Day Zero- not a smidge of rain!!

So lucky today!! The forecast was pretty glum for today earlier in the week, and slowly it got better and better. And this morning in West Stockbrisge we awoke to dry conditons and it stayed that way the whole day. I'm riding with my cycling buddy Linda Epstein, and we were joined by her nephew Max from North Adam. The logisitics of how we got to West Stockbridge and got our our luggage to Sturbridge I will spare, but they were pretty complex. We started out at our motel this morning and then biked to the NY state border.

We came across other crazies who do this unofficial day zero. I'd estimate about 2% of riders do it. It was 95 miles for the day, which we covered pretty efficiently in 5 hrs 58 minutes riding time- I'll admit that we had a lovely tailwind. It was a fairly hilly day as we cycled through the lovely Berkshires and then through the gorgeous Pioneer Valley. Max and Linda were awesome riding partners, all of us taking turns with various bursts of energy over the varied terrain.

We grabbed lunch in Northampton- always great to be in that town.

This was the fastest Max has done 95 miles, and he took a happy lie down at the end of the ride. We rolled into Sturbridge at 4 pm exactly.

At the "pre-ride" ceremonies, we were entertained with live music (the Adam Ezra band) a great Boston comedian (Lenny Clark), and our host of ceremonies Billy Star, who started the PMC 35 years ago. Billy told us that so far we have raised $25 million so far, on the way to a projected 38 million. There are a near record 5300 riders, and close to 10,000 people with all the volunteers in this amazingly well coordinated event, We heard very inspiring stories of cancer survivors and those currently with cancer who we are riding for. Looking forward to tomorrow's 110 mile day to Bourne and to all the people cheering us on and inspiring us us to ride. We're up at 4:30 and on the road by 5:30 AM. Check out all the bikes lined up for tomorrow, with Kermit, the mascot of Team Kermit in the foreground! And our "Lick Cancer" tatoos!

 

 

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