Mount Greylock, MA – Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Mt. Greylock offers a very respectable climb with spectacular views. The TT course begins just off Rt 8 in N. Adams on Furnace St, then hangs a quick left onto Reservoir Rd, which is perhaps the steepest part of the whole climb and you haven’t even left town yet.
You can park right there at Heritage State Park. It starts out with several sustained, very steep sections, then moderates as you approach the summit. One significant downhill early in the climb will get your speed up to about 40mph, so you’ll need all your gears. The flatter portions at the top will also let stronger riders cruise around 20mph.
Lower portions of the paved road are in very poor shape, open, loose potholes, huge frost heaves, deep cracks, etc. Great care must be taken descending through this section. I have never climbed from the south side, but I have gone down that way. The surface is pretty nasty in places there too. The Spoke bicycle shop has organized the TT for many years, mostly as a local word-of-mouth type of event timed with stopwatches.
Bicycle riders usually train hard and when you train hard, you need to rest hard as well. It’s all about Rest and Diet. You’ll probably know that you need to observe annual, monthly, and weekly rest cycles. Most people don’t periodize their training that much, so they’ll have no annual rest periods. There could be weeks that their training exercises drop off somewhat but this will not be planned and it doesn’t play that important a role, but still… Most will, however, need fust a few weeks to recover rigorously.
High Point Hill Climb TT, NJ
This time-trial format hill climb has been running for some 30 years now. I haven’t tried this event yet, and it’s on my to-do list. Researching past history on the High Point Hill Climb did not produce course record times nor a race website. The plot below is based on recent registration information from bikereg.com. More info will be added when I get a chance to try it or if a Northeastcycling.com visitor cares to submit a review.
