Dawn Patrol

The most interesting cycling club you've never seen

ou have to get up pretty early in the morning to know about Crack O Dawn. By 5:45 a.m., to be exact. That’s what time this two-decades-old but little-known cycling club sets off on its daily ride through Boston's leafy western suburbs, year ‘round, light or dark. It’s a group as interesting as its collective hobby—hyperachievers, mostly, including Harvard docs and MIT researchers—and of varying (though generally fast) speeds. As few as two people might show up on any given morning, and as many as 60 in the summer. There are also weekend rides and special excursions, including one along the Boston Marathon route on Marathon Monday and another to Vermont each summer, and a busy email listserv that is actually occasionally about cycling. Marcus

Shhhh! Begun as a training group leading
up to the summertime Pan Mass Challenge,
the club was expanded through November
in 1992 and ultimately year ‘round.

Shhhh! The group was originally called
the 6 a.m. riders (even though it met at 5:45),
but a charter member who’s a marketing guy pushed for the catchier Crack O Dawn in 1995.

Shhhh! Getting on the listserv requires being sponsored by a rider who's already in the group.

Shhh who knew

The annual mileage record among Crack O Dawn riders is just over 13,000. One of the (many brainy) members in the group calculates that it has collectively ridden more miles than McDonald's has sold hamburgers. Not that anyone in this club eats at McDonald's.