Minuteman Road Club

Current weather forecast has it cloudy/rainy Saturday. I am changing this ride to Sunday. It is also now a road ride, although it will still have 18 dirt/gravel sections, but you no longer need a CX bike to do it. Ride will be in Eastern CT, I will map out the route by Friday. Probably ~55-65 miles with 3500 ft climbing. The start will either be in Douglas, MA or Thompson, and will be early (8 am) because it's gonna be hot Sunday. Also the route will pass through Woodstock CT for refreshments.

Doug

I'd love to do those roads, but I'm away this weekend.

Sounds fun, but MTB race Sunday.

Updated information for Sunday's gravel ride:

Start time: 8 am
Start location: Mary R Fisher Elementary School, 785 Riverside Dr, N Grosvenordale, CT 06255 (near Thompson CT and off Rt 395)
Ride stats: 65 miles, 4200 feet climbing
Dirt/Gravel sections: 17 total

GPS file https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27967052

Food stops: Most likely stop is Coriander Cafe (Mile 30). [There is also Woodstock Store at mile 47 and Java Jive at mile 57]

Note on the route:

This is a Medio Version of the New England Gran Fondo, which takes place during KMC Crossfest. I took their century-gravel route and chopped out close to 40 miles that goes through RI & Mass. The ride is now a manageable distance, and it keeps 17 of the 19 gravel sections.

Bike recommendation: road bike, with 25-28c tires. Make sure you have the right tires and since this ride is unsupported please bring 2 tubes/CO2 etc

Thinking yeah

I've done some riding in this area so I already knew it was a nice area to ride, but this ride solidified it for me.—This is some of the best riding New England has to offer. The roads are surprisingly wide, and just as surprising, in excellent condition. Also very scenic. And it's only a short drive. Or you can ride there, but then you probably wont ride as many of the local roads.

Today's route had plenty of gravel sections and they were almost all in great condition. Only one gravel section had puddles (2) that spanned the width of the road, and considering all the rain in the area yesterday that's way better that I had even hoped.

I'd love to see a group of 6,7,8+ MRC do some rides in the area. It could a gravel ride or not.

Couldn’t join today but definitely interested to ride in this area.

I will ditto what KT said, I've ridden around Thompson, and parts of Woodstock, but this was the first time I went farther West into Ashford, Eastford, Westford etc. The whole area has great pavement, and many of the roads, despite being low traffic farm roads, are wide enough to ride a double paceline. The gravel roads were decent too, I think we did 15-20 miles of dirt, due to the storms on Saturday there were a few spots that had washed out, and there was one road that was more a class 4 or Jeep road, that had standing water on it. But I did the whole thing on a road bike with 25c tires. 28c would have been better. The one-two sucker punch of the repeat rollers reminded me of Battenkill. In fact the ride we did would be good training for BKill next year.