Nutmeg Nor'easter is a cycling event that takes place on Cold Spring Farm in Colchester, CT. The event is put on by Ronnie "Ultra Romance" and his partner Arya - they call it the "non-competitive alt cycling world championships"! The event started on Friday with camp setup, dinner & speakers then campfires. The next morning was breakfast and the opening ceremony followed by a number of ride options. There was dinner and more programing before a dance party and the event ended the next day with the Scorcher Single Speed Race. Everything about the event was pretty much perfect, the place, the routes, the food, the people and all the rad bikes. It was a super chill environment and the whole thing was put on with no corporate sponsors. I also scored a Ideale Saddle leather saddle at the swap meet. More on all of this in the photos and captions below.
Signing in - which came with some awesome Ron's Bags swag.
Kind of cool to be signed in by the owner of Crust Bikes- Cheech(not pictured).
Tag sale tents
Brad
The sunsets and sunrises were amazing from the farm.
Welcome
Ben
Selfie!
Ultra Romance & Arya
Legendary frame builder Peter Weigle.
He was an early adopter of the 650b wheels size and gave a highly entertaining talk.
Besides just bringing some bicycles he had other props to demonstrate riding kit before...."there was no Rapha back then".
Seal skin gloves
Two leaders of the RAR New Haven Chapter spoke next.
Morning on the farm - it was chilly but we were prepared.
Breakfast Line - the food was amazing - homemade biscuits for the breakfast sammies and more.
So many rad and unique bikes. Lots of steel - very little carbon.
Waiting for coffee.
Perfect Light
Erin
Cat
Pigs
Fall color was on point.
Opening Ceremony
It was a Tibetan Ceremony with Arya's Mom.
That is Joe Cruz in the center - he is a professor and a contributor to bikepacking.com - he gave a great talk later that evening.
Tea Ceremony
The people doing the 65 miler headed out on the earlier side as it was a gnarly route with a bunch of elevation.
We did the 40 mile route which had about 1600 feet of climbing, all kinds of surfaces, and a cidery and brewery stop. The route was awesome. Tons of that footage is in the YouTube video at the bottom.
There isn't a flat road in CT - that we found anyways.
Hard cider stop at Yankee Cidery.
Animated.
Beer Stop!
We spent most of the day out on the road & trails. I would hit some of us would hit the climbs or rougher trails faster but then regroup at pretty spots.
Joe Cruz's talk during dinner - all you can eat wood fired pizza!
New IRL friends/previous internet friends - Yellow Bird, Abe and Ryan.
Dance Party
Old Fisher - I bought my saddle from this dude.
Community Bulletin Board
Breakfast outside the farm market building.
Wild Bikes!
Scorcher Race Start
Coming in Hot!
"Allez! Allez!"
Scorcher Podium
Goodbyes and thanks
No comments:
Post a Comment