About

The Notchview Grades & Gravel Grinder (G3 ) Series is the inspiration of cyclist Phil Lussier who is also a member of the Trustees of Reservations' Notchview Nordic Ski Patrol. Notchview is located in Windsor, MA at just about the highest elevation of Rt. 9 in its cross-state transit from Boston to Pittsfield.

Originally conceived as a one-day event, the inaugural trial run was held on Aug. 3, 2019. It drew no participants, so it was "back to the drawing board." The message seemed to be that since there was no pre-registration and no support, it was too easy to leave the decision about going to the morning-of and not enough extra was provided to give it much of a draw on peoples' attention. 

There were two directions in which to go: make it an "event" with support, etc. and charge a hefty registration fee to ensure day-of participation or scale back the expectations even further to the group ride level. Since organizing this has been a one-person-show thus far, and had all the earmarks of remaining so, the latter direction is the one we are going in.

It didn't make sense to abandon the idea altogether.  It is worth giving it at least one more try. The high country north and south of Notchview doesn't have any organized rides that make use of all of the territory from Monroe to Middlefield. Only small portions of this area are used by The Great River Ride, Mt. Greylock Century, and Tour of the Hilltowns, and except for the JAM Grand Fundo, which shares about 10 miles of them, there  are no organized gravel rides on its backroads and yet this is a natural area for hosting one.

The plan for the present is to offer a series of weekend rides that build to a resounding climax: The Meanest Mile Century. If that sounds interesting read on.

Important final note: We were asked to change the name of this series because 545 Velo, who puts on the Guilford Gravel Grinder (a.k.a. "#G3") in May for going on four years, felt we'd hijacked their name. While admitting there is some similarity, it's only because Facebook doesn't allow the use of a superscript 3 in our name. The Notchview ride series should really be called the Notchview "G-cubed" not "G-three." There you have it. The insider's guide to the proper way to say the name. We hope we can keep the folks at 545 Velo happy that way.