Day Zero of the PMC: West Stockbridge to Sturbridge

Day Zero of the PMC! WMy awesome Day Zero buddies and I spent the night in West Stockbridge and left our (bare bones) motel in the wee hours to bike to the NY state border. A small number of PMC cyclists do the Day zero ride- our estimate this year was about 100 (out of 6300 riders).

It's a 5 mile ride to the border from our Motel, where we posed for the traditional border shot.

At the border

So begins our 98 mile to Sturbridge, through lovely western Mass towns. The morning weather was perfect- sunny and cool.

Our ride is made so easy since we have our own personal SAG support in the form of Paul's Father-in-Law Lyle, who drove us out to western Mass and took great care of us all day. Lyle rules!!

Lyle!!

Day Zero is our hilliest day, with over 6000 feet of climbing. There are no massive ascents, just a fair number of short climbs, but the gem of the day is a 5 mile downhill in Becket as we leave the Berkshires and enter the Pioneer Valley. Funny the biggest hill we climb for the day is a 3 miler in Chester in the Pioneer Valley.

Crossing the AT at Becket

Arsty shot!

We biked east to Northampton and grabbed lunch at mile 66 at Atkins Farm in South Amherst. We met up with a good friend of mine who lives in Amherst who is just recovering from successful surgery following a very recent prostate cancer diagnosis. He thanked us for riding for cancer, as he choking back tears. It's very clear why we are riding. Leaving Atkins, we headed south, and the temps headed north. We had to watch our hydration and electrolyte intake, paying close attention to any muscle cramps and catching them early. Paul almost over-heated but we caught it just in time.

Farm in Hadley

The last 12 miles of the day is largely an uphill slog from Palmer to Sturbridge. We had some cloud cover just in time allowing us to finish strong.

Sturbridge was hopping, as thousands of cyclists descend on this small town for the opening ceremony of the PMC, where we heard there are 6300 riders this year, 4000 volunteers and an amazing amount of donated food and drink, including 180 kegs of Harpoon beer! We heard many powerful cancer stories at the ceremony and also found out that we have raised $31 million so far, with a target of $46 million. All the money raised goes to the Jimmy Fund, which fuels cancer treatment, research and new cancer drugs at the Dana Farber. It's very clear why we are riding, to help raise some serious funding to fight cancer.

Just a few bikes at Sturbridge