Day 3 - Portsmouth, NH to Wochester, MA 94 miles

Just the stats: 94 miles, 15.9 MPH average. Started riding at 7:30 am, finished at 2:30 pm - 6 hours 6 minutes riding time. Sunny, cool with sunny blue sky's, 43 to 60 degrees. Calories burned on the ride - 5,597.

Today was a long hilly 94 mile ride. The hills were just like the hills I trained on in Howard County, MD so even though it was a very hard riding day, I was able to ride well within myself. My bike computer tells me I climbed 4,898 feet today and went down hill 4,654 feet. So up and down all day. The last 30+ miles seemed more up than down. My max speed was 42 mph. I went as slow as 8 - 9 mph riding uphill. Downhills are always fun, I don't use brakes. The climbs were long but what goes up must come down.

I was in the front most of the day today. As you can see from my picture of the sign entering Massachusetts, I was the first rider to enter the state - that was at the 51.3 mile mark. The two Jims caught up to me around mile 62, we rode together for a couple of miles and then they took off, dropping me on the hills.

So I was the third rider in - the two Jims (our strongest riders) were in 15 minutes ahead of me.

I didn't take many pictures today. The lake pictures are of Wachusett Reservoir. The last picture is our sign-in sheet.

Tomorrow is a 68 mile day to Windsor Locks, CT. This sounds short but we were told that it is a big climbing day. Stay tuned.

Terry - The hammer hasn't come down on me yet, I am waiting. I my luggage is overweight again. Congratulations to you and Jim on your European trip. Not many people can say they have crossed two continents by bike in two years - awesome!

Doug - I have you and Todd to thank for getting me into this biking thing - thanks. Maybe we can do Ragbrai next summer. I'd love to get Todd to join us.

I really appreciate the comments that have been written, keep them coming, it's great to see someone is reading this thing.

Thanks for following my ride. Tom