Day two to Worcester Mass

This has been a long day and it will be a short blog tonight. The rain gods were smiling this morning, well maybe not smiling but at least not making life miserable for the 27 cyclists leaving Portsmouth for Worcester, Mass. The skies were gray and threatening and we had lots of fog but none of the downpours we had yesterday. We had a group of perhaps 7 or 8 riders that had formed out of the group yesterday. Some are from my cross country in '09, one is a rookie, and a couple from the 10 xc - but all good cyclists and a compatible group. Probably the best part of the ride today was riding in and out of all the pretty little New England towns in both New Hampshire and, later, Massachusets. So many have a real history, e.g. the town hall showing a founding date of 1659 in one town and most have old fashioned town squares and the classic high-steepled old churches. It's also fun just to see people walking the downtown streets - and for some reason a bunch of cyclists riding as a group seems to put a smile on faces. However, at mile 75, in Massachusets the gray skies became a little more threatening and within minutes the skies opened up and we had an even worse downpour than what we had yesterday. The roads were treacherous with running water, we were all drenched, and all we could do was make a run for it. To make it even worse our hotel is right downtown and Worcester has traffic problems that make New York's famous gridlocks look like child's play. To say that the last four or five miles was harrowing is an understatement. Nevertheless all of us made it safely into the barn and as one of my colleagues said at dinner tonight it just made the beer taste that much better. We ended the day with 95 miles (which qualifies as century in some circles but of course I wouldn't think of claiming credit unless I hit a full 100) with 4200 feet of climbing. And on that note I think I'm ready for bed...Tomorrow will be our third state in as many days. More later.