Trans NH Wrap UP

2009 Team DeRoche

It’s been a few days since the Trans New Hampshire bike ride, and I’m writing to thank all of you. With your help and support the ride raised $137,600! Katie and I personally raised $1895! This year we only had 101 riders, which means the average amount raised by rider was about $1300, in this economy it’s an amazing thing I can’t thank you all enough.

The ride started out on Friday morning. We trucked up to the Canadian border, and got prepped for the first 100 miles. I ended up at the front of the group to start, and averaged 23MPH to the first rest stop. This was a little faster then I’d been planning, so I stopped and waited for the rest of Team DeRoche to show up. We re-grouped and went off from the second stop with out incident. A few hours later, we had our first mechanical problem of the day. One of our team’s bike was making a bad noise. We flagged down the race mechanic and on the side of the road his bike was taken apart and fixed. Only 3 of us stayed while the rest of our group, 12 in total, rode up to the next rest stop. The next rest stop was being run by Katie. As I pulled into the rest stop Katie yelled out from her sandwich station “Riding a little slow today aren’t ya hun?”. A little later on we were riding out of Whitefield and had a small crash. The rider in front of me slowed, and I crossed wheels with him, the sent me across the road into the rider behind me. I stayed up, but the rider behind me wasn’t so lucky. Minor damage to the bike, and a couple small scrapes on the rider. His front tire popped, so we fixed his flat and continued uneventfully on. My average moving speed for day 1 was 19.2 mph.

I think Teagan's favorite toy is his wheelchair!

That evening was a spaghetti dinner at the Littleton Fire Department. Pasta, salad and cake. Teagan had come up to see the riders, and spoke at the dinner. As his mother was telling the story of Teagan being diagnosed with MD, she was understandably getting choked up. Teagan looked up at her and said “Don’t be sad mommy”. The courage that Teagan has is amazing. The next morning we were all getting up and Teagan was flying around the parking lot in his wheel chair. I think he had a permanent smile on his face the entire time he was up there.

We woke up the next morning and assembled out in the parking lot. The Littleton Fire Department gave us an escort to the town line and we were off. We hung back from the front to avoid the diesel fumes. At the third stop we remembered a nice sweeping S curve in Monroe. So I took a quick stop and hammered on down to the curve with one other rider, to position ourselves to snap some pictures of the rest of the group. I have some great pictures from Day 2, unfortunately I left my camera at the Fireside Inn in Lebanon, so I’m waiting for UPS to deliver it to me. Day 2 was nice, it stayed mostly dry. Right before the last big climb in Hanover, the sky opened up and we had a nice lightening show. Climbing in the rain wasn’t bad since it generates a lot of heat. Descending was cold thanks to the 20+mph we bombed down the slick roads at. My average on day 2 was 19.1 mph so another decent day on the bike.

Once we got into Lebanon I changed into my running gear and spent 35 minutes on the treadmill. You wouldn’t believe some of the looks I got after riding 75 miles and jumping directly on the treadmill. It felt good to run after riding for two days. We hung out at the hotel and some played ping pong, and we all drank a couple beers before dinner. Dinner was an amazing chicken and rice dinner. After the dinner we had the presentation of jerseys. Every member of Team DeRoche received a new jersey for raising over $1200. After the jersey presentation we retired back to the picnic tables for some more beer and laughter.

The profile from Day 3

On Day 3 Katie was the first rest stop, before “George’s Hill”. Day 3 is probably the hardest and most fun day of the three. There’s a lot of climbing on tired legs, the first 25 miles we climb 1200 feet. Then it’s just a high speed burn to Concord since from mile 25 to 55 we decent the 1200 feet we climbed. There’s two sections of day 3 that we just let it all hang out and ‘play’. By play, I mean we hammer hard, 40% of the ride I was above 23 mph chasing and being chased by some rather strong riders and good friends.

riding in with the other 102 riders

After we regroup at a Concord Fire station, we parade over to the Rundlett Middle School for a BBQ and to meet up with family and friends who have come up for the finish.

I know there’s a lot that I’m leaving out. There is no way to truly capture the spirit and community of the ride. The only way to understand why this is a staple in my summer, and why friends fly in from California, Illinois and Texas to come ride 250 miles through rain, cold and heat that is only available in New Hampshire, you’ll have to come out and do the ride one year!

Thanks again for all you support!

Joe