News | Boston University Cycling

Fall training update

November 14, 2019 at 12:00

Fall, for those not racing cross, is a wonderful time for getting in those base miles: a chance to rest after spring and summer racing, and a time to build fitness with an eye towards next year’s goals. Its an especially nice way to reconnect with teammates after the summer hiatus, do some classic Northeast leaf-peeping, and hit up the coffee shops for a nice mid-ride brew. New routes have been forged, group rides enjoyed, turkeys spotted, and many a town line sprint contested.

A staple of the fall training diet are the Tuesday/Thursday evening spin workouts, diligently supplied by our coach Ian. We got lucky and somehow got a massive TV in the spin room, so we’ve started watching movies, races, and (a personal favorite) EF Gone Racing shorts. Jack and Yumeto seem to have caught the Zwift bug pretty badly, so spin sessions now have the added excitement of additional Zwift races. While the workouts always leave my legs feeling like cooked spaghetti, I can’t help but appreciate the variation in workout structure and the extra strength I feel when I go out on the road. When it rains, it also allows me to stay warm and dry (and catch up on movies)…

One of the things I appreciate the most about the NE cycling community is how welcoming and social it is– even with the temperatures dropping, there are still many group and shop rides going on reliably, and it always seems possible to get a couple people together. The shop ride put on by Apex Velo is a Sunday staple: Jack, Yumeto, and I often go, giving us a chance to test our legs on the race loops and learn new routes.

My favorite ride so far has been out to Harvard, to cheer on Arun at Fruitlands and subsequently explore the roads of MetroWest. Rolling out before sunrise, we arrived at Fruitlands just in time to help Arun pull his warm-up pants off frantically one minute before the start of his race. After watching and heckling his race, we headed out up the Nashua River Rail Trail, ended up in New Hampshire (Yumeto won the state line sprint), bonked, and rolled into Groton for some well-needed 1.5 ft long sub sandwiches. Realizing we still had to get back to Boston, we ended up riding on some kind of singletrack trail for a few miles to get to the main road. Mercifully, none of us got a mechanical.

Apart from the usual road riding, its possible (with a little digging) to find some nice, quiet trails. Though I do like riding on the road, I’ve found gravel to be ideal for weekday afternoons and evenings, particularly as the days get shorter and I want to minimize time on the road in the dark.

Besides the usual shenanigans (often documented on Instagram), we have a few big rides being planned before scattering for winter break. Perhaps most notably, there’s a plan to do a century around Mystic Lake– that’s 20 5-mile loops, in case anyone didn’t want to do the math.

Looking into the end of this year and into the next, I’m excited to continue spending time with my teammates and exploring Boston, all while building fitness and preparing for the racing season. First race on the horizon: BTT-ITT…

By Isabella Turcinovic | Posted in Rides | Comments (0)

Safety: Daylight Savings Edition

November 7, 2019 at 12:00

We’re in New England, it’s Winter, but you want to keep riding outside because the trainer sucks after a while, even with lots of movies to catch up on. The sun is setting ever earlier, and you have fewer and fewer daylight hours to take advantage of even as base season kicks up and you need to put in longer rides and bigger mileages. Luckily, you have many options for continuing to ride safely in the darker seasons, many of which are within reach with a worthwhile investment of your time and a little $$.

The first thing you can do is hit up Landry’s Bicycles on Comm Ave and ask for advice on lights. Massachusetts riders are required by law to run lights between ½ hour after sunset and ½ hour before sunrise, but you don’t need to limit yourself to nighttime illumination. Some lights make you more visible during the day and in slightly less ideal conditions as well as in the pitch dark, but anything is better than nothing. If you’re in a pinch, talk to someone at the BU office of Transportation Solutions for Commuters (BU TransComm) at 710 Albany St. to get a couple for free!

Lights on the front and rear keep you in sight in those directions, but you may still be invisible from the sides. You can remedy this with ankle reflectors, spoke lights, rim lights, and/or reflective clothing. ‘Tis the season, and nothing catches the eye better than a rolling Christmas tree.

As always, be wary of other road users, and especially so as it gets darker. Pedestrians can be particularly difficult to see on poorly lit shared-use paths, so a good, strong headlight is more than handy and can save you and them from a bad crash. Right hooks, left hooks, and dooring are all the more likely to happen at night or in bad weather conditions, so you’ll need to be even more cautious and alert. Riding in traffic rather than the shoulder will make you more visible to motorists, and can save you from inadvertent buzzing if the road narrows.

By Lucia Vilallonga | Posted in News | Comments (1)

Kanc Kanc Kanc!

October 15, 2019 at 12:00

The team at the top of Kanc!

Last weekend we took our annual trip up to the White Mountains in NH. This year we stayed in northern Maine, some 3 hours away from the hustle and bustle of Boston. The menu was the same as always; drive up on Friday, ride Saturday, ride Sunday, drive back immediately after, and then start homework.

In Fryeburg, ME, the team started their ride with a quick 10 mile warm-up loop at a leisurely pace. The temperature was 40 degrees and conditions were damp with fine rain coming down. Riders gingerly unpacked their bikes out of the vans, donned their Velotoze (and other rain gear, we just mention Velotoze to flex) and set out for the warmup. Why do a warm up loop? Well, I passed on age-old wisdom from my BU cycling elders and said "if anything on the bike were to malfunction, break, or felt 'off,' it would likely go wrong in the first 10 miles." Lo and behold, Jack's handlebar slipped down 7 miles in, so we made a quick stop back at the vans to torque the bolts and to also stock up on food and water.

An uneventful 30 miles later we arrived at the foot of the Kanc. Fortunately it started to warm up. We were approaching 50 degrees according to my headunit, and it was sunny according to everyone clamoring about our fortune as we made our way towards the climb.

As always the climb was a full-gas effort. Robert, Arun and I decided to launch an early attack, entering TTT mode from the Bear Notch Fork to the early steep pitches. As Jack came thundering past, I managed to hop on his wheel when we entered the steady 5% incline. Unlike many of the riders who shed layers at the Bear Notch turnoff, I kept my thermal jacket, leg warmers, and Velotoze in anticipation of the thirty minutes at the vista point taking pictures and the following descent. As expected, Jack rode me off his wheel with about 1 mile to go.

Isabella, Jack, and Yumeto atop the "podium" at the Kanc Summit

As Jack and I waited at the summit, he told me he was holding 400w up the entire climb, which made getting dropped sting a little less. After a few minutes, we could see Arun and Isabella coming up, head to head in a sprint for third. Isabella started her sprint with about 100 meters to go, leaving an exhausted Arun behind as she rounded off the podium.

We always stop at the vista point before we head all the way down the descent, and with the relatively warm weather, we were able to spend plenty of time taking pictures, re-capping the climb, and "awwwwwwwww"-ing at the dogs that were hanging around.

The descent is always flowy, fast, and over too soon. We soon made our way down the Kanc, some faster than others, and reconvened at Bear Notch Road. Our route split from Highway 120 as we made our way to the northern loop. The group split up at this intersection; we were approaching late afternoon and the sun would set soon. Riders who were determined to ride the century and could feasibly return to the van before sunset, made their way towards Bartlett. Others went for the direct route back to the van, which still totaled 80 miles. The rest of the ride was a blur for most, if not all, as we fought exhaustion and hunger. Nevertheless, both groups made it back to the van within minutes of each other, all of us anticipating the team tradition pasta dinner.

120 meatballs and a couple of veggie balls...all gone by the end of the night.

We hit the kitchen hard, pots, pans, and ingredients flying out of the cabinets and refrigerator. 10 boxes of pasta went into the pots, and 4 jars of marinara sauce as well. The meatballs went into the oven in the meantime...all 150 of them.

The team lines up to chow down!

Silence overcame the table as all of the riders voraciously consumed the pasta, Not even a "this is good" was heard. The chatter started up again after everyone had had a handsome serving of pasta, with my teammates going back for seconds and some even thirds. Each plate was consumed with coffee (of course), as we all struggled to stay awake from the food coma. An early bedtime for most left some of the night owls relaxing on the couch, recounting the day's experiences.

We woke up late the next day for a short recovery ride. A quick Dunkins run proved fruitful not only in waking everyone up, but also in finding a route, as the friendly lady behind the counter recommended that we go follow a quiet B-road! Her words were worth their weight in gold, as we soon found beautiful New England Fall Scenery to enjoy at a leisurely pace.

Nothing much to say here, other than "beautiful."

The weekend was overall, a 10/10 experience, and I cannot thank enough our generous donors, alumni, community, and sponsors for their support for the team, which makes this trip (and the spring road racing season!) possible every year.