In this episode we explore the wonderful cycling club known as The Rippers with one of it’s founders, J.D. Hale. Discover how The Rippers, a loose peloton of cycling fanatics, sprouted organically into a thriving community — a cooperative — with rides spinning off every day of the week.
Tune in to hear the captivating story behind The Rippers’ inception and their unwavering commitment to pedal-powered camaraderie. From the chill Monday Muffin ride to the iconic Wednesday Hills, explore the diverse tapestry of adventures that define their cycling calendar. Based out of Winchester, MA, they have a following of over 200 riders.
Join us as we unravel the mysteries of the legendary Turkey 10 and delve into the intricacies of The Rippers’ multi-channel communication network. Get inspired by their mantra, “It may be cold, but at least it’s dark,” embodying their fearless dedication to the ride, no matter the weather.
We’ll also hear about J.D.’s team he created for the Pan Mass Challenge: The Flames. The team is made up of over 100 riders who raise money to fight cancer.
Through this engaging interview, find out what makes a great cycling club so successful. J.D. invites you to become part of their spirited cycling community. Whether you’re a seasoned rider or a curious newcomer, hop on your bike and pedal alongside The Rippers as we celebrate the joy of cycling, one mile at a time.
Art & Eric embark on a journey to showcase and celebrate the endurance sports community in New England.
[Music] all right well Welcome to the New England endurance podcast where we celebrate the vibrant endurance community of New England I’m your host Eric Shanker along with my co-host art trapis hey hey how you doing today yeah we’re doing good art how you doing excellent beautiful time of year here we had a a nice sort of 40ish spring day even though it’s the middle of February so a little bit of a a little bit of a bonus I’ll bet a lot of people were out endurancce days in New England you got to get outside so I do you made the wrong you made the wrong choice so well speaking outside we’re going to talk to somebody today who helps a lot of cyclists in this area get outside and we are really really lucky to be joined by JD hail JD is the founder of the ripers right is that the that’s the correct way to say rippers is that uh yeah you think the Rippers baby the Rippers which is a cycling team based out of Winchester Massachusetts I’m going to use an extra strong Boston accent today just to make sure we really that that people understand this is a New England podcast and um no we’re really excited to talk to JD today about the Rippers they really are an incredible club they’re they’re known in the area for having a huge number of rides at every speed at every time it goes off without a hitch I think we touched upon that one time art right that you know when we were racing together was we sent a we called around the night before sent up the bat signal and hopefully people showed up and if they didn’t if they didn’t show up right on time we just left right there was no text messaging there was no communication so there’s a whole there’s a whole elaborate world of technology that you know fun fuels these uh these clubs and I hope if anything that’s one of the things I hope we get out of today because there’s going to be a lot of clubs listening around New England who are saying like how do the Rippers do it so JD we’re really excited to have you here and uh and welcome thank you Eric and thank you art it’s it’s an honor to be here cool and uh yeah it’s it’s uh crazy to think about what you just were describing and I think one of the keys is that people ask me all the time you know when do you ride and I just say every day so that’s easy to remember it’s like a lot of people say to me when do I ski and I’m like well I ski every weekend W so so you don’t have to guess what I’m skiing right JD um you’re one of my favorite folks in the endurance community and in the world you have this infectious positive attitude uh we met many years ago and um I just got hooked uh to be around you and to join your your team and your rides um you’re also the founder of the Flames which is a giant team organized around raising money for cancer um you ride on the pan Mass challenge event I’d love to hear more about that Y and when you’re not riding or skiing you’re the vice president of Yankee Magazine publishing um you’re the husband of Cindy hail and four great kids as well and uh you’re just a true connector in the space and uh we’re really excited to have you on the New England endurance podcast well thanks for having me it’s just great to be here in Arlington absolutely how do we say that with a Massachusetts accent there’s no proper there’s no Arlington but I think I think you try AR too hard on Arlington it just sounds it sounds like somebody’s trying to do a Boston accent in a movie it never it never works but be you know but while we may be sitting in in Massachusetts there’s an aura about the three of us that I believe we all are from the 603 I I do think there’s something there’s some yeah we’re raising a fist in in unison Live Free or Die well now it’s live free yeah like now I think it’s really interesting that you know when you see the road sign wait they got rid of the or D they did they did yeah my dad growing up always said why can’t they just call it D feels so sudden right so he always say why can’t it be like live free and be sick for a while yeah but uh good to have the the 603 represented and and let’s make sure we we touch on that so let’s dig into these hard-hitting 60-minute type you know questions right yeah and squeeze it into 40 we’ll squeeze it into 40 so you know but what we do want to dig into for real is is what does make the Rippers tick it is a unique and and really celebrated club and Community I don’t want to call it a club i’ I’d rather sort of say a community I like that why are the Rippers so awesome and but before you get into that we also want to know a little bit about your journey right so the Rippers is hopefully a a punctuation at the at the end of a really long sentence so tell us a little bit about your personal endurance Journey yeah you know I’m I listened to Dean Phillips interview yesterday and I too came into cycling pretty early on uh in the 80s um due to an injury and um came back to it uh later when when um when my wife rode the pan Mass challenge in in 2001 and I helped her train in 2000 and so the the Rippers sort of stumbled into that you know I always tell people we didn’t I didn’t unlike a business that you might start you know the Rippers developed organically and it really was tied to needing to train for that first pan Mass Challenge and I rode the second year she wasn’t able to ride CU she had come through cancer a really tough cancer and so she had a bone marrow transplant in 2001 and so in 2002 I rode which was the hot one of the hottest pan Mass Challenges ever uh which is a whole story we could go on about later but anyway so it was the training for that that started the Rippers because I I found a local guy Michael hartnet who lives in Aspen now is retired but uh so we sort of inadvertently started the Rippers and um I remember the first ride we were I had a loop in mind and that’s part of what leadership comes in right you gotta you got to guide people and I knew the route because my college roommate Fred kenid uh Liv at the time lived in Bedford and I we had babies together and we knew of a spot out there near Paige Hill that you could get back to Winchester by not going on for and 225 so there was a loop and so we did that Loop and I needed to be back by 7:00 a.m. cuz we had little kids and really the rest is history because you know that’s what started it was a good route Tuesdays and Thursdays it was safe we went really early because I had to be back by seven or I was in TR trouble and and it starts at a unique time yeah so the first few years we were at 552 and we were at 552 for two reasons one I could be back by seven and two I love the b52s so there’s a way to remember the rock crew there’s a way to remember the time so no one’s late because I realized early on you got to roll when your time is otherwise you’re going to stress someone out and you just if everyone knows we’re rolling at that time people get there on time having done the 50 the the 552 ride many times uh if you’re there at 553 you’re on the chase you’re on the chase yeah and you’ll see that on Strava feeds where you know chasing you know you see b53 chasing right and and I’ve been there too so and eventually we created a 545 that was a big part of that because I got a little older and now we have a 540 and and so forth so the idea is to all finish together in my old driveway I sold that house but we still finish in the same driveway that we started in 23 years ago was that in the sale the uh purchase and sale agreement that the that the new owners would uh allow for people to congregate in the driveway it was like that when I sold it the buyer Ted broadrick who I still know I didn’t know at the time he’s like wait wait wait before you finally sign that I I want to know one thing that your Cycling group will still finish in the driveway oh that’s I didn’t know how he knew but and his little boy grew up looking out the bedroom window at us all meeting there and and so it’s cool he’s now sold that house and we got another family there but we brought a big basket with wine and explain what goes on in this driveway for about 5 10 minutes but that ability to connect you know at the end of a ride and sometimes we’ll have coffee if you’re with me because I don’t have kids at home anymore but that ability to connect fist bump um welcome a new Rider um we we actually came up to this fairly early on back in you know we started in 2001 so probably 2004 we would douse them with our water bottles sort of like christening a uh a boat and uh through Co we had to aim really low I have been DED with Gatorade I I I mean I I gotta be honest with you like I’m almost tearing up right and and I sort of feel like we could end the podcast right now because if that doesn’t capture the New England Community the endurance Community I I don’t know what does I I just everything what you said the the lesson learned about being on time which is the way runs and certainly cycling clubs you you learn that lesson once yeah right I mean that’s a that everybody learns the lesson but they they learn it once sure but the fact that it really is about the community that you build and and you really have built something special with the Ripper so we’re we’re excited to learn learn more about that as we as we dig in I’d like to dig in a little bit you mentioned the ride around 550 2 550 545 you know the Rippers have something for everyone whether you want to ride 12 to 14 M hour or 21 plus can you talk about those different rides you just mentioned and um you know who organizes them and the flow the flow yeah flow of the week yeah it’s it’s let’s start with Monday yeah so Monday Monday is a very special day and it’s one of our most popular because it’s the muffin day uh Maria baton came up to us you know we’re sort of typical guys in some ways in the early days right and but we started to attract some women into the riding and and not to be sexist here but Maria came up to me and she’s like can’t you guys go slow once in a while and you know we went slow in certain sections because we chat but um she suggested a a uh a a slower ride and maybe on Monday so we started the the Monday muffin ride and it starts in downtown Winchester at Starbucks there and we roll and we have a a governor on it you know we’re not allowed to roll FAS than 14 miles hour and it’s usually somewhere between 13 14 average speed so that’s on Mondays we have a version of it on Fridays uh we also have a Lincoln loop on Fridays so and then we also have a flannel Fells mountain bike right on Friday so there’s quite a bit going on on Fridays so there’s three rides on Fridays three rides yeah yeah in seon season yep so it’s so Mondays and Fridays are pretty popular I don’t know something about starting off your week with a good ride and ending your week with a fun ride too um and then Tuesdays Thursdays are the traditional rides those are the two big ones that established the Rippers so we have the 552 which we already mentioned is a little quicker it’s more like 17 to 19 miles an hour and then we have the b45 545 started at the Vincent Owens school which is a 75 John road if your listeners are going to meet us and then um and then sort of as called it’s becoming more official we have a 540 which leaves at 540 again giving sort of five extra minutes to get to the Finish which is at my old driveway at 208 red Street and so you have three groups going out on Tuesdays and Thursdays yep that’s incredible y it it it really is I I I mean I’m sort of jaw jaw dropped just knowing what it is to organize a single ride um but you obviously have have done it I I need to ask so I’ll bet there are people listening and they’re saying like oh I’ve been thinking about getting into Road cycling but I’ve been super intimidated sure how does one show up to this ride for the first time like what would what would somebody who’s thinking about or been riding thinking about joining a ride how do they make that happen I I prefer they come to the muffin ride first the Monday ride just because we can meet them there’s there’s a lot of people there of ve of all kinds of speeds so you have Riders where that’s their big ride of the week and then you have also have Riders recovering from the weekend and that you know they tend to be faster and more experienced but everyone there because it’s a we go right down Mystic Valley Parkway towards Medford and it’s just a really good way to be fairly tight I’m looking at Mr Tight over here um and to be clear he’s pointing at Art yeah keep it tight Cycling Club and um but it allows us to make someone comfortable with group riding and it’s a very straight very sort of um good road for that and um and then you know we’re going to they should get there a couple minutes early so we can welcome them and so forth and it’s usually you know the ride itself um especially because it’s social go down Mystic Valley Parkway and then if we’re not too big we come up the Minute Man bike path if we’re big stay on massav because we don’t want to intimidate Runners and so forth but by the end of the ride the the adrenaline’s flowing you’re sweating and you really get to know people and we have a gathering at the end as well which is at horn Pond and then we go our separate ways from there but that’s where I would start was is was with the Monday muffin ride you can show up to the vo especially if you have a little bit of experience um and but you’ll always always uh have someone there because what I do and what I did in the early days there’s tons of people that do a ton of Ripper Riders just it’s in our bone marrow now thank God because I couldn’t make every ride and we have so many riders I the the list of names is too long but that know that that know that we’re we we’re very inclusive we’re very welcoming we don’t care what speed what your experience is we’re going to work with you someone’s going to stay with you um I had my brother my son-in-law married my daughter Rosie they live in Medford and he came to a ride came to the hill ride we haven’t talked about the hill ride yet we will but there’s a point there where you cross 128 and you take a big right right art and we lost him he went straight son your son-in-law son-in-law he went straight down to 2A he was gone for the whole ride was your daughter upset or did she think it was funny she thought it was funny okay yeah and he did too and I come from from a place where I love Maps I love roads I I I’m I am very navigationally oriented mind I can get myself out of a problem out there without a garment but um you know the last few years i’ I fall in love with downloading a route too don’t get me wrong but um I love getting lost that’s me but not everyone does and so you have to be sensitive to that and only reason I love getting lost is it usually means there’s a story that I then can tell to someone and I love to tell some stories that’s awesome so but that’s you know I I I would say for there’s so many times as I’ve been driving let’s say to a restaurant sure and we run into tra I live up on the NorthShore so we’re driving to Newberry Port and there’s traffic or what have you and I’m say oh to my turn right here or I’m going to turn left and she’s where are you going and I was like doesn’t everybody know this way to go this cut through Street around and it’s and it’s oh this is going to be much more Scenic and there is no way on God’s green earth you can navigate the back roads of New England if you’re not a cyclist I mean they just you just learn so true every back road you know the houses you go by them you know where the the you know the dogs and then it’s never as fun to talk about it with in the car with somebody else oh this is a great oh I love riding on this like please I I don’t want to hear about it anymore but but I think partly that might come from getting lost oh yeah on those you find it you find a new you find a new route so if there was any benefit to Co in the early part of it we had to ride by ourselves and I we have a lot of standard routes out to Harvard and so forth and I just started taking a left instead of a right on these sort of standard yeah and I think a lot of us did yeah and we did figure some new things out absolutely and and I am a huge Runner and I love to run but there is no way to cover the miles and explore the New Roads like you can do on on a bike it just does it’s just not it’s just not possible Right but the one thing I’ll say about um not having people get lost is I’m a one of the things that art knows as a writer with us we were very focused on safety and we bring it up a lot we we share different things that we write uh we do bumper training where we go on a on a field and bump into each other and we do wheel overlap we have these training sessions around that which are optional but we really encourage people to do it so tell us a little more about that we’re on road bikes we are on road bikes you can bring a mountain bike or you can BR bring a gravel bike but yeah most people are on road and you so you get members of your team to go out and basically ride on some grass on the road and get close and make contact without falling over over so you can feel more stable and yeah comfortable yeah I mean it sort of feels we call it bumper bikes and we realize that may be bad marketing because you know so we started calling it contact training but I sort of like bumper bikes I like alliteration but um I like that because when I started getting into racing um I did the uh the dick ring rest in peace dick ring his um Clinic through NBC and one of the things we did was we would go on the grass and before we entered any crits we need to go on the grass and do some bumper training and get comfortable rubbing elbows oh it’s great and it applies to really every level and we’ve had every level do the training um I haven’t done it with my Flames My Pan mask team yet um but I really really want to figure that out as well they they’re more spread out geographically so but I get so much out of it every year I feel you know different on the bike right after we do it I feel like I can bump people I can wheel overlap on pavement um and cuz we’re actually doing it at a slow speed which is harder Y which is interesting and uh so JD um we just went through the almost the entire Ripper week but I feel like we missed an important day really important day especially sitting where we are here we got the Monday and Friday recovery rides we well let’s call them by their name the names are too good to not yeah B52 B52 well Monday muffin muffin Tuesday B52 Friday we had the the flannel ride and the Lincoln Loop Lop lcol Loop and the muffin again and muffin again yep I love food so I think it’s I’m all in on the muffin rides yep what else we got so on on wednes and we’ll talk about weekends in a second but what Wednesdays we do the hill ride and um one of the things that’s very special about where we live is we have a lot of Hills right and one of the sort of parts of the DNA of the Rippers is we love Hills we don’t necessarily really love Hills I mean I think we do but I think mentally it helps to say you love Hills and so we love Hills and so where can you ride and only be in my case about five miles from my house and do over 2,000 ft of climbing and never repeat a hill and have five of them uh you know within uh an hour you know it’s just we’re able to do a lot in a short period of time do you also meet at the same time we do 552 yeah well we have yeah we have two groups 5:45 and 5 and 552 so yes meet at same time same location the vo 75 John back by S back by seven yep although there’s things that are developing remember the Rippers are a cooperative and so when you said earlier tell me more what do community I like that Eric said Community I I like that too this is the secret sauce we want to hear about well just you let you have one of our models is a loose pelaton of cycling Fanatics so the loose part you’ve got to organically let things sort of happen at times and you know you might need to reel it in here and there but um so they’ve started some of the faster writers really they’ve started social Gerard or social Hutchinson and what is Gerard and Hutchinson so Gerard is a approximately 18 to I don’t know 20% at the very top yeah um Hill right in the middle of Winchester sort of going up towards voo but in the more residential part of it um it’s one of our big Hills it’s the third Hill on the hill ride so so they go back to that and do it but they do it socially so the idea is that you can talk because you’re not out of breath that’s not possible for me so I don’t do social social Hutch I get because that’s that’s more more like what uh 8% you know you’re going up by the Winchester Country Club golf course and so that one you I can sort of do but I I tend to want to go back or get coffee or something do do something else so uh but thing these things just happen the thing I love about the Tuesday ride and the Wednesday Hill ride and the Thursday ride is we all regroup up at the top of the climbs yes I love that too and that’s fantastic and a lot of people call the Wednesday Hill ride their FA favorite ride and I think that’s part of it is it’s a it’s the most social ride of the whole week it’s the hill ride and the most painful but there is something magical about those Hill rides and and it is odd I feel like are correct me if I’m wrong but in the late 90s our Hill ride BRC was Wednesdays right I mean is that just I I feel like it was Wednesday so is this nabc we call no this was BR sorry BRC we called it Don Patrol Don Patrol but but it was on Wednesday so I don’t know why that you know but maybe there’s something there but there is once you once you embrace it yes it is a very satisfying day so for all those folks out there that are listening that I hate Hills I don’t want to do Hills right there is a sense of accomplishment that is different yes um when you’re doing hill rides and for those also learning about this you regroup at the top and people are waiting there to support you there is no judgment yes on there you know there is no judgment on on Hill rides which which I really love and and for people to understand so if you’re thinking about doing it get out there for those Hill RS you are going to feel like a million bucks for the rest of that day having done a hill ride it in the morning and we added a feature this year it’s called the turkey 10 so you get up we have a little Hill that I refuse to call official so it’s just an added little bonus because we have five Hills for the hill ride but at the top of turkey which is one of the water towers in Arlington you come around it you park your bike you lay your bike down you do 10 push-ups so it’s a turkey 10 cuz one I a little worri that the the Rippers are getting incredibly like Hulk like from the waist down so we got to work on our upper bodies a little bit really known for their upper body upper body prowess and you know it’s starting to catch on a little bit but it just started last year so something I want to segue into are are the Saturday and Sunday rides because there’s a level of communication there that happens that is just mindblowing for someone who also runs cycling team yes now how does this what happens on the weekends well on weekends we really rely on this community of cyclist to call someone to call a ride and and therefore sort of host it they don’t necessarily have to lead it but but we are um in the expectation is folks will call a ride they’ll say say what time where the start is we’ll use our V start the Vincent Owen School how do they call a ride what do they use for technology grouping so grouping is like slack and uh you can go to rippers docc to find us on the website and we’ll you know there’s a info more info click there and we can fill you in on on the group me thing but it’s an app it’s like looking at your text and um and there’s short sort messages and and we have a a road ride uh ride call Channel and um so we have many CH have a mixed terrain we have mixed terrain we have mountain bike uphill ski uphill ski we have many channels we an event like Ras patitza or bwt uh we’ll have a channel just for that Mount Washington Hill Climb channel for that so that we don’t waste everyone else’s bandwidth see this is part of the secret sauce Eric these group me channel each discipline so I have a I have a team but our you know it’s like fight Fight Club so it’s called helmet strud racing and the first rule about helmet strudel racing is we don’t we don’t talk about helmet strud racing but I’m I’m all in on group me I mean I love that it sounds sorry Eric what is a helmet strud see we’ve already said too much said we we’ve already said too much so but I think it really the same thing we have a couple events and it it is difficult to organize right and to not bombard the entire group if they’ve made the decision not to participate in that event yeah right so I I really like that idea and I would say if you’re a run Club if you’re a Cycling Club if you’re a ski club if you’re an equestri I mean whatever it is it sounds like this platform is could be really helpful it’s helpful it’s it’s not perfect the Rippers aren’t perfect um I want your listeners to know that too we’re only as good as you know what folks contribute but we really reflects that because we need folks that you know I need uh Riders of really any ability or any speed to call rides not everyone’s comfortable doing that but I I tend to look or and sometimes I’ll talk to someone about calling a ride because I think they would lead or at least suggest a good ride and U how many rippers are there over 200 yeah we’re still in the middle of registration because for this year because we you know our opener official opener that’s where we do use the Massachusetts ACC opena what an opena it’s the opener is the official day that it’s like Red Sox opener at Fenway Park but it’s the official day that all these rides during the week are officially just going they they don’t have to be called they just everyone knows they’re going and uh so that’s the first Tuesday of of April depending on weather um this year I had to pump it because I have a conference that day but so it’s now officially the first Thursday of ail but uh that’s when we kick it off for the season and there’ll be preseason rides I’m a big baseball fan so you’ll see some influence from that um and so plenty of preseason and rides this weekend there’s already ride calls for this weekend because it’s going to be warm on Saturday so the weather looks yeah the weather looks great I’d imagine a lot of folks are going to try to get out plus it hasn’t you know I think we’ve had some rain after all the salt and one of the the pleasures of New England riding right is n plus one you just got to have to make sure you got a bike that exactly the other thing I I just want to shout out is whether it’s K’s or your group the kit you know we have plenty of riders that ride with other clubs or other you know locations that have rides cyof has a gravel ride going out all the time now with Matt so we really talk about that we we communicate it because the Conti rides are at 9: on weekends so that’s much later than what we tell tend to ride we tend to be really early so we we really embrac the other clubs and and it can be because of racing you know someone really wants to race and uh so we’re not a race team per se but well and and Dean Phillips touched on that that there’s this community of cyclist in New England that can basically go on any ride they want with any club because all these clubs are so inclusive yes and uh I love that personally um I’m curious what’s your longterm vision for the Rippers yeah that’s a good question I I just you know each year we’re growing a little bit and so I just I I really hope it just still feels very intimate and friendly and open inclusive um for every writer that comes that’s new that wants to try this sport out and I you know um we’re involved with the ABC program a better chance in Winchester and we’re involved with wiffy last night which is an Education Foundation so we’re reaching out in that way you know we have a community of people um we have Riders Arlington’s one of our biggest towns in terms of members and Riders um and but we’re tracting Riders from as far away for even on weekday rid as far away as as Newton Mark Jacobson comes over from Newton so in Watertown and Cambridge um and then the other way may Mel Stone um wuber Burlington so forth and Medford so we track Friday from a lot pretty wide radius and quite a few providers your way that have reached out through the keep atite website they’re looking for consistent rides throughout the week rides that you know maybe are for beginners like sure say you got to check out JD hail and the Rippers yeah thank you for that yeah and if you’re you know like both say you are very accomplished Riders those types of riders are happy too because there’s we have enough Riders where we have all abilities and you could really find your your herd and feel that you can get the compet competitive push that you need in in your training bunch of hammerheads so we rightly so we’ve talked a lot about the Rippers rides yeah but what I would love to know are and and you kind of rambled through a few of them sure what are your favorite official rides uh BTV Ratta like what are your favorite go-to rides or events around New England yeah that’s a great question and um you named a couple there Ras Petit is one of my favorites um I think what give it a quick you know I’ve never heard of that what is that well it’s a gravel ride however it’s in April so um let’s put it this way there’s a section they call um oh what’s it called it’s the snowy section it’s in Russia well Siberia yeah oh Siberia they call it Siberia thank you and but you know in that sort of Ripper kind of way there’s a person there in the middle of Siberia because you’re s out of going through single track snow on a gravel bike or mud and there’s someone holding a sign you need a hug and she’s there to give a hug AB absolutely and then you come to a rest stop and all there is is a shot of maple syrup which is the freshest best thing you’ve ever tasted and not only that it’s in a frozen uh shot glass so you know just those little details it’s so fun yeah well really but another one I want to mention because you mentioned beta VT I’ve I’ve done many beta VTS but in the last few years because I’ve I’ve shifted a little bit to to go grael what is B to VT before you continue well it used to be Boston to Vermont so I gota I think it’s Bedford to Vermont it starts uh in Bedford and I did the be of B which is it was the Harpoon Brewery to Harpoon Brewery They had one in Boston and had one in in Vermont and then and um Team psycho started that um but eventually it morphed into what it is today and it’s about 148 miles I think U uh Dean mentioned it yesterday too and I’ve seen Dean there and you know know you’re in different patons and it’s really it’s fun he’s in his own oh yeah oh yeah he’s just in the front he he has no idea how many people are just behind yeah trying with all their strength to stay on yeah and his pelaton is is trying to stay on him that’s he just he has no sense of yeah how hard he is ripping oh I know I know but anyway I’ve been doing the Vermont monster the last bunch of years because that also starts at the finish of the btbt and the last few years they’ been at Stratton and so I drive to Stratton I get out my gravel bike and I ride the 48 mile version there’s also a 78 M and I think this year it was a 100 mile version too gravel I find 48 miles on gravel and single track and so forth to be plenty um and it’s so much fun and then I’m back into the Lodge at Stratton about an hour to 90 minutes ahead of any of the bvts but they all come there so it’s the best of both worlds I get to be a part of all that and and the swag and the food and the celebration of having finished these big days and I’ve been in the woods and I love the woods it goes back to our New Hampshire background so right um so it’s just in this year my daughter Rosie’s gonna do it she’s 31 lives in Medford she’s going to do it and then her husband Brock is going to do the B BBT the one that you purposely lost got him to get lost y well there’s one big event that the Rippers seem to rally for che you want to talk about that pan Mass challenge or M oh no I I know which was big one big mountain tallest mountain in New England right not in the Northeast but in New England yeah Mount Washington uh is something we absolutely love it’s in our DNA the H go back to the hill climbing and last year we we had over we had 51 Riders registered to race uh on Mount Washington so we’re the larg club there and uh it was the 50th anniversary of the race um and so we we’re really excited that I was I’m now sort of retired from it I did it 10 times so I think I earned that and I just go up there and cheer but um you know it’s it’s just a very special C crazy race and um and and very bonding because you know I don’t know how much you want to get me to get into it have you got have you been to that race I’ve done it twice okay you yeah I’ve done it I’ve done it twice as a cyclist as a cyclist and uh yeah so two practice runs and and two wait a second that’s four I’m I’m sorry but anytime you go off that mountain that counts fair enough I mean I’ve got 10 I didn’t do any practice drivs but and I would say and this was you know I mean I I won’t give the date but I got you know the blanket when they were I don’t know if they still do if they still hand out the blanket get out the Finish ey and by all th it is I’m so proud when that is used by the dogs as the dog blanket still but I mean see that little mine has a little Volkswagen emblem on in it and it it really is um it’s remember that it is a special accomplishment and horrifying how fast people go up right from the start right like I mean I I sort of looked down like is am I you know am I my did I drop my chain like why why are all these people going away from me so fast and people blowing over and not being able I me just it is a um yeah it’s it’s a spectacular event that that’s an incredible number of folks that you that you put up there to Mount Washington I am proud of that because I think it’s a a neat event a lot of Road events have gotten smaller and including that event um but it really made a surge back last year somewhat tied to the 50th and so forth and we hope to see that again it did get canceled last year due to weather MH and we got canell in 2007 as well but I was able to race this on Labor Day they opened up the road to do it then and now you have right you have the hill climb on the bike yep you have the hill climb run yes and they also have the uh auto road which is OT r h o d e which is a back country ski up the auto road yeah I heard about thate I didn’t know I did yeah so it really is and skat ski there’s a number of version it’s really cool somebody should create a uh sort of a you know in in Scandinavia or in Sweden specifically you have something called the classic so if you do all of these four iconic races you get a little stamp in a passport yes and I somebody should create that the passport that in in a one year you have to do all of those events yeah that would be cool that would be cool wouldn’t that be pretty cool it’s like the bump Series in in the hill climb world you know you get you get certain amount of points you keep doing you should do that that uh trademark so I think love that so um JD could you tell us a bit about the flames and what makes that such an important group for all those involved with it yeah thank thank you for asking about the Flames um started in 2001 as I mentioned earlier in the broadcast today and um you know it it’s the pan Mass challenge is just this amazing emotional weekend of everyone there has some connection to you know battling cancer or had has had it or um has a family member that’s been involved and they’re riding their bikes to inspire others to donate and meet their minimums and Beyond um and it’s you know so we we plan things on the Flames all year round we have training rides I’m about to put out our calendar for 202 fantastic and we have a ton of fun too you you know not probably surprisingly we’re a little loose in the the Flames as well but um my wife started the the team uh in 2001 and with with her oncology nurse and her chemo nurse Kathleen and Joan and it’s been uh a tremendous success for one of the bigger teams in the pan two years in running yeah yeah so y i and I would say if for some reason you don’t know what pan mass is just look it up but it is it is maybe the greatest charitable Endeavor in the country I I don’t know that there is a better one 100% of the proceeds right go direct millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars and but just for the listeners to know that’s true we raised uh I think it was 722 Million last year which is unbelievable and it’s 100% y but at the same time we start at zero every year and the need for further research on these cancers because they’re they’re on a line of you know eventually finding the cure for cancer but there’s so many and what makes it even more difficult is every single person’s individual health cancer journey is individual to them but um but making progress which they make every year you know the success rates keep going up uh but we do start at zero every year and and those donations are tremendously important to us us and our Riders we have on the Flames we have about 126 Riders and uh every and from ages uh 15 all the way to 81 so you know wide range of riders were more female than male which is different than the Rippers um and it’s just uh we have a ton of fun together along with all the PMC um who are wonderful and they come from so many of our clubs around here whether it’s nebc whether it’s monsters kit um he has you know one of my favorite writers um Dan Butler and and Jen Cunningham Butler and Jen yeah they’re you know they do so many things for us on the flames and and so many of our Flames do there’s only about 4 five that overlap between the Rippers and and flames it’s really a different group um but we always welcome new writers thanks for sharing that story appreciate it and I would say that that’s a great segue to the last question and and only because the pan mass is one of the bright shining stars of the New England endurance community so I sort of have you know we’re going to start asking the same question but I I it’s really a statement and that is in in my belief and I feel strongly about that I believe New England is the greatest region of the United States for endurance the most variety why do you believe that is true yeah I think I 100% agree um but I have only lived here well I did live in New York City for six years but anyway I think it’s the seasons the hills and the winter because it toughen us up it toughens us up yeah I mean I often hear people say that the big thing is the alarm goes off I could put my feet on the floor if I even hesitate it won’t happen and you know and we and we basically especially through the winter season we”ve got to we got to get up in the and so one of our mod that we sort of giggle about is it may be cold but at least it’s dark and love it so I think we have our quote for the uh for the little the podcast you know the little snippet that we’re going to use as it’s not copyrighted so it’s it’s free form yeah well jdd I I mean we we got through about half of the questions that that we wanted to go through so we might have to have you back again but this was incredibly enjoyable um anything that you would like to plug you know from from from your perspective I mean think we did a great job representing the Rippers and the Flames there’s anything else specific that you you might want to plug from your side no I I I think you we’ve done that a little bit throughout the thing and throughout the podcast and um I just appreciate you doing this bringing us together U allowing us to listen and hear voices I know Dean Phillips really well up it f works and I loved listening yes yesterday to him and his perspective he did four fits for me and uh but I’ve bought bikes at Wheelworks I’ve worked with Ed sassler I’ve worked you know with the folks up at cyof more locally and so you know I really uh if if I have one shout out is support our local bike shops love that’s what I would say that ibds uh they make the the world go around where they really do and what an IBD Eric sorry yeah my my wife told me no more acronyms on the podcast but an independent bike dealer right because where you going to go to get that tire change first bike upgrade you know that’s where you get that sound advice and and you can’t get that anywhere else so really great so um we’re gonna plug something and that is there is a beautiful Lark Fine Foods gift box for you that will hopefully maybe you could do a a mu muffin SL cookie ride one of these days which is going to be powered by Lark Fine Foods and L Fine Foods is one of our sponsors and they are 100% woman-owned specialty food company baking delicious small batch cookies inspired by grown-ups consumers with sophisticated taste so um hopefully you enjoy that and maybe we’ll incorporate a cookie ride into one of the future rippers days oh we I think we need a cookie right R we should do that yeah you need a cookie ride we we have future rides so this is this is good potential and guess what I’ve got something for you guys too oh I like this theme all future guests so this is Art this is Art what do we have here all right well we’ll be to post this on the grams um but it looks it’s a ripper hat Ripper hat oh that’s the freshest thing we’ve got I love it I love it I will wear it uh I will wear you got something different I was like oh boy that’s that’s the sound what you got er oh you got a sticker too oh I got a sticker too and I got a oh I got a cycling C cycling cat very cool very cool I will wear it to the coffee shop and I will wear my skinny jeans and I will roll up the cuffs and I will look super cool super that’s when you wear this this so we love our spandex so thanks for listening to the new New England endurance podcast showcasing the vibrant endurance community of New England JD thank you so much it was awesome having you here it was my my pleasure thank you for having me and for those who want to learn more about the Rippers and the sponsors and the events that we talked about we will tag them in our Instagram page atne England endurance and don’t forget to subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify and Apple and Google and until till next time keep pushing your limits drop some Hammers and get out there and explore the beautiful terrain of New England [Music]