Yikes, today was the mother of all stages. 77 miles, 5600 feet of climbing in just about 3 hours, 3o minutes. I am totally stoked with my ride! From the start of racing I attacked. Having learned from my previous mistakes, I upped the speed at a reasonable pace and hoped that a couple of people would follow, four did. After a couple of minutes we established a decent gap, which turned into 30 seconds, then we disappeared around a corner and it was game on. 18 miles from the start of the break we had swept up the sprint points and stayed away for nearly an hour before the pack caught back up. The bane of most climbs was removed from the race this year due to major storms, replaced with a climb of 8 miles and 1500 feet. Over the top of the climb I was still with the pack and feeling good. We cruised through some of the most scenic parts of Vermont that I have ever ridden through. I bet without a state police escort the motorists aren't so kind though.
I've raced App Gap five times now, recon'd the climb another dozen times, and this was the first time that I had a problem keeping track of things. The final 20k clicked by so fast, that I found myself thinking multiple times "We're here already?" With 2.5k to go, I finally had enough and was popped from the pack, but stayed close. My loss was limited to just about three minutes. The largest accomplishment of the day though was to watch the podium ceremony. I've never seen the podium ceremony for the cat 3's on App Gap. It wasn't that cool, but I'm pretty stoked to be able to have seen it and make that call.
Crit and final stage tomorrow!
Oh, final place on the day, 42nd. 34th GC!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
GMSR Day 2
Today's stage was another new course, this one required when a major rain storm in August sent a bridge on rt 2 to the bottom of the river. Reports are that it will take up to two years before the bridge is replaced. I'm glad that it didn't take them two years to replace the circuit race. When I heard that the new course was going to race DOWN Baby Gap, I was very concerned. It wasn't the high speed decent that raised my alarm, it was the fact that you could only scream down the course if you made it up.
I've been pretty conservative this year, sitting in the pack, waiting for my chance. For some reason though, just out of neutral today, I took off. Part of my plan was to initiate a break, part of it was to warm-up. Immediately I had a 20 second gap, but I was all alone. About a half mile into the breakaway, the first hill of the day came and by the top of it, I was back in the fold. Warm-up complete. The race turned left and entered what would be two 29 mile circuits. This road was very broken up and in a pack of 80 guys, picking the proper line would be critical. As this thought was running through my mind, the right side of the pack hit the deck. 15-20 racers in all went down, two of them bumping my right side as I maneuvered around the carnage. We flew through the feedzone, a glance at my speedometer showed 27mph. Not exactly a proper speed to grab a stationary bottle for refreshment. Perhaps next lap I need to take it slower.
The pack stayed together as we started the 15 mile climb to the top of Baby Gap. I figured that sitting 20 riders back would be a good position, allowing me to drift back and remain in contact when it came to the steeper pitches. Next thing I know, the sign on the side of the road said 2k to go. "Hey, I'm holding well." I look over to Theeman and ask if he was feeling good and wanted to go for the KOM. He does, so I maneuver us to the front, and 700 meters attack the field. 600 meters from the line, I hear something over my shoulder so I turn back, Mark has been gapped. I sit up and let him get my wheel and try again. This time 400 meters from the line I hear the noise again and Mark has lost my wheel. Not where I want to be. 400 meters from the line, 200 meters from the front two riders and only 100 meters in front of the pack. Before I know it, the pack is swarming me and I am struggling to stay in touch. I do, then over the top my legs come back. When you are feeling good, the only thing to do is go to the front. I pull the group down Baby Gap, speeds topping 50mph. While the speeds are high, being in front allows me a clear view of the turns and not a knucklehead to worry about. Down the hill, and to the line, the pace yo-yoed from fast to a crawl. Seems no one wanted to do any work, nor did they really want to race. The intermediate sprint came and went without much attention. My only thought was that I hoped the climb on the second lap felt as good as the first. Through the feedzone I prepared to grab a bottle from ML, lined her up and just as I was going to reach for it, two guys in front of my hit their brakes and scrubbed all their speed. Like the scene from Top Gun where Maverick hits the brakes and Jester passes him, I went past these two guys and missed my feed. Good thing it wasn't hot, because I had half a bottle for the next 20 miles.
The climb felt good, I again went to the front on the downhill, but when we made it to the right onto rt 17, I realized that my legs were tired. In the final 3k to the line, the pace hadn't picked up, but I managed to move to a perfect position on the yellow line. 2k I was still holding my place, 1k people were getting nervous, but no one was picking up the pace. I'm second wheel from the front, just on the line, but the front is shoulder to shoulder with racers. 500 meters from the line the yellow line rule is removed, providing us the entire road, but no one is moving. 300 meters the road starts to rise, the right side of the pack accelerates, but the left side is just not moving. 200 meters I jump for the line, but it's way to late. I cross the line 20th in the pack finish, which is 5 seconds behind the winner. Overall this moves my GC to 20th.
Tomorrow is the critical road race stage.
I've been pretty conservative this year, sitting in the pack, waiting for my chance. For some reason though, just out of neutral today, I took off. Part of my plan was to initiate a break, part of it was to warm-up. Immediately I had a 20 second gap, but I was all alone. About a half mile into the breakaway, the first hill of the day came and by the top of it, I was back in the fold. Warm-up complete. The race turned left and entered what would be two 29 mile circuits. This road was very broken up and in a pack of 80 guys, picking the proper line would be critical. As this thought was running through my mind, the right side of the pack hit the deck. 15-20 racers in all went down, two of them bumping my right side as I maneuvered around the carnage. We flew through the feedzone, a glance at my speedometer showed 27mph. Not exactly a proper speed to grab a stationary bottle for refreshment. Perhaps next lap I need to take it slower.
The pack stayed together as we started the 15 mile climb to the top of Baby Gap. I figured that sitting 20 riders back would be a good position, allowing me to drift back and remain in contact when it came to the steeper pitches. Next thing I know, the sign on the side of the road said 2k to go. "Hey, I'm holding well." I look over to Theeman and ask if he was feeling good and wanted to go for the KOM. He does, so I maneuver us to the front, and 700 meters attack the field. 600 meters from the line, I hear something over my shoulder so I turn back, Mark has been gapped. I sit up and let him get my wheel and try again. This time 400 meters from the line I hear the noise again and Mark has lost my wheel. Not where I want to be. 400 meters from the line, 200 meters from the front two riders and only 100 meters in front of the pack. Before I know it, the pack is swarming me and I am struggling to stay in touch. I do, then over the top my legs come back. When you are feeling good, the only thing to do is go to the front. I pull the group down Baby Gap, speeds topping 50mph. While the speeds are high, being in front allows me a clear view of the turns and not a knucklehead to worry about. Down the hill, and to the line, the pace yo-yoed from fast to a crawl. Seems no one wanted to do any work, nor did they really want to race. The intermediate sprint came and went without much attention. My only thought was that I hoped the climb on the second lap felt as good as the first. Through the feedzone I prepared to grab a bottle from ML, lined her up and just as I was going to reach for it, two guys in front of my hit their brakes and scrubbed all their speed. Like the scene from Top Gun where Maverick hits the brakes and Jester passes him, I went past these two guys and missed my feed. Good thing it wasn't hot, because I had half a bottle for the next 20 miles.
The climb felt good, I again went to the front on the downhill, but when we made it to the right onto rt 17, I realized that my legs were tired. In the final 3k to the line, the pace hadn't picked up, but I managed to move to a perfect position on the yellow line. 2k I was still holding my place, 1k people were getting nervous, but no one was picking up the pace. I'm second wheel from the front, just on the line, but the front is shoulder to shoulder with racers. 500 meters from the line the yellow line rule is removed, providing us the entire road, but no one is moving. 300 meters the road starts to rise, the right side of the pack accelerates, but the left side is just not moving. 200 meters I jump for the line, but it's way to late. I cross the line 20th in the pack finish, which is 5 seconds behind the winner. Overall this moves my GC to 20th.
Tomorrow is the critical road race stage.
Friday, August 29, 2008
GMSR Day 1 Results
Results are posted, I finished 42 seconds off the win, and only 12 seconds outside of the top 10. 11 guys in 12 seconds, certainly a well balanced field. Lots of rest tonight and time to make up tomorrow.
GMSR Day 1
Another summer gone, and another trip to Vermont to do my favorite stage race, Green Mountain Stage Race. This is a four race across some of the most scenic areas of Vermont. This years race featured many changes, some seemed good, others would need to be raced before judgement was passed. Gone was the mass start prolouge up App Gap. I've never fared well in this stage, where the first rider gets 50 points, and each subsequent rider gets one less point. Rider 51 gets nothing. Having done the race four consecutive years, my total points for stage 1 was zero. Replacing App Gap was a 9.5k TT starting in Warren and ending in Waitsfield. The course had 514 feet of climbing in the first 2k, then it settled down for the next 5k before a fast dip down and up into the finish. With racers starting at 30 second intervals, I saw my 30 second man in the first k. I kept him in sight, then was surprised to see my minute man at 2.5k. I continued to pace off my 30 second guy until the final 2k, where I passed him and used him as a driving force into the finish. Overall I was at 15:30 which I am hoping puts me in the top 10 for the day. While it was a TT style race, there was no TT bikes, which seemed to be a leveling factor. Results to be posted later.
Monday, August 25, 2008
BADA$$ Weekend
The word epic seems to get thrown around a lot lately. Every couple of months it seems, a word works its way into the daily vocabulary then starts appearing everywhere. You can't describe a bike race without using it. "Wow, that climb was epic" Or "Whoa, that third corner in the crit was epic". The overuse of the word waters it down to the point where it just becomes part of the background.
With people already congregating at the house, we invited a couple of more friends over and had a nice cookout. It wasn't to be a late night though, because the definition of epic was going to be rewritten the next day.
In a race season that is ripe with crits, TT's, road races and stage races, it's pretty funny that the one weekend I look forward to every year is the final weekend in August. The local town brings in a handful of blues artists, and 40 local breweries as it hosts the Blues n Brews festival. ML and I have gone the past two years, leaving the house for a casual bike ride over, sample the music, brews, food and festival, then pedal home. This year we brought along a couple of friends who joined in the events. Good times with good friends is really where it's at.
It wasn't easy, but Goody worked hard to find a helmet that would distract folks from the shirt
With people already congregating at the house, we invited a couple of more friends over and had a nice cookout. It wasn't to be a late night though, because the definition of epic was going to be rewritten the next day.
The Bakers Dirty Dozen - photo courtesy of PK
The epic good - Save the Landlock in Burlington!
The epic bad - speedy recovery to the Mayor!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Bow Road Race
Ah Bow. We were on the back side of the course, just before that last left hand turn where it climbs a short bit before descending, and the official screamed at us to get to safety. 50 or so riders took an immediate left into some guys driveway and into his garage that he left open. As stragglers caught up to us, we called them inside and just stayed out of the weather. It was the lightning more then anything that they were concerned with, because as soon as they could, they called game on. Or was it rain on? At that point, the skies totally opened up and it was raining so hard. When we made it to the bottom of the hill, through the four way intersection, they came up and said "Last Lap". Assuming this meant one more to go, I notified my teammates and made sure they knew what was going on. Through the start/finish line they said "That's it". Huh? The race was over at that point. They only placed the first seven guys in the field (four were off the front) to pay out. It pretty much sucked, but was the right thing to do.
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