Middelbury and Kent Ridge Orchards served as headquarter central for FTA’s annual Spring Training weekend in Vermont from May 9-11. 3 beautiful spring/summery days cycling of approximately 150 base miles, including temperatures of 80 degrees on the final day made for another memorable spring trip to the Champlain Valley. Matt Michaud and Dave Chamberlain(who drove thru the night from Boulder, Colorado) guided 10 exceptional cyclists over new routes/loops including Middlebury to Vergennes-Basin Harbor along Lake Champlain and another more challenging 55 mile ride from Bristol over App Gap to Waitsfield and back. Everyone’s legs felt surprisingly strong despite our terrible early spring start and lack of early season miles.

The food was truly outstanding, from pizza and salad. . . and some beer at American Flatbread to lunch at Costello’s(recently named best in New England by Yankee magazine) to a solid dinner at the Bobcat Cafe in Bristol.

New friendships were formed, a new young best rider discovered(Noah Rossignol), and much mutual respect earned by all as we summited App Gap in early May, “yeah that’s you John Hebert, Andrew Bouchard and Pete McCorsin”!! All in all a great way to spend a weekend