kale, quinoa, sausage, and potatoes, plus a blueberry—banana smoothy with protein powder. It was totally restorative. I was worried I ate too much and would hurl later, but it proved not to be the case. I think I hadn’t really eaten enough by the time I had got beyond 70 o 80 miles. After New London, there was 6 miles of rolling to climbing terrain, then a lot of descending. The route I chose to avoid a little climbing, on Bog Road, ended up having about 3 miles of packed dirt, gravel, and washboard. I saw a cyclist ahead that I eventually caught when we got to 4A, and he said that everything except 4A and 10 were going to have big stretches of dirt. So I decided to ride past Mascoma Lake toward Lebanon. It was fun to ride along the lake and see the Shaker museum and the La Salette shrine where we had bunked in 1982 during the geology fall program (aka, The Rock Stretch). It was spitting slightly, and I was really hoping not to have rain for the last 20 miles, but it never really rained. The ride up 120 to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical complex was no fun, due to all scarified pavement, but thankfully, the descent had not been ripped up. Entering Hanover and going to the Green was emotional, partly for the fact that I was able to make it that far and not crack, not having done a century this year yet to prep for this. There was no one really checking in for reunions yet, so I got a photo at Baker Tower, then headed up to Lyme. The ride from Hanover to Lyme on 10 is one that I must have done many tens if not hundreds of times in the 80’s but I haven’t done it since 1984. I remembered the long rises and drops in general, but the 10 miles seemed a little longer than I remembered. I wasn’t really pushing, just trying to maintain a good tempo. The road surface was newly perfect and I had a slight tailwind, which was wonderful. I rolled through Lyme and on to the house of our friends. Finished in just shy of 8 hours, so that headwind really punished. I felt tired, but not shattered at the end, so I think I managed effort reasonably well. After a long shower, my friend fed me well and administered adult beverage analgesics, which worked well. I managed to be able to go to some early reunion meet-and-greet-and-drink. The G&T’s at the Hanover Inn were just what the doctor ordered. Tough but great ride. Glad I did it. I had bragging rights for the weekend. # nutrition I have been trying out some new Science In Sport powder and gels. Initially I didn’t like the taste of either, but I’ve warmed to them. I was pretty good about drinking 500 ml of water and SIS powder per hour (2/3 bottle). I had drunk nearly 2 bottles at 45 miles/3:10 hours in. I drank 2 more bottles by New London (85 miles/6:30 hours). Probably need to eat more food along the way, especially after about 30 miles. But it’s so hard to force yourself to eat at times. # gear trouble Regarding gear, I've been having trouble with getting the Garmin Ant+ sensors, especially the speed sensor, to talk reliably to the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt head unit. As a result, there was a 4 mile stretch with no data in the original file; fortunately Strava can fix that to get full credit. Also, for the life of me, I cannot get the Powerpod power meter to record the Garmin Ant+ data, especially the cadence data, so I have no direct power data. It's really pissing me off and making me want to throw away the Powerpod: it's so damned fiddly.