Bob Furapples

In the brush with greatness department, Solobreak gets a photo-op at the top of Gonzo Pass with teammate Bob "Furapples" Hatfield, drummer for the legendary Boston punk band the F.U.'s, fresh off his This is Boston Not L.A. reunion gig in Revere.

Just a plain old bike ride Saturday. We originally had four riders lined up, but two bagged out. Hattie had been granted an all-day hall pass from his wife, and wasn't about to let his chance to ride in the mountains for the first time slip by. We headed up and parked in Campton. Our original plan was to loosely follow Dougie's White Mountains west route, but then double back down 112 instead of heading to Franconia. From there we'd climb over into Waterville via Tripoli Road and then back to the car. Looked like around 85 miles.

I rode my Soma, with 28 mm Paselas this time. Bobby doesn't race as much as me, so this would provide a suitable handicap. Plus it has a compact. I think he only had a 39x26 on his Madone. Gonzo Pass proved fun. It was windy on the descent due to the so-called hurricane which had just left town. Going up Route 25 west was straight into it. But we missed the turn for High Street; it had no sign. By the time we were sure of it we just decided to f-it and go the long way around. Bob had 23 mm road tires, and so the Long Pond Road gravel descent might not have been such a great idea anyway. We came out to Route 10, where you ride north along the Connecticut River and can look over into Vermont. The we headed back east on 116. There is not much going on in that area...



The Soma only had to wait for Hattie two minutes or so at the top of Tripoli road.

116 junctions back to 112 and it was basically a long, steady grind, albeit with a nice tailwind. Which also made it quite warm, borderline uncomfortable. 116 veers off left but we stayed the course on 112, hitting Kinsman Notch, which is all brand new asphalt, smooth as it gets. And it's the worst false-flat I've ever ridden on. It's not steep, but it almost appears downhill, an illusion created by the surrounding mountains. I am not going to claim it was fun. But bombing down the other side was a nice bonus, even if it is a pedal downhill. On my tires anyway, I only spun out my 50x11 in a few places.



Mr. Furapples powers over the top of the 7 mile, 1600 foot dirt climb.

After a water stop we hit Tripoli Road. It was nice and cool in there, almost chilly. It took me 38 minutes. Bob was not far behind. Now we're home free. A touch of rain spit on us going through Waterville Village but then it cleared and we were back at the cars in just under 6:00 ride time, 6:24 total. Only about 93 miles with a double back into Woodstock for water on the way back, but 6800 feet of climbing, 1/3 of it on dirt, and 20 mph headwinds on some long stretches, I think it was OK. Check out the map, do you think the route looks like a butterfly, or Krusty the Clown's haircut? I did not have a power meter but my Polar registered 4300 calories (versus 5100 for D2R2 at 9 hours). Based on my lab tests, the Polar numbers are probably at least 10% low. And I got to ride with a legend of punk. We're going to try to get him in more races next year. He's got the power, I just need to instill some manorexia in him and drop a few dress sizes from his cottage of wattage. And as you can see, my new BOB team issue jersey has visually slimming black side panels, so we'll get him into one of those too. Thanks for reading.