Hi my name is Bob Mattson. Some of you may know me. Some of you may have seen me. Trudging along on my recumbent bike, slowly climbing hills, and speedily flying down the other side. I ride a Red short wheelbase (SWB) Vision VR44 Recumbent bike. I usually wear brightly colored matching red biking clothes. If you ever see me on a ride, say "hi" and tell me that you have visited this website. I hope it is useful to you.

I am married, have 3 children and many interests. The following links are to some of the web pages that I have built, that reflect my life, hobbies, and family.

My Death Valley Double Century Ride
Recumbent Cycling
Cub Scouting

Mattson Software, Inc. is a Web Design and Hosting company that my wife and I are started.  If you need a Web site, check it out.  We have very reasonable prices.

I just started seriously cycling in 1999 when I bought my friends recumbent bike. Before that I rode a Trek hybrid bike. In 1998 I started doing some long distance roller blading to get in shape. Eventually for cross training purposes I also rode the Trek. By the end of the summer I had done a 60-mile skate on the blades, and was planning on doing the A2A 90-mile skate down in Atlanta. When plans for that fell through, I decided to do a 100-mile bike ride (Commonly known as a Century) with my friend who was riding a recumbent at the time. That Fall, My friend, his father, and I rode in the Tri-State Seacoast Century sponsored by the Granite State Wheelmen. After riding that upright bike for 100 miles, I was done. My butt hurt, my wrist hurt, my neck hurt... I promised never to do a 100 mile bike ride again. Well here I am a couple years later, riding a much more comfortable recumbent bike, and not only have I done more than 10 Century rides, I have also completed a Double Century ride.

My ultimate goal is to complete the mother of all New England long distance rides called Boston-Montreal-Boston. To date I have completed many official Century rides that have covered much of New England. (Which I have rated on this site.) The longest is a 200k (130 miles) ride offered by the organizers of the BMB. I hope to ride in every major Century ride offered by all the cycling clubs in our corner of the US.

My longest ride that I have completed was in the summer of 2001, where I rode 200 miles in CRW's club ride named the Petersham 200. I started at 5am and completed it at 9pm. Dead last, but happy that I did it! My first attempt at 200 miles was the Death Valley Double in California. I did not finish, but at the time it was my longest ride (125 miles), and I learned many valuable lessons that have helped me to be a better long distance cyclist. Read about my DVD experience by clicking this link.

The reason for this website came from my endless search for local Century rides. (I live in Rhode Island, where we only have one Century ride "The Flattest Century in the East" sponsored by the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen.) Most of my Century ride information came from Lynn Tolman's articles and the Cambridge River Wheelmen's Calendar of rides. Because it was difficult to find this information easily, and many times the information was incomplete, I decided to put this website together. I figured there's got to be at least a couple other crazy people who are looking for more information on Century and double Century rides in New England.

Another reason that I created this website was because New England lacks any large organized double Centuries. There are some smaller club rides, where maybe 10 riders attempt that distance, but nothing on the scale that is being run out in California. My hope is to make riders and riding clubs more aware that there is an interest in ultra marathon cycling in NE.

Please feel free to send me any questions or comments that you have. I appreciate the feedback, and I am looking to improve the site by adding more content.