Sunday, July 24, 2016

24th Annual Cohen Classic is in the books!


It was one of the hottest days of the summer, but fortunately we had a fantastic breeze off the water as the Cohen Classic headed up the coast for Maine. Five Cyclopaths made it to New Hampshire for the annual trek to Kittery and beyond -- Donna (of course!), Queen Kathy, Brenda on a recumbent, and Tam and Chip (arriving late and meeting the trio a few miles into the route.) We had a lovely ride along the beaches, through Rye and Newcastle to Portsmouth, where we attempted to have breakfast at The Friendly Toast, (aka "The Meany Toast"), since Chip couldn't remember the incident that inspired him to rename it -- but with a 20-30 minute wait to be seated, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to the tried and true Cafe Espresso.

Donna is all smiles at breakfast. 
(BTW, the Friendly Toast became "The Meany Toast" ten years ago on the 14th Annual TriState Cohen Classic.)

Donna, Kathy and Chip on the road to York
After breakfast, we continued North over the bridge to Kittery Point and Frisbee's Market, which we discovered was closed due to a fire just a few days before. (See below.) Brenda, struggling to ride her new recumbent bike, said goodbye at Kittery Point while the rest of us continued on to Nubble Light. (We passed Brenda a few hours later at Strawberry Banke, and thought she might join us, but knew she wanted to go her own pace on the recumbent.)

Kathy, Donna, Tam and Chip at Nubble Lighthouse
Continuing on, we made it to Nubble Lighthouse! Temps were in the 90s, but again, we were lucky to have cooling breezes and intermittent stretches of shade along the way making it a really nice ride. (Despite Kathy's terrible puns and Chip's bad jokes.) We stopped a few times on the trip back to cool off in the shade, grab a cool drink, and enjoy the ride. It was a great day for the classic!

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