We are so proud

So my weekend started out by watching the Mountain Bike Nationals in Vermont and ended by biking to Devens to watch my niece compete in the Bay State Games for Archery. This is her first year and she did AWESOME. She came in second place after competing in 2 days of very hot weather.

Mt Snow MTB Nationals

Day 1

Day 2 (look who came to the east coast)

After a LOT of going back and forth, I finally decided to compete in the Sport category at MTB nationals at Mt Snow, Vermont. This is only my first year of racing mountain bikes, or even riding them for ten years, but after doing three races this year, I wanted to go to the big show. Heck, I've traveled to Kansas to race nationals, why not travel all the way to Vermont?

As we took the line we were notified that the race would be shortened to two laps, consisting of a total of 10 miles, not the advertised three laps or 15 miles. At high noon, the temps were in the low 90s so I wasn't disappointed to hear this change. At the gun I settled into third place and wanted to just hold the top couple of positions for the first lap, then see what I can do on the second lap. About two minutes into the race, I had moved up to second, then 30 seconds later took the lead. As the course wound its want around the lower mountain I was feeling pretty good. All it took was one turn to notice that the course went up the mountain. Up the ski mountain. I ground out at the front for a little bit before looking up the course and noticed that the earlier fields were going sooo slow. At this piont I decided to dismount and walk the bike up. My thinking was that this wouldn't be much slower then riding, but would allow me to conserve energy (boy, those guys were working a ton grinding away not going anywhere) and also give my back a rest before the next section. A couple of riders passed me, but everyone pretty much held their position. There were a couple of traversing sections, then we pointed the wheels downhill and let the bikes rip. Although the course had been rerouted since the last race held there a month ago, it was still very technical, more so for a novice rider.

The second lap was pretty uneventful. I had passed a number of racers, but had been passed by many too. The race organizers had written riders waves on the calf of each starter, so theoretically you could identify who you were racing against, but in the heat of a race, it's pretty tough to remember if four, five, three, or some other number of racers had passed me. I did take notice when a Salem, MA rider in my category passed me and I would have none of that. On the next climb I pushed myself and retook my place. While not a climber on the road, I've really come to embrace the climbs in mountain bike races. Near the top of the climbing, I could see a rider that I had been talking to before the race and knew that he was in my category. I tried to bring him back, but as soon as we entered the woods, I decided to go as hard as I could. If that wouldn't bring him back, then I couldn't worry about. Tossing concern of myself aside, I screamed down the hill, passing several riders, including one I literally rode over when he crashed on a slightly technical section. As unfortunate as this was for this rider, it was more fortunate for me that he crashed right next to two course marshalls, because hearing him yell "Oh my leg" anywhere else would have brought me to a stop to help. With volunteers on site, I decided to continue with my mad descending. At almost the bottom of the climb, I was snapped back to reality by the rider behind me yelling at me to get off the brakes and get going. Um, I'm flying here, can't you understand that? Oh, I'm not going that crazy fast? I'm sorry, it certainly feels like that. As I finished this conversation in my mind, we popped out of the woods and jammed to the finish line.

As soon as I was done, I immediately went to the picnic tables and took ten minutes to regain my senses. My first nationals done, in one piece with no scratches (perhaps I didn't go hard enough?) and pleased with myself. Being pleased gave way to elation when the results were posted and I finished 4th! In biking, that's a podium place, a medal and a great story to tell everyone at work!!!

Back to the road for a little bit, but certainly a new bike has found it's way into my life again.

Fitchburg Wrap-up

The first two days of Fitchburg were a hoot. By the end of the road race though, I was a walking zombie. I went through the motions the last two days, figured that my overall GC wasn't going to change and wanted to try to make something happen. Well, what happened though was that the pack stayed together both days and we finished in a group. After four days of racing, I headed into my rest/off the bike week and really enjoyed not doing anything.

Statistically my race was a great improvement over years past. Comparing my time gaps to the winner of the TT and road race were significally less. Even my position in the standings was a significant improvement. The most shocking tale though is that if I took my time gaps from this year and put those against the results from 2006 (my last time doing the race) I would have been inside the top 20. That's really why I don't like comparing one year to the next. Too many variables that change. I'm glad the race is over, onto GMSR training races now.

Balloon Festival VT

Fitchburg RR

This single stage is arguably one of the toughest races of the year. In 68 miles of racing, we climb about 4500 feet, which averaged out evenly wouldn't be that bad. The kicker is the hills through Princton come one after another with no place to recover, then the KOM shortly after that so the speed stays high before decending like a madman for a couple of minutes, just to do it all over again. Six laps is a bear. A very long angry bear that just woke up after a winter of hibernation with a hangover. The topping on this ice cream sundae is we are allowed to ride to the top of Wachusett Ski Mountain. Thank goodness they let us ride to the top using the "down" road that cars go down, because not going up the steepest road there would be sad.

My plan for the day was to sit in and do as little work as possible. Hopefully I would be at the base of the ski mountain with "fresh" legs and do pretty well on the climb. Well, it's impossible to arrive fresh. That said, I rode very smartly. I was consistently about 20 riders from the front, staying out of trouble and taking on plenty of water, intentionally. The day started out by pouring buckets and it wasn't until three hours later that I noticed it had stopped raining. No clue when it stopped, because if it wasn't falling from the skies, it was being kicked up from the road.

I gave the race everything I had, and when I was 500 meters from the top, I heard the announcer talking about how close the riders were to the leader. Wow, I've never heard that before. Typically on a big climb race like this, the stage winners have received their accolades and started down the hill. This was a good day for me, to cross the line while the leaders were still recovering.

Lots of rest tonight and back to the grind tomorrow for the circuit race.

Fitchburg TT

After missing last years Fitchburg race, I was looking forward to getting back into local stage racing. Also, the past two weeks I've been flying on the bike and am hoping that my form would hold just a little bit longer. On Wednesday, I drove out to the registration hotel to get my numbers and pre-ride the course. Halfway there, the skies opened up and torrential rains started. This has become a regular occurance, each afternoon, a thunder and lightning storm of epic proportions rolls in, then 30 minutes later the sun comes back out and everything is good. Well, following registration, the skies had cleared and the roads rideable.

For the past year, everyone had been talking about steep the TT course was. It is just over 6 miles long and an average grade of 3%. During the preview, I found that the course did go up, but it wasn't nearly as steep as I thought. There were a couple of sections where you could recover, but not many. The last mile or so was downhill and another chance to make up speed.

After a proper warm-up, I headed over to the starting area. Seems every year the officials roll out the starting ramp, and every year some knuckleheads crash rolling off of it and the ramp removed. For the first time for me, the ramp was still there at my start. Awesome! From the gun, I hammered it. The first climb felt pretty good. I was trying to hold onto some power for later, but I just keep going harder. Cresting the first climb, my 30 second guy was in view and the chase was on. By the second hill, the 30 second guy wasn't getting any closer, but I noticed that my minute man appeared right next to him. Another rabbit to chase. By the third pain section, my legs were starting to quit on me. I felt like my speed was so much slower then it should be. Instead of recovering on the flats, I pushed harder. When the next hill came, I was spent and kept pushing. This pattern repeated many times. About 15 times more then last night's preview ride. Finally, on the left side of the road was the yellow gate that I noticed before that indicated the climbing was almost over. At this point my two minute (or greater) rider was in view and all that was left was to open up the legs, throw it into the 53x11 and hammer.

After what felt like an eternity, I passed a sign that said 1k to go. Really? Still another 1k? Yikes. I passed that sign and a rider at blazing speeds. Oh that felt so good to try to bring some respect to my pretty bike. We were flying when we crossed the line. Maybe I spent too many matches early in the race, maybe I didn't pace properly, maybe something else, but I know that I left everything I had on the course. The final time was 18:33 which likely will put me just inside the top 1o and one very happy rider.

Boloco Heartbreak Hill Gran Prix

For the past several years I've raced Cox Classic the week before Fitchburg. It's always been a very high profile race that was in downtown Providence. The course was directly across from the uber-mall and the State House. For several reasons, the course was moved and categories changed from a straight 3 to a 2/3 and included a pretty nasty hill. This year a new race was introduced in Newton and offered a chance to replace my beloved Cox Classic.

When I showed up to register, I was notified that the earlier running race had started late, which pushed the bike races back an hour and 15 minutes. Not a great start to a new race. Regardless, I registered and dressed, then took my bike to the course to preview it. It featured four 90 degree turns before entering the famed Heartbreak Hill of the Boston marathon for three quarters of a mile before snaking around the hospital and descending back to the start. The finishing straight was over a half mile run in with major speed.

At the start line, I weaseled my way to the front line and with Richard Fries calling the race, heard what I thought was a weird comment from Richard "The finishing line has no banner, so racers will be struggling to know exactly where the line is" Um, Richard, there's a big blue tent and a mess of people at the finish, how's that difficult to miss?

With instructions from the officials completed, the racers were off. I quickly found a place about five riders back and held my position through the first lap. As the laps wore on, I focused on holding to my position on the downhill, climbing controlled on Heartbreak Hill and moving to the front through the snaking section before descending again. This strategy worked very well, in fact late in the race I commented to Dave to drink, and realized that I was speaking in a regular voice, not one that was strained from racing.

With three laps to go, Paul Curley moved up towards the front and I decided to hold his wheel to the finish. Regardless of what happened, Paul would find the line at the finish. The pace jumped on the final lap and everyone got strung out. Turning right onto the descent, Paul was in the front five and I was sitting a couple back, just where I wanted to be. As expected, a surge of riders moved forward, and I rode them to the front. With 500 meters to go to the line the pace was in the high 30's, I was just behind Paul and to the right. Paul went left to sprint for the finish. Boxed out from Paul, I went right and to the line. Very quickly I realized that I was spinning out my 53x12 at 122rpm's and unable to stand to sprint. I remained seated and looked for the line. All I could notice was the amazing number of cross walks and stop lines. WHERE THE HECK IS THE FINISH LINE??? I continued to hammer for the line and crossed sixth. Regardless of where the line was or who I followed, I couldn't have pedaled any faster. A great finish to a great day!!!