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Last Update: 9-JUN-08
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*******
2007 Results ********************* 89) Everest Challenge Stage Race, 7th Annual, USCF,
Bishop, CA September 22-23, 2007. Masters 45+. Several years ago when I first became a
hillclimb enthusiast, another rider told me about this climbing race in We flew out on Thursday, Sept 20. This gave us a full day on Friday to unpack
bikes, go for light recovery ride, and just unwind in a new place before race
day. We ran into a couple issues,
however. Rich’s bike was not at the
shop in The other issue was the forecast. Normally, the weather for the EC is very hot, often over 100F in the valleys. But an early season system was moving through the area over the weekend, and they weren’t talking just rain. In fact, one forecast predicted 10-15” of snow down to 7500 feet. Most of the climbs go above 7500ft, including first and last climbs that go above 10,000ft. Would they cancel the race? Modify the course? I wanted to do the real Everest Challenge, not a diluted version of it. We built up bikes Friday morning and went for test spin. It was nice out. I did about 9 miles at very easy pace. After that, Dave and Rich took off to ride the final climb of day one. I thought they were nuts, but part of the thinking that went into it was that Saturday could be a miserable day to race. Dave turned around before Rich did, and I think Rich probably did over 3000ft of climbing. While they climbed, the remaining four of us “climbed” too, in the minivan. We pre-drove the first two climbs of Saturday’s stage. Beautiful country. The summit of first climb, above 10,000ft, still had some bits of snow about. Enough to make snowballs. We now had a sense of just how deep we were in after driving the first climb. We picked up race packets Friday evening in Bishop. There we learned of the weather contingencies. If surface conditions Saturday morning precluded going above 7500ft, alternative route and climbs were in place. This basically lopped off the top 2500ft of first climb, inserted a new climb between climbs 1&2 that stayed in valley, and lopped a little bit off the final climb as well. When we got up Saturday morning (and waited an eternity to be served at Denny’s), we saw the mountains were blanketed in white. Hard to say what elevation the snow line was down too, but it was easily below 10,000ft. It was cold too. I dressed up in knee warmers, race jersey, and heavy weight long sleeve jersey over that. My race number was under the heavy jersey, but race organizers said we could do that, as most riders will be adding and shedding layers throughout the race. I brought a wind shell along for descents, and wore full finger Goretex gloves with windproof headband. Forecast was calling for bone chilling rain on Saturday. The alternative course was definitely a go. So instead of three monster climbs, we were getting four reduced climbs and 1500ft less vertical. The lost vertical would be made up on day two. The format of the EC is out-and-back climbs. You go back down each climb the way you went up. Nearly all of these roads dead-end anyway. Only a couple actually are passes where you could up and over. The race each day also stops at the final summit. You could chose to ride back down or try to catch auto transportation down. The second day most riders were expected to ride back down, as there was very limited parking at that summit.
Everest
Challenge 2007, Stage One Profile I was apprehensive going into this race with the sport drink being served on course. I had tried another Hammer Nutrition product before, something called Sustained Energy, with disappointing results. I believe the HEED served on the course uses the same carbohydrate, a long-chain glucose polymer, Maltodextrin. It seemed every time I used Sustained Energy, I ended up with bloating, gas, and diarrhea during or just after the race. I thought maybe HEED would be formulated differently. Drinking just water was not an option, as I was expecting to race ~6 hours each day. The race start was supposed to be neutral first 10 miles or so. From profile above, you can see this section is pretty flat. No warmup needed. But a couple knuckleheads took off on the field anyway. The Webcor guys put a lot of work in at the front at 24+ mph to chase them down. I thought I heard some stern words exchanged when the break was finally caught. This was just before the first climb. Going into first climb, the effort went from recovery pace to threshold pace. Brett, with his Power Tap, said we were doing 330 Watts. That was higher than I wanted to go, but a large portion of the field was holding this level. Brett dropped back, I stayed with lead pack. It didn’t take long for most of the field to throttle back, including the Webcor guys. I dropped back with them, but three kept on charging ahead. Most of the guys continued to let up on the pace, and mid climb I found myself alone, solidly in 4th place and strengthening this position. I settled into my pace and felt good. Before hitting the turn-around point on climb #1, there is a steep curvy descent into a ravine before climbing resumes. It was in this area I started passing guys from the 35+ field, including Bill. Rich was still a little ahead of me and we passed each other as I was approaching the first aid station at end of the climb. They were staged 5 minutes ahead of me. I spent very little time exchanging bottles and sucking down a gel. I decided it was not cold enough to need my wind shell, and it would cause significant drag on the high speed descent anyway, so I did not put it on. I quickly settled in behind a Pro/1/2 rider on the descent (they were staged 10 minutes ahead of me). He seemed to be working a least parts of the descent, where you weren’t riding the brakes anyway. I got a good rest out of that. We next crossed over the Rt 395 highway for the make-up climb due to snow cutting first climb short. It was quite warm now in the valley, and this climb was wide open and looked pretty boring. It even looked flat, but 10mph max speeds said otherwise. I caught Rich at the food stop at the top of this climb. He had hooked up with other Pro/1/2 and Cat 3 riders that were holding a nice pace. I joined them for the descent. I was confident I was a least in a solid 4th place, maybe better. I was now passing many, many other riders from other fields and could not tell if I had passed any of the three from the break in my field. The 45’s had 400-series numbers, but most riders’ numbers were covered with long layers. We simply had to holler out our number at checkpoint at end of each climb. We next begin climb #3, which originally was climb #2 from baseline course. This one stays under 8000ft, so we would climb it as planned. We pass another aid station, but I did not need any. I was feeling a bit bloated and probably not drinking enough. Rich and the guys he hooked up with were not climbing at the pace I wanted to hold, so I peeled off from the small group. Before long, I had good distance on them. About 3/4 way into this climb, I started to realize something wasn’t right. I was getting those early muscle cramping warning signs. At the top, I grabbed two more bottles of HEED, ate two gels, and swallowed two Endurolytes capsules. I also had to take a pee stop. Rich passed me, and I motored down this ruckus descent alone. About half-way down, riders climbing told me to slow down. I was going 49mph. There was a particularly sharp chicane, and it had just sprinkled out so the road was wet. Apparently, a rider had just lost control and hit a car around this corner. Rumors varied, but one said he broke his pelvis. Ambulance was coming up as I reached the bottom of the descent. We pass the food station again at the bottom of climb #3. I did not need anything. There was long stretch between climbs
3&4 in the valley. It was right
into the wind, and I lost my train (group Rich was with). By now I was in serious trouble. I was cramping up severely. I could not pedal without major spasms. I forced myself to drink HEED, but my body
didn’t seem to be accepting it. I let
up enough that a large group caught up to me and I jumped on the back of it. This helped immensely into the wind. We next pass the cars at start/staging
area. I seriously contemplated about
abandoning the race at this point. I
had biggest climb yet to go, more than a vertical mile and over 20 miles
long. I could not figure out what was
going on. Thus far, the race was
easier than any number of hilly training rides I did over the summer, like We reach base of climb #4, by far the biggest of today’s stage. Our pack of over a dozen riders fragments. Surprisingly, most of the riders drift off behind me despite not being able to put any power to the pedals. I even caught back up to Rich, whose group had slowed down too. I stayed with Rich during much of the climb. However, there is a particularly heinous section, a wall a few miles long, and you can see the whole thing. Very demoralizing. I very slowly lost ground on Rich’s small group. It was here where I started loosing positions too, seeing other 400 series numbers come by. I just could not go any harder without seizing up. Just before reaching the food station at the finish, I had a major spasm incident. This sent me off the bike to keep my quads from completely seizing up. After working it out, I got back on the bike. By now, all my major leg muscle groups were randomly firing, and I was experiencing pain like never before. I figured I just passed the summit food station, and the actual finish was just a tad further. The climbing levels off with a few rollers and turns. I could not pedal up the short rises and could barely coast down the rollers. I was off the bike walking 10ft rises. Then, with about 100m to go, both legs went thermonuclear. They just seized up and I fell over in the road. The pain was unbelievable. I was screaming, unable to move anything. Fortunately, a sports masseuse was right there and came to help. He understood exactly what was going on and how to work things out. But spasm after spasm ensued. I laid in the road, with cars and bike racers going right by my head for a good 20-30 minutes. The spasms just would not stop. Nearly every major muscle in my legs took turns spas’ing. I thought what if my heart goes next. At least the pain would have stopped. Eventually I was able to sit up. Another volunteer gave me some electrolytes to drink. They also gave me more HEED, but my stomach was rock-hard bloated by this point. I don’t think anything I was eating or drinking for the last two hours was being absorbed. My race was over. 92+ miles, 14,000ft of climbing, 100 meters to go, and I could not even crawl to the finish line. With help, I was eventually able to stand. I needed help walking over to an SUV whose driver offered to give me a ride down. The race director would bring my bike down on bike trailer with other riders’ bikes. I was so deeply disappointed, having trained and focused on this event all year. Something went terrible wrong. I should have been able to podium this event. I was thoroughly conditioned for it. I did not go out too hard. I felt superbly fresh starting out. So what was the deal? It was the HEED. When I used Sustained Energy sport drink previously, I got abdominal bloating, gas, and diarrhea each time. I had bought a large tub of the expensive stuff but had to throw it away. S.E. also contained protein, something HEED does not. I thought maybe it was the combo that gave me grief. Now I know it’s the funky carbs they use. My symptoms were completely consistent with those of Lactose intolerance, except HEED uses Maltodextrin instead of Lactose as its base sugar. Could I lack an enzyme needed to adequately break down the long-chain polymers Hammer uses in this product? Quite possibly. I know most people do well with this product, although many object to the taste. I do know one other rider that has problems with Hammer carbs. Talking with the race director’s wife the next day, she commented another rider last year had problems with HEED. They used to use powdered Powerade, but they lost that sponsorship and Hammer stepped in the last two years. The cramping session was only half of my suffering. I didn’t think I would make it to the bottom soon enough to find a toilet. My abdominal core was hard as a rock and extremely bloated. The discomfort was extreme. I’ll spare the details, but I went through about three hours of flatulence and the runs like I’ve never experienced before. I was still unable to eat. I had raced 6 hours, totally depleting my glycogen stores, and was not able to start the recharge process for many hours afterwards. Later in the evening, we went to load up on pasta, but I could not finish mine without having to run back to hotel room next door. I was in sad shape. Eventually, I got all of the HEED out of my system.
Looking towards stage one finish. It snowed heavily shortly after taking this
photo. The next morning, my lower GI was back to normal and I had a ravenous hunger. Having DNF’d the first stage, I would not be racing today. I could have started if I wanted, but would not be given overall finish. But my legs were severely damaged. I had to use both rails going up and down stairs. I could not even walk right. Many muscles had tight, excruciatingly painful knots in them. I brought Rich to 2nd day race start in nearby Big Pine and went back to motel. It looked like it was going to be a very nice day, and I was sad I would not be racing. I stopped at the famous bakery in town, http://www.erickschatsbakery.com/About/About.htm to continue making up for previous day’s deficit. This place will blow you away with selection. I got donuts and shortbread chocolate chip cookies. I knew I would just have to ride on this beautiful day. Plan was to do short spin in valley to loosen some of the knots in my legs, then head back to race to pick Rich up. But I said screw it. I will bike up the finishing climb, the biggest in this year’s EC, and coast down with the others after they finish.
Everest
Challenge 2007, Stage Two Profile.
Sick, eh? The finishing climb up I continued my climb. I passed other local riders out for an epic climb. Took lots of pictures too. I passed another food station but did not stop. The USCF officials came down in a vehicle and asked if I knew where the race finish line was. I did not, but they did not go far enough up either. The air was getting dramatically colder, but my legs were loosening up and I was able to keep my power output high enough to stay warm in shorts and short sleeves. Bursts of clouds would occasionally obscure the summit area. The scenery was incredible the whole way up. Eventually I reach the 10,000ft mark and knew the finish was moments away. The officials found the finish, and the food station was just over the crest. I went on down to eat. This time, no bloating, and I was starving. I had quesadias, cookies, coffee, hot cocoa, chips, etc. I quickly had to put warm layers back on. There was snow on the ground here, and you could see your breath. It wasn’t long until race winner Lindsay Blount came up. After hanging around the food for an hour or so, I went back to finish line to wait for the New Englanders to come through.
Dave (in red Nor’East kit) finishing
stage two above 10,000ft. Hanging out at the line was a blast. There were a couple other riders there. We’d tell them 30 meters to go. The line was just around the bend. One guy said “I f’n love you guys!” Another said “just throw a rock at me!” Everybody was cooked. From my group, Tom was first to come through. He started an hour earlier though. He medaled in the 55+ division. Then Richard and Dave came through just a couple minutes apart. Dave took 9th in the Cat 4/5’s, and Rich also took 9th in the 35+ division. I learned Bill abandoned the race early in first climb of second day. He had some nasty cyst-like thing going on in one of his feet, and it became too painful to pedal. We waited a while for Brett, and I wondered if he abandoned too. But we no more than began the 20 mile descent, and he was right there just finishing. So 4 of 6 of us finished. Tom’s friend Tiger also finished the citizen’s ride of the course. The descent was marvelous.
I hit speeds of over 50mph, and the temperature increased dramatically
with lost altitude. At least the day
was not a complete loss for me. I
thoroughly enjoyed this climb, easily ranking in my top ten climbs of all
time. It is very similar to Mt Lemmon
or Mt Graham in I now contemplate going back in 2008. I’m mad this thing beat me, or should I say, I’m mad I took a gamble on HEED and lost. I was too greedy. Pure water was also served. Some riders brought their own sport drink powder to mix with served water. I could have done that but was worried about the many minutes I would lose each day doing it. But I would have finished. Live and learn. I was also somewhat dismayed by the willy-nilly support many riders were receiving from personal support vehicles. This was only to be done in a few designated areas, but it was total chaos. I would love to have support in a race like this. It would make things so much easier. Plus not having to carry two full bottles up each climb... So the end of my competitive season imploded. Mt Result: DNF 88) September 8, 2007. This is a brand new hillclimb on
the I didn’t taper for this one like I would for an “A” race, but it was a relatively easy week for me. Forecast was for oppressive conditions, and getting ready for the race, it was already in the 70’s and soupy. I knew I was going to overheat on this one. A study at UNH that I participated in showed that it only takes about 20 minutes under hot conditions for my core body temp to hit 103F and then things shut down. I warmed up at light pace to keep my core temp down. Even still, I became drenched with sweat. Several really fast guys and gals made it out for this one. I think the $2000 coed team and $500 individual first place prize money drew them. Total purse was over $5000. Impressive for first year event. Looking around, I thought my prospects were still decent for 3rd place overall. Since there were about 60 racers total, we went off in one wave. Made it real easy to see how you are doing, no wondering if somebody in another wave is going be faster. The race starts from the Sherburne Lodge, goes downhill
for 200-300m distance, then hard right turn onto When we forked to the left onto the toll road, the climb gets uber steep and stays that way. This immediately busted things up at the front. I fell to third place, then a short while later, fourth. But somewhere around here, my bike made a heinously loud pop. At first I thought I shattered another cassette cog like I did on Labor Day while mountain biking. Things looked ok. I had just put that new XTR cassette on the day before, a setup I was breaking in for the Everest Challenge race in two weeks. Since I could not see anything going on, I assumed it was just the pawls in the freehub slipping a tooth, like they do sometimes. Several minutes later, I get to “The Wall,” a section that must be around 20% grade for about 0.3 miles, and I can no longer hold the pace. This was about 18 minutes into the race. Usually I pull away from other riders on stuff like this, but my bike felt woefully over-geared. Soon, riders that don’t normally pass me started coming by. I was overheating big time, and I was struggling to keep the pedals going even in my easiest gear. At this point, I started to give up since 5 or 6 riders came around me and I would no longer be in contention. This same thing happened to me a couple years earlier on Whiteface Mtn when it was very muggy out. No sense going into the danger zone when there’s nothing at stake. I had anticipated this climb taking about 35 minutes based on 45 minute climbs on MTB from town, so when I started hearing spectators around 27 minutes into the climb, I was surprised. A rider had just passed me, and wouldn’t you know it, the line is right there. I sprinted, but the pedals just wouldn’t yield to my effort. I think it was Bob Lesmerises that just nipped me by a second or so at the line. Jeff Daigle was just a few more seconds ahead of him. After we all caught our breath up top, a rider asked if I popped a spoke. I didn’t think I did, but when I went to roll my bike, the rear tire just skidded on the pavement. It was seized right up. Could hardly turn it by hand. It was hitting both the brake pads and frame chain stay. I did break a spoke, the second time in this expensive wheel. I think a pothole I hit the weekend before might have weakened it. So now I was partially relieved that it wasn’t all me that sucked so badly on this climb. I had an excuse, but I felt stupid for not even noticing this. Everybody seemed to know I popped a spoke when it happened. But would they tell me? Nooooooo! Make me suffer. These Velomax wheels use direct pull spokes, so when it broke at the rim, the spoke stayed stoutly screwed into the hub. Nothing to vibrate or flop around. Plus there was absolutely no rubbing noise. When I got home, I inspected things. The frame had a pretty good gouge in it, and the tire sidewall had exposed cording. I don’t think the gouge is deep enough to cause eventual frame failure, but I wouldn’t trust the brand new Michelin Pro2 Race tire anymore. This was the first time I climbed Burke and did not get to enjoy the blast back down. Glad they had a couple trucks and vans to carry riders like me back down.
Gouge in Trek 5900 OCLV 110 Frame.
Broken spoke. Note thin spot on tire sidewall. The biggest bummer, and yet good thing, is that I was going to pack this bike up the next day to ship out for the Everest Challenge. Had the wheel not broken here, it surely would have during the first day of the EC, my most important race ever. That could have ended my race one hour into the first day. I can fix this myself (I have spares of these special spokes and the know-how to fix it), but I wouldn’t trust it. Why are these spokes popping? I’m going to have to use my much heavier Rolf Prima Vigor RS aero wheels for the EC. I’ll descend much faster, but I bet it won’t make up for the added climbing weight. A pound over 29,000 feet could make about 3-5 minutes difference. So I’ll be shipping a wheel with new tire and swapped over cassette with no ride time on it. I will fret over this until the EC race is over. I assumed I didn’t place, and thunderstorms were in
forecast. I wanted to get my MTB ride
in before it rained. I swapped shoes
and bikes, enjoyed the delicious lunch catered by the Tamarack Grill, then
headed back up Burke Mtn on trails.
The trails were the driest ever, the best conditions I been on
here. I hit almost all the stuff with
the word “Moose” in the name coming down Burke Mtn, about 10 miles of
singletrack. I stopped by the Kingdom
Trails office to pick up my complimentary season pass sticker, which came
with the hillclimb registration. I
learned there was a Kingdom Trails BBQ from 2-5pm in town, all you can eat
for $5. That would be perfect
timing. The skies still looked the
same, which is that iffy muggy afternoon look when a storm can pop up any
moment. I went over to the Darling
Hill system of trails next and rode the usual culprits like Harp, Coronary
Bypass, Pasture, and a new one called Tap and Die. I was having trouble staying hydrated in
this heat and was fading fast. I
wasn’t going to be able to hit all the stuff I like on the way back. I rode Culvert, then took the easy Vast
trail much of the way back, picking up Beat Bog and finishing on the pure
adrenaline rush Kitchel down to town center.
I have finished every ride on Kingdom Trails with this one. It’s just the right way to finish. I rode nearly 30 miles of trails in 3.3hrs
of riding time. My legs were black
with trail dust. Dipping into the At the BBQ, I ran into race director Keone Maher again. Heck of a nice guy, and I’m amazed at how many hats he wears and still has time to organize a race. Despite the popped spoke, Keone told me I came in 6th place overall. Since three of those ahead of me were coed team riders, that put me in 3rd for the individual category, good for $125. I was pretty psyched to still make the cash cutoff! This race has a great venue, and I believe it will become a premier hillclimb event. Nice facilities at ski area base lodge, great paved surface, can ride your bikes down again, fantastic food after the race, great area to spend your weekend in, and a cash purse bigger than other hillclimbs. I definitely plan on doing this one each year, and I hope word spreads. Many congrats to Keone and his volunteers who did an awesome job pulling off this inaugural event. Time: 27:23.62 (2:31.66 back
overall) [Virtual] #88) Mt. Washington Hill Climb Race, 35th
Annual, NH August 18, 2007. Having tapered all week for this event, I was all set to establish a new PR, hoping to best my 1:06:11 last year with a finish around 1:04. Many truly fast people were there, including Ned Overend (multi-discipline world champ), Sue Schlatter (going for overall Women’s win this year), and Gerry Clapper (overall winner at Ascutney a few weeks ago). The forecast the night before was looking up, only a little wind, and chilly to moderate temps. Upon arrival at the venue, it was dry at the base, but the summit was socked in with dark clouds. Wind seemed mostly out of the north, which could actually make some of the more exposed parts of the course faster. I was psyched. At 7am, just as I was heading off to warm up, an announcement
is made for all racers to come to the tent.
Odd I thought, as they’ve never done that before the many times I’ve
done this race. When a significant
portion of the riders made it to the big tent, the bomb was dropped. They were turning drivers around at the
summit because of dangerous conditions, and the race was cancelled. The We waited a good while for our drivers to get back off the
mountain, then we started getting the reports of just how bad it was up
there. It was too windy to stand
(60-70mph), wet, with windchills dipping into the teens (10-20F). When I got my stuff back from the summit,
Bill D. and I took off for short road ride before coming back to at least eat
our $300 turkey lunch. We rode down to
Gorham, then the big climb up Rt 2 to When we came back, the lunch that was prepared to feed about 1200 people was barely going to get sampled. Maybe 200 people were left. When most people had finished lunch and with Richard Fries MC’ing the raffle, we were asked to vacate the tent. The huge mooring rods were starting to rip out of the ground and the thing was at risk of going down. It was wicked windy at the base with intermittent downpours. Later we learned the winds were gusting above 90mph at the summit, and we would have still been up there waiting for the last riders to finish had the race gone on as planned. They made a good call. Image below shows summit conditions over 24hrs up to 2:31pm in afternoon. Note gusts of over 90mph just after 10am.
Now for the virtual race report. Mountain Biking legend and XTERRA world
champ Ned Overend
won in a major upset, just nipping Anthony Colby on the finishing 22%
grade. Sue Schlatter dominated the
women’s field with a blistering 1:04:30 finish. Local climbing phenom Gerry Clapper came in
at 59:08, handily taking the top spot in the men’s 45-49 division. And I achieved yet another PR, finishing in
1:03:43. My hillclimb
estimator tool proves it. I rode a
28:14 on Mt Ascutney a few weeks earlier, and this is good for 1:03 and
change on Mt
That’s a wrap for Mt 87) Mt Agamenticus Time-Trial, 4rd Annual, USCF, S. August 12, 2007. 4th time doing Mt Friggin A. Had my biggest volume training week of the
season going into this race. The
following week is taper down for Mt For the TT, my legs felt fair with some lingering tight spots. I knew I wasn’t going to PR this one like I’ve been PR’ing everything else this season. I didn’t care. There was barely a hint of wind this year too. Last year new male/female course records were set with strong tail wind on the flatter part of the course. I queue up. My 30 second guy took a serious header off the Ramp ‘O Death. Not sure what happened, but he looked hurt pretty bad. There were guys behind me who were not planning to use the ramp BEFORE this happened. This really rattled my nerves starting off. The sound and sight of him hitting the pavement was rather horrific. The first couple miles went pretty good, seeing speeds of 30-31mph. I probably went out too hot though, as when I got into some of the rollers, instant burning set in. I hit the gravel at about 38mph and held it until the grade reversed. It was well packed but bumpier than usual. There were serious embedded rocks poking up. I had trouble finding a rhythm beginning the climbing on dirt. I was fading. That’s what happens when doing such a short, high intensity effort like this when not fully recovered. The gravel levels briefly before climbing another steep pitch. Then levels again just before picking up the steep remaining paved portion of the climb. Having spectators cheer you on does help keep the motivation up. You know the end is near when you see the people. I crossed the line about 14 seconds slower than year before, which is much better than I thought I would do. Plus this was less far back from overall winner than last year too. Times on average were a bit slower, due I’m sure to lack of tail wind. This was good enough for first in age group, but with a smaller field present this year. After the TT, Dave Penney and I promptly left to get in a good endurance ride. We did the classic Parkers/Catamount loop, 64 miles worth with about 3400ft of climbing. For the day, including warmup, TT, return from TT, and loop ride, I got in 85 miles and upwards of 5000ft of climbing. Time: 21:54.55 (0:41.67 back
overall) August 5, 2007. Masters 45+. Continuing the pattern of the last two years, I did back to back race days this weekend: Equinox hillclimb on Saturday, Bow road race on Sunday. Sunday was another fabulous day for racing. Legs actually felt much better this year than they did last year after Equinox. Today there was a bit of tail wind climbing, then headwind along parts of the return trip coming mostly downhill, especially approaching the finish. Goal was to finish top-10. This course is neither a sprinters nor hill climbers dream. Although the course was modified (with additional climbing) from prior years due to road work, the hills are not long or steep enough to shed the sprinter types early in the race. Plus, much of the approach to the finish is screaming downhill, giving the sprinters that manage to stay on all the reprieve they need to do their thing at the line. This race requires careful strategy and monitoring of energy expenditure to do well. It tends to be a very peaky race. We start off with Eric Pearce (Bethel Cycle) at the front,
going about 90% full-throttle into the most serious climb on the altered
course. This new hill climbing On lap two, there were several feeble break attempts. I half-heartedly jumped on a couple of these. But whenever I went, many others followed. I spent fair amount of time at the front of our field during mid part of the race. I did this in places only where I didn’t have to work harder than the others, such as on climbs or when tailwind was present. Especially on climbs with tailwind, I didn’t mind at all lighting it up at the front on some of the rollers, as I know that the others were going to suffer just as bad. There’s no hiding when there is no draft benefit. But, I suspect there were bits of time when I should not have been up there, wasting precious kilojoules. I stayed in front five guys most of the race, never drifting more than 10 back. At one point, a rider was well up the road. Everybody at the front was looking for somebody else to do something about it. I let way up in hopes of somebody else coming to the front. I was as guilty as the next guy. Pearce came along side me and said “there goes your race up the road!” I have history of chasing too many things down myself, and I think others recognize my weakness, but I’m getting better at holding back. It seems every time I chase something, it only benefits others and hurts my own result. I had one teammate in the field (Keith Button), but even he told me to calm down and let a couple of the other teams give chase. Miraculously, we managed to catch the guy. On third lap, we had whittled our field down to maybe 12-15 guys going over the hill. Still too many for my liking. Dreading bunch sprints, I feel much more comfortable in smaller group. Before my race, I got to see the Cat 4’s finish. Apparently much of the field stayed together right up to the finish. Reports say about half of the 40+ guys sprinting to the line went down in massive pile-up. It was just out of sight from my vantage point, maybe 300-400 meters out. I saw several riders carrying their damaged bikes to finish area. That’s one of my reasons for dreading bunch sprints. Anyway, on back side of lap three, Rick Sorenson (now
riding Wyoming Athletic jersey?) bolted from remnants of our field. Nobody seemed to care at first, but when
the gap grew dramatically large in short order, there was much consternation
among the field. I overheard one rider
say “that’s Rick up there, he could win this thing!” As we came through the feed zone, a Bethel
Cycle rider in the feed zone hollered out to his teammates with me what the
time split was, and they needed to do something about it. I came to the front to set pace going into
White Rock Hill. With some tail wind
here and speeds below 20mph, I wasn’t really “pulling” in the sense that
others were drafting me. The gap to
Rick started to come down. A couple
other guys came to the front to really crank it up another notch as we
crested last part of White Rock Hill.
We merge onto So now it’s just me, Dave, Paul, and Rick with 10 seconds gap to chase group. Dave and I worked hard initially and encouraged the other two to do the same. It paid off. We started to grow the gap on the rolling descent. Rick was not doing much work, probably trashed from his 3/4 lap solo flyer. The others were taking short pulls. Now I had a vested interest in working hard. If I killed myself in this quite select group of riders, the worst I’ll do in the end is fourth place. I liked those odds. Play cat and mouse with one or two guys not doing much work, we’d surely be caught and I’d be faced trying to sprint for position, something I utterly suck at. I took long, hard pulls where it paid the biggest dividends – on the descents. Riders hate working hard on descents because everybody behind you is coasting. The last lap was my fastest, hitting the highest speeds everywhere. In fact, I almost blew the hard left turn after the initial descent. Of the four, I knew I was doing a disproportionate amount of work, but I wanted as much margin as possible. During this last lap, I was going too hard to drink. My throat dried up. Not like tacky dry, but like when I tried to swallow, the back of my throat and tongue felt like dusty sandpaper rubbing together. Very unpleasant. There are many rollers in the last two miles to the finish. I made sure our pace did not let up cresting these by coming to the front several times to keep the hammer down. I was totally dying, but I knew the suffering would be over in just a few minutes. We could see riders behind us, but it was hard to tell if they were chasers or dropped riders from another field. When we crested the final roller about a half mile from
the finish, I knew we had it and let up some.
I think Paul came to take one last pull, but by the time we reach 2/38 Finishers Masters 45+ (50
Starters) Time: 1:58:54, 1 millisecond
back 43 miles, ~4000ft of climbing
per Topo 85) Mt Equinox Hillclimb, 4th Annual, August 4, 2007. Great day for a hillclimb, folks. Overnight thunderstorms pushed the oppressive heat down to pleasant conditions by Saturday morning. I did not do an “A” race taper this year. Having already established a significant PR on Mt Ascutney two weeks early, I didn’t feel compelled to squeeze every last second out of this climb. Takes too much out of training plan to do so. My PR going into the race was 42:09 from 2004, the first year this race began as a Lyme Disease fundraiser. Compared with other climbs that year, this was an exceptionally strong effort. I felt with reasonable taper, I had about 50% chance of beating my 2004 PR. Like Ascutney, I brought two bikes, one with full
complement of gears to warm up on, one with single granny ring for race. I spent only about 15 minutes warming up,
about 5 miles total, with two decent intervals on Going off with the “Top Notch” first wave at 8am, I stayed out of front row. I leave that for the guys going for the $500 first mile prime. Without HR or power feedback, it is hard to mentally block out a dozen or so guys, some I know I will beat, but going for broke on the first mile. I passed all but three of the first-milers later in the climb. There were three guys I was going to keep my eye on this year, not that I race for position in a hillclimb, but partly to judge my own effort. If you can keep a running average of your pace against a few others you know will be going similar pace, you can kind of tell if you are letting up a little too much or surging a little too hard. These guys were Erich Gutbier (unattached, who I just edged out on Ascutney this year), Mark Luzio (Bike Barn Racing, who beat me here last year), and Larry Watson (unattached, also beat me here last year). Well, Erich bolted off with the fast guys going for the $500. Not sure if he was going for it, but he was in group of 4 or 5 lead guys getting pretty close to the 1mi mark before the young guns bolted. Mark was with me for first mile or so, and Larry stayed near me for over the first half of the race. Last year, both these guys passed me half way into race. So I felt pretty good about my pace, with Erich slowly gaining distance on me, Mark and Larry slowly fading back. During mid part of race, I passed several of the guys that went off uber hard for the $500 prime. But I traded places with one of these guys, Ian Gordon (Arc-en-Ciel), over a dozen times. At one point Ian asked if I wanted to do 30 second “pulls” with him. I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, and I kind of chuckled in between gasps that there is no such thing (as pulling) on such a steep grade. Ian’s pace was very peaky. He and another rider would drift behind me on less steep parts, then close big gap and blast past me on steep parts. This had to cost these guys a lot of time in the end. I think they may have been attacking each other. I ignored all this posturing by holding my pace. Eventually, the other guy with Ian blew up and it was just Ian and I finishing the last mile or so together with two guys up the road. When we got within the last three or four tenths of a mile, Ian (who is only 19 years old) put the hammer down for good. It was too far to go for me to respond with that kind of power. I just held my pace. Ian finished 7.6 seconds ahead of me. I crossed the line in 41:45.4 minutes, a new PR, and 4th overall. I was quite pleased. Nobody broke 40 minutes this year, so I was very close to winner Eric Tremble (Kenda/Raleigh Racing) and Erich Gutbier who took second overall. As always, Andy Holzman and the Rotary Club volunteers do an
outstanding job putting this race on each year. This hillclimb event is comparable to Mt Time: 41:45.4 (1:22.9 back) July 29, 2007, Masters 45+. When I first saw the profile of this course, I knew this race would be for me. Fortunately, there were no other planned races going on this weekend. Having just PR’d Mt Ascutney, I thought my prospects were pretty good here. A 2 mile, 5% climb to the finish suits me well. But Gerry Clapper (Benidorm Bikes), Dzmitry Buben (CCB), and several of the areas other top Masters 45+ riders were going to be there. Gerry had won the Ascutney climb overall, beating my time by over 2 minutes. A hilly course with uphill finish doesn’t make it an easy race for me, it just gives me a chance. Prep for this race did not go well. My primary event I’m training for this year is in September, so racing now disrupts training for late season event. I was sure to get some mid-week intensity in. I did hard 3hr training ride on Wednesday with many 350W to 400W+ hill intervals. Thursday I did 1.2 hour threshold pace MTB ride at lunch. Friday/Saturday were recovery ride days, but Friday I worked all day on my house, ripping out front entrance door unit with sidelights and installing new one. That really messed up my back, upper body, and hips. I could hardly move on Saturday. I should do core body workouts, but I’m lazy and don’t. I felt a little better on race morning, and my legs
actually felt pretty good. But getting
to the race did not go well. 81mph in
a 65 on Mass Pike. Statie in unmarked
car. I was running late before I got
pulled over. Now I was stressed. Turns out it was much quicker to get to I did very little warmup before lining up. I figured it’s rolling flat to huge downhill first several miles, so I could warm up on the course. Masters do two 22 mile laps with about 2200ft of climbing per lap. The climbing comes in two major chunks, the back side of the course with undulating steep rises, and the climb back to start/finish area which is 2 miles at 5% monotonically rising. The climbing begins about 8 miles into the race. The first blip hurt. On the second blip, which is twice as long as the first and just as steep, our field became unglued. My plan for the race was to shadow Gerry, since I thought he was the most likely winner even though Dzmitry won it two years earlier. Gerry wasn’t even breathing and everybody else was gasping. Scary. Cresting the second blip, Dzmitry rolled off the front and put the hammer down. He was gone. Chase attempts were non-existent or disorganized at best. Going up the finishing climb on the first lap, Gerry set the pace the whole way. He’d stand, push a fairly big gear out of the saddle, and put out unbelievable power. Then the pace would slowly keep getting harder, and harder, and harder. Guys would drop like flies. I was hanging on by a thread. I think there were 5 of us crossing the KOM/Finish line together, but more came back on as things leveled out. Dzmitry was just in front of us, but then slipped away again. Nobody wanted to work together to reel him back in. Our group was pretty small going into climb on back side of the course. Most stayed on up the first wall at the bottom. But the second wall whittled our group down to very small size, to 5 guys I think. As Gerry and I crested the second wall less than half way up back side climb, we rolled away from the others in our group. Gerry did most of the work. Talking with others after the race, they reached a point where they were happy to let Gerry and I duke it out for second place. Gerry is a phenomenal climber, and I was feeling pretty good myself. Climbing continued for several miles, but at a more moderate pace. On the screaming descent, we caught up to a SUV that was stuck behind some dropped Cat 4’s. We were going way faster than they were. I was hammering my biggest gear at 45+ mph, they were coasting. I had to do very quick chicane between SUV, guardrail, and Cat 4 riders, hoping I wouldn’t clip the front bumper of the SUV. Gerry lost a second or so on me through this mess, and the finishing climb was coming up fast. Through the SUV/Cat 4 mess, another rider from our field briefly joined us. Think it might have been Mark Luzio (Bike Barn). But as soon as the climb began, he disappeared behind us. Now it’s just Gerry and I again, with Dzmitry at least a couple minutes ahead of us. After seeing what Gerry did on Mt Ascutney the weekend before, I thought my prospects for 2nd were slim to none, and I would be quite happy with third. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. Again, Gerry set pace nearly the whole way up this 2 mile climb, probably not as hard as the first lap though. Didn’t need to. There were no other Masters riders in sight behind us, and Dzmitry had too much lead ahead of us. Still though, I struggled to stay with Gerry, dropping back a bike length a couple times. As the grade lets up slightly approaching the finish, I expected an attack. It didn’t happen, but Gerry did keep picking the pace up. Then we can see the line up the road. There were spectators. Gerry was going fast enough now, up hill, for me to derive enough drafting benefit to warrant staying behind him as long as possible. When we got very close to line, less than 100m, I popped around him. But I freaked. Stopped in our lane right at the finish line was a big truck with wide trailer. The race instructions made it clear that the yellow line ruled also applied at the finish. I had no choice but to go over the line to avoid hitting the trailer. Gerry followed suit. I didn’t look back, but I think I crossed the line with good margin. We were not DQ’d, as we weren’t going over the line to advance position on other riders. Taking second place here was just as satisfying as winning
at Turtle Pond. This was a hard race
with a lot of talent present. Talking
with Gerry after the race, I learned he’s been having some calf issues and
was cramping on the finishing climb. I
could relate back to my experience at Learning who the players are in Masters racing is paying dividends. By knowing who I should stay with, I can expend energy only when needed. I don’t think I could have ridden this race much more efficiently than what I did. I pushed very little wind until it was just Gerry and me, and even then Gerry did more than his share. I have a bad habit of getting stuck up front when nothing is to be gained from it. Of course, Dzmitry got away, and it would have been nice to be there when he did. But I might not have been able to match his initial attack anyway. Second place was probably the best I could have done given how this race played out. After results were posted on bikereg.com, I was surprised to see Dzmitry finished only 35 seconds ahead of us. Since Gerry and I put 1.5 minutes lead on chasers, we probably took 1.5 minutes out of Dzmitry’s lead. Would have been very interesting to see how things shook out in the end had we caught him. After the race, I did a short 12mi loop on different
roads. I went north on Rt 179, right
on South Lane (a narrow, curvy, steep, white knuckle descent), south on Rt
189, then big 4 mile climb up Mountain Rd back to East Hartland. Sign on lower portion of Time: 1:56:46, 35sec back 44 miles, ~4400 feet of
climbing 83) Mt Ascutney Hillclimb, 8th Annual, July 21, 2007. Two weeks before this race, I went over to Mt Ascutney with PowerTap bike for training. I averaged 344W (about 4.6W/kg), a record power for 29:44 minute duration. This was not a PR time, as this bike was very heavy at 20+ pounds. One week before the race, I went back with my hillclimb bike. PR power should translate to PR time with a 5-6 lb weight reduction. It did. I crushed my 2004 PR time of 29:16 with a 28:30 finish. But I was even faster than just what the weight reduction would have given. My estimated power for this effort was 4.7W/kg. Maybe since I knew I was going for a PR, I went a little harder. But this was also my first time climbing Mt Ascutney with an elliptical Q-ring. I PR’d Whiteface last year with one, and now Ascutney. Really starting to think there’s something to these things. Having no power feedback, it was exceedingly hard to pace myself starting out though. My first mile took 7:25, the second 8:15. The second mile is steeper, so it’s hard to judge pace this way. Nonetheless, I was psyched and looked forward to an official PR a week later at the race. Race day. Perfect day forecasted, 60’s in morning, maybe some wind, zero percent chance of rain. I rested most of the week, off Monday, very hard 2hr ride with intervals Tuesday, then light recovery spins Wed-Fri. I took both PowerTap bike and climbing bike. The climbing bike has a single 30t ring up front, so it is unsuitable for warming up. Plus, we had group ride planned after the race. I warmed up just like I did for my PR a week earlier: about 6 miles/20-25 minutes worth with a couple above threshold bursts toward end. I went off in third wave. I tried so hard not to go too hard. A rider in my group I did not recognize (Erich Gutbier) starts pulling away. I blocked it out. Sort of. We traded places many times in the first two miles. I often bolted past him on the flats, trying to keep my power constant. I know his power had to be fluctuating wildly since he kept passing me on the steepest bits. About half way up, I left him behind for good. Of course, there were multiple waves with riders in my age group, so I had no idea if anybody in my age class behind me was going faster. Waves were 3 minutes apart. Both my first and second miles were about 20 seconds faster than my training PR climb. So at two mile point, I was 40 seconds faster. I thought I would surely break 28 minutes. But I was riding on borrowed time. I gave most of that 40 seconds back in the last 1.7 miles. I came across the line in 28:14, another 16 seconds faster than my training climb a week earlier. I was quite pleased. My estimated power for this effort was 353W, or 4.8W/kg. Had I not played games with Erich during the first portion of the climb, I might have broken 28 minutes. Looking at prior results, Erich usually beats me at these things. I came out on top of others I don’t usually beat either. So it was a good day for me. When I registered for this race, I just clicked the usual
45-54 age group button on bikereg, since my USCF racing age is 45 even though
my 45th birthday is in August. But
this is not a USCF race, and it goes by your actual age, not USCF racing age
(age you become during that calendar year).
This was not noted on bikereg, and I don’t think non-USCF race
organizers know that most races go by racing age, not actual age. There was confusion on this with Mt After the race, five of us went on the customary Okemo
loop. This goes out Rt 44, Time: 28:14 (new PR, 1:02min
faster than 2004 PR) June 17, 2007, Masters 45+. This was a race I’ve
wanted to do for several years. It
always seemed to coincide with other events like the Whiteface Hillclimb in
NY. This year I decided not to do
Whiteface this weekend (first year I missed it) and try this hilly road
race. The course basically consists of
three 500+ft climbs per lap for two laps, plus a bonus 500ft climb to the
finish. There are many other rollers
along the course, adding up to 2880 feet per lap per Topo I had high expectations for this race, but “everybody” was going to be there. Many of the masters 45+ contenders from the northeast region were pre-registered. This would not be an easy race. The forecast called for humid temps well into the 80’s. Heat is my Achilles heel. I packed three water bottles with endurolytes. After a minimal warm-up by putz’ing around for 10 minutes, I lined up. I suspected probability of attacks in first 6 miles would be low, so I could finish warming up during beginning of race before first climb. No neutral start here. Pace was brisk, but nothing crazy. After crossing I-84, the pavement was crap. There were very dangerous cracks and potholes everywhere. I got boxed in along stonewall and was constantly dodging tree debris. I heard in the 4/5 field there were at least six flats along this stretch. I did not hear any in my field, but I stayed as near to the front as possible. After about 7 miles, we hit the first climb. Pace was quite reasonable. After a nice descent, we come to second climb. Pace goes ballistic, and I couldn’t figure out what’s going on. I had completely forgotten about the KOM points at the top of this one. John Funk (Fiordifrutta) launched well clear of the front and took it. I stayed with these guys, but I later learned this burst shelled a large portion of our field. Shortly after the KOM competition, Colman O’connor (Bicycle Link/MBRC) and one other rider take off. Not far at first, but nobody wanted to reel them back in. Before you knew it, they were clear out of sight. At one point, a spectator told us they had over 2 minutes on us. During the rest of this first lap, Bill Thompson (CCC/Keltic) along with others popped off the front on repeated occasions. I went with Bill on a couple of these attempts, but the field was not going to let us just ride away. I gave in before Bill a couple times, not wanting to waste any matches for a worthless cause. Eric Pearce (Bethel Cycle), who’s been winning a lot of races lately, jumped on most of these attempts but just sat in. Very frustrating not having a rider pull through when trying to peel away. Beginning second lap, we briefly had Colman in sight, but what was left of our field just wasn’t interested in finishing the job. Along the I-84 stretch, another rider goes solo off the front and stayed out there quite a while. Colman and his break partner rolled out of sight again. At this point I was pretty sure he was going to take it. He does very well in races like this. Before we got to the first climb of lap two, I rolled off the front. Eric Pearce joined me. I drew a pretty good gap initially. But Eric either didn’t come up to pull or wasn’t putting in the effort needed to make it work. I stayed up front for a long time until we were into the first climb. We quickly passed and dropped the lone rider that went off along I-84, and we now had Colman clearly in our sights. We caught Colman near the top of the big climb. I asked if he was interested in still keeping it going, and he said sure. Now we had four strong guys, and the main field was out of sight behind us. All of us started working now, but not always very rhythmically. The beastly climb, where the KOM was on first lap, was next. We went into the climb out of sight of our field, but as we climbed, I could see riders bridging up. It was Dzmitry Buben (CCB), Junk Funk, Dave Kellog (Arc En Ciel) and maybe Doug O’neill (Deno’s Wonder Wheel). Cresting this hill now, we had most of the field’s contenders in this break away of eight. I was pretty psyched, as cash pays eight deep, and we were almost certain to stay away. Most of these guys were intent on keeping us at eight riders and put in good work. Dzmitry can be quite persistent in “encouraging” us to work together. But in bicycle racing, convincing riders to work together can be more difficult than herding cats. This does not bother me, but one in the group who apparently hasn’t been in a split with Dzmitry before, was irritated with his persistence. We stayed out of sight of the rest of the field for the rest of the race. We passed the Cat 4 field with about 10 miles to go. I was pulling at the time, and our pace car got hung up behind them and I panicked. I read somewhere one time you can get DQ’d for passing your pace car. But they got around the fairly large Cat 4 field just in time. I thoroughly enjoyed hammering at the front of our break, just behind our pace car, at huge speed differential to the Cat 4 field. Burned a match doing it though. Our pace slowed down several times with one big climb left to go before the finishing climb. Many of these times, I came to the front to pick it back up. I figured my chances were slim of winning going into the finish with these guys anyway, so at least I wanted to do my share in not getting caught by any other riders bridging up. I thought finishing worst case 8th out this rather elite group of 8 riders was not bad. But between bridging up to Colman and doing more work than some of the others in this group, my match book was nearly empty. About 1km before the finishing climb, I rolled off the front. The other seven did not respond at all. I drew nice gap, maybe 100m at one point. I rounded corner and began the 500 foot climb leading the race with ~5 second gap. The grade gets steeper. I stand to put the power down, and my hamstrings and groin muscles went into thermonuclear spasms. There was no warning, and there was nothing I could do. I had to sit back down. Very quickly most of the other riders in our break flew past me. Even some of the Cat 4’s that we passed much earlier started coming by. But our break had such good margin that I was not in risk of loosing 8th place. The climb went what seemed like forever, then I see 2km to go on pavement. I started cussing. I thought I was going to curl up and die. But the grade slackens way off, and I was able to spin out most of the remaining 2km to the line. After the results were posted, I was astonished to see I made 6th place, as I was sure at least 6 or 7 of the guys in our break came around me. But the Cat 4’s were mixing in, so it was hard to tell. I was also puzzled that cash payouts started at 6th place, when race flyer said 8 places. So I still made the cash, just barely. John Funk won it, so it was a good day for him. Talking with Bill Thompson after the race, he commented the one time he didn’t go with somebody off the front it stuck. This was when I bridged up to Colman. I thoroughly enjoyed this race. I will do it again. It was probably the toughest road race course I’ve done to date, easily on par with the Battenkill-Roubaix course. Fellow bike racers told me I would like this race, and they were right. 6/76 finishers (98 starters), Masters 45+ Time: 2:29:45, 10 seconds back 54 miles, ~6200 feet of
climbing (per Topo 81) Jiminy May 5, 2007, Masters 45+. I came to this race recovered but with no lofty expectations. Plan as usual was to create or select successful break, and if that seemed unlikely, ride conservatively and duke it out on the finishing climb. Sprint finishes are never part of my plan. In prep, I did only one hard day this week, the Exeter Cycles Wednesday night training ride. Did 1hr recovery rides Thur/Fri. Legs felt good. Temps were nippy to start, but I decided to shed long sleeves anticipating warmer temps by race end. Good call. I did almost non-existent warm-up, even though I anticipated break attempts right from the start. I just putzed around the parking areas at recovery pace. Sure enough, once we got to the bottom of the hill on first lap, attack after attack ensued. I held tight in front quarter of field for most of these. Then I got boxed in. I’m not sure who started it, but I’m told Mark Hagen (CCB/Volkswagon), Randy Rusk (Arc en Ciel), Bill Thompson (CCC/Keltic), Tom Luzio (Denos Wonder Wheel), and one other rider peeled off the front in unorganized fashion and started to work well together. I was kicking myself for not being more prepared for this, as I had some recent dialog with one of these riders regarding break opportunities. The 5-man break rode out of sight very quickly. The teams represented by the break were strong, and they formed an impenetrable barrier at the front of this race. By this, I mean that any thing that went off the front was mercilessly chased down. The pace was controlled. Anytime anybody pulled through, break teammates would just sit on their wheel. This was so frustrating, infuriating in fact. I admired the effectiveness of their blocking skills despite getting left behind. Thompson’s teammate Tom Butler (CCC/Keltic) was incredible. He single-handedly chased down most of the guys that popped off the front, time after time. He did this in such a fashion that he would pull the whole field up with him. Wouldn’t that destroy any would be chasers’ morale? I think so. In the end, Tom still placed in the cash. Very impressive. On second of three laps, break is still out of sight, but they popped one rider off, so now just four are left up the road, probably two, maybe three minutes ahead. On the back stretch, the long, gradual Rt 7 climb with tailwind, nobody would do any work. I found myself at the front of pack several times. I worked hard a few times, but not kill myself hard. I did not mind being up front on this stretch, as there was minimal drafting benefit. If I worked hard at the front, so too did the guys 10 wheels back. No hiding under these conditions. We did get the break back in sight though, but still at least a minute up the road. I thought there was a chance to catch them on the climb or descent, but they actually increased their lead up and over the finishing climb. On third lap, I stayed with the front 10 guys 90% of the time. I kept coming around the blockers, only to have them sit on my wheel. I and a few others made several attempts to peel away. No such luck. I think these were half-hearted attempts, including my own attempts. We were getting so close to the break though, it was pathetic. The break might have been 150m up at one point. One good sprint could have shut it down. Teams that were not represented in the break refused to commit the kilojoules to finish it. I had no teammates in the race to help out, and I was quickly becoming cooked. Coming into back stretch on final lap, I was at the front
of pack much of the time. I didn’t
really want to be, but I was taking very little wind so it didn’t matter
much. Sometimes I was hammering, other
times I’d let up to see if anybody else would come up to work. Eric Pearce (Bethel Cycle) spent time at
the front too. He took some launch
attempts, but to no avail. So I was totally psyched with this result - 1st and 2nd place finishes in back-to-back races. I believe I expended more energy recklessly during this race than Jiminy last year when I did poorly. I go to races to race, not sit in and hope to get lucky in the end. Pace was slower this year with all the blocking going on. Not sure where the reserves came from in that many-minute burst at the end. It was the same move I made at Turtle Pond. I got away with it again, but I bet at some point it will get harder. And so much for race plans. I failed to make the break with nothing but contenders in it, and then I failed to ride conservatively the rest of the race. Things still worked out in the end. I was amazed with the team organization in this race. I’m still quite new to road racing, having done less than 20 road races, and I still have much to learn. Team support was evident the entire race, with strong teammates vigorously controlling the pace in the field while their guy was up the road. The break-away ultimately failed, but it came so close. Time: ~2:17, 53.9 miles, ~4400
feet of climbing 80) Turtle Pond, USCF, April 21, 2007. Expectations were low for this race. Did poorly here last year in the 3/4 field. Course has many rolling hills with one big climb to finish. Masters do 5 full laps plus initial climb up hill starting out. When I checked climbing per lap last year, I think it was 800ft. Add the extra climb at start, you have almost a Mt Washington’s worth of climbing in this race. With lots of small hills and team hijinks going on, this race tends to be very peaky. Either everybody is sitting up and talking, or it’s balls to the wall. I do best in steady state situations with high power output, such as TT’s or hillclimbs. The weather was spectacular, chilly 40F starting out at 9am, but quickly reaching around 70F by race end. The first two laps were uneventful. Bill Thompson (CCC/Keltic) was at it again, just like at Battenkill last weekend, launching off the front in long break-aways with one or two other riders. The pace up the big climb each time was quite hard, and the descent often blistering fast. It always seems on this course that it all comes back together after the descent. The third lap was very fast, and it brought our field back together again, except for the unfortunate ones that got dropped. A pattern was emerging however. Pace would be very fast up and over the big hill, but once we came around on north side of course, everybody would sit up. When two or three riders from different teams got away, their mates did superb job of blocking. This was particularly true of CCB with about seven guys in the field, but the CCC/Keltic guys seemed quite organized in this regard too. This was very frustrating. I’d pull through, only to have teammate of break-away group sitting on my wheel, leaving me up there to flounder. The other teams were afraid of doing more than their share of work giving chase, so nobody did any work. I’m amazed that these early break attempts got reeled back in. I spent a good deal of time near the front on lap four. MBRC/Bicycle Link and CCB guys became much more active. Teammates Keith Button and Steve Mcgrath were right up there in the mix too, helping to control breaks. The entire field was together going up the hill the fifth time. A small split formed as we crested the top, and Eric Marro (BOB/Shift) tried in vain to get us to work together. It wasn’t happening. Kind of like herding cats I suppose. Most of the strongest riders in the field were in this split group. At one point, I yelled out a “Go!” to a well known rider in front of me, and he replied back “Pull through and shut up!” I did, and that gave me the motivation to try a different strategy. I was not going to place well charging up the hill with these guys. I don’t have the same peak W/kg they do. The hill is not big enough to be a dig down deep for a long time kind of thing I’m better at. After the double right turns on final lap, a rider rolls off the front. Nobody cares. Field sits up. A moment later, I non-chalantly roll off the front too. I was pretty cooked at this point, after trying in vain to keep the split going coming down the hill. When I saw nobody was responding, I slowly grew the gap, so as to not draw attention. I had about 6-7 miles to go, and I thought this was going to be a suicide mission with all that firepower behind me. After pulling a few hundred meters away, I put the hammer down. Head down, no looking back, no looking forward either. I speculate my power went from 200W to 400W and stayed there. I quickly caught up to Frank Jennings (Gearworks/Spin Arts). He jumped on and struggled to hold my wheel initially. We were now out of sight but still had several miles to go. I did nearly all of the work, as Frank could not hold my pace. Based on how things heated up in the last miles last year, I would need good margin to pull this off. The speed I was holding was unbelievable compared to leisure pace the pack held on first four laps. Wish I had some PowerTap or HRM data to look at. I was on verge of puking whole time. I was not too worried about Frank sitting in and taking me at the line. He was not able to match my effort on the rollers, so the hill was going to sort things out fair and square. As we turned the corner beginning the finishing climb, the main field was nowhere in sight. At this point, I knew I had it, but it’s not over until it’s over. Frank stayed with me until the midpoint of the climb where it flattens some, but then as it gets steep again before the line, he fell back. It’s been a while since I sauntered across the line for a solo win. I’ve never done the double arm salute thing either until today. I did it for the other Nor’Easters who just finished their race and were spectating. In talking with teammate Keith after the race, he said nobody wanted to give chase after I rolled away. Could be they don’t know me yet, but I’ve won a couple masters races this way now. The field may have been burnt out by riders going off the front throughout the race and nobody wanting to work to chase them. Having teammates execute effective blocking really destroys the motivation of other teams who don’t have somebody in the break. Why is that? Keith and Steve spent time near the front after I rolled away to control any chase attempts that might ensue. In looking over race reports from prior years, it is
interesting to note the stark contrast between individual efforts (such as
hillclimbs, TTs, or even MTB races) and pack/team efforts in road races. The individual efforts are all about
"I did ...," while road race reports are more about "team
so-and-so did ..." This is both frustrating and addictive at the same
time. You can be the most fit rider in
the pack, but if you are unlucky or have a weak team or make tactical errors,
you will do poorly. The fittest riders
are not the ones necessarily winning.
You can never eliminate the random element to road racing. I think a mix of road and hillclimb racing
is a good balance. In hillclimbs, you
are racing against your personal best.
Hillclimbs provide superb gauge of fitness using only stopwatch. There are no pack dynamics, and the only
uncertainty is the weather (mainly on Mt 1/52 Finishers Masters 45+ (66
starters) 79) Battenkill Roubaix, USCF, April 14, 2007. Had big expectations going into this
race. Won it last year. Tapered well, felt great after warming up
and lining up at start. It had rained
and snowed for two days right up to race day, but word was course was not
muddy. I had expected a mud bath, as
there was a foot of new snow coming over the mountains in Early in the race, I found myself off the front with Ruiz
(CCB) and Funk (Fiordifrutta) plus two others. Ruiz and Funk were
two guys I was going to watch closely. Ruiz had a large contingent of
CCB support. Our brief break did not last long though. Later,
Thompson (Keltic/MCRA) and one other rider bolted way off the front.
The larger teams present didn't seem too worried. Thompson was out of
sight at times, for maybe 20 miles of the race. It wasn't until things
really heated up on During the first half of the race, I spent a lot of time mixing it up at the front, way too often finding myself at the very front not being able to relinquish the lead. I wanted to be ready for Ruiz or any of a few others to make their move. But the teams were well organized, and most moves proved futile. It seemed anything I went with was promptly reeled in. Maybe winning the Master's 35+ here last year made me a marked man. Anyway, I burnt way too many matches doing this. I think Ruiz, after testing the waters early in the race, just sat in and waited for his moment near the end. In the long straightaway before the last climb, we started mixing in with dropped Cat 3's or 30+ riders. Somewhere in this, Pearce (Bethel Cycle) got away and it seemed nobody noticed. It escaped me. He ended up winning by a minute. Going in to the last climb with the front of the field, I realized I was in trouble. Ruiz and a couple others slowly slipped away as we crested the top. I stayed with a second small group of riders to the finish, desperately trying to bridge back up to Ruiz's group of four at speeds over 50 mph. I took some long pulls in the final two miles. After realizing Ruiz's group had enough margin, my group of 12 let up a little. Since I can't sprint, I bolted off the front with maybe 300-400m to go. Drew nice gap, but real sprinters can shut that down in a hurry. Six guys came around me at the line. After the race, teammate Rich asked me what in the world I was thinking spending so much time near or at the front during first half of race. It sure was fun. I guess I have a hard time risking getting boxed in and missing a good opportunity. But as I am learning, more often than not, chasing every little wisp off the front is just foolish wasting kilojoules. It worked last year, but nobody knew me in that field. You only have so many kJ to expend in a 2.5hr race. Given I made mistake #1 and was cooked before the last climb, I proceeded to make mistake #2. Had I just sat in after cresting the final hill, I should have been able to finish at least a few places higher. I did too much trying to bridge back up by myself. After all, Ruiz et al were only 15 seconds ahead of us. The others drafting me were greatful for my valiant efforts I'm sure. So I came in 12th out of 87 finishers. I was quite happy with my fitness, but I wasted it. Like last year, this race was wicked fun. Fields were much larger, and competition more serious this year. It is safer than most races with few sharp turns and steep climbs to thin fields out. The course turned out to be in excellent condition. The gravel was a little mushy in a few
spots with a few small mud puddles.
They could easily be avoided.
Considering the course could be loose as marbles or submerge your rims
in goo, it was about as good as it gets.
I did not have to clean bike after race. There were some nasty bumps in the dirt
though, especially the first little dirt foray heading out of Time: 2:36:56 (1:27 back,
approx. 55.5 miles) *******
2006 Race Season ******* September 30, 2006. I did this race mostly on a whim, not committing to it until morning of event. CX is not my forte, having only done one traditional CX race to date. Very hard road ride on Wednesday, hard singlespeed trail ride on Thursday left my legs sore and tired. But the Milford CX race was being put on by a LBS, it was a very nice day out, and I thought it would be fun to support this event by racing. It appeared many others registered the day of the event too. There were 44 Masters 35+ pre-registered, but close to double that many at the starting line. On a tight course, that creates mayhem for first lap or two. I got a 40 minute warmup in, mostly just tooling around the venue watching the earlier fields race. I did get two laps around the course at moderate pace before my race. There were no run-ups. There were two sets of barriers, including one that had long sand pit between barriers. The running bits kill me. Course was dry for most part, even dusty in places. A couple corners had loose gravel or were covered in acorns. Very tricky. Didn’t see any crashes, but a few riders did slide out and catch themselves. I started near the back of the pack. First lap came to near complete standstill in a few spots around tight corners. I wasn’t too concerned, as this was a “C” priority race or even lower for me. After things thinned out, I started passing riders. I was passing people the rest of the race. We raced 45 minutes. They estimated when five laps to go would give 45 minutes and then started a lap count-down sign, which was nice. I finished in back half of field, which was expected. Again, I could not get the disk brakes on my Dean Torreys CX bike to not rub. I think the problem lies mostly in the super light weight Hayes labeled Hugi 240 hubs I’m running. Any axle flex will cause very low clearance road specific disk brakes to rub. I am now determined to build a better wheel set where weight is not a concern. May go with some Hope or Chris King hubs. The race was wicked fun (despite being on the verge of puking for 45+ minutes), appeared to be a huge success on it’s debut, and I plan to come back next year. Event was not a USCF sanction race, so results were posted only for top three finishers in each category. Bummer. Time: 49:40, mid-pack finish 77) Mt. Washington Hill Climb Race, 34th Annual, NH August 19, 2006. Turned 44 today, and I was looking
for a birthday gift. After some
frustration with mid-season mixed results, I took some experimental risk this
year for Mt Forecast for summit kept changing, from cold, dry and
windy to humid, wet and calm and combinations thereof. I got a better night’s sleep than usual for this event,
but got up much earlier than usual too at 5am. We’ve gotten caught in the huge backup
going into the venue in prior years, where I barely had any time left after
bib pickup to warm up. This time we
beat the line, getting there at 6am. I
had time to spare to warm up. Since my
hillclimb bike was not suitable for warming up, I used my mountain bike I
planned to ride in the afternoon. It
had big enough gears to get the heart rate up. I warmed up for only 30 minutes despite
having time for more. Because Mt Many pros were present, including Tyler Hamilton and Ned
Overend again. The Kenda team was
there too. While waiting the last 10
minutes for the cannon to go off, it started raining pretty hard. I thought we would freeze. It let up just before we started, but the
road was wet. We’re off with the
cannon at 7:40am. I wore a heart rate
monitor this time, and my HR did not come up very fast. This might have caused me to push a little
too hard the first mile. I thought
about 25 riders got ahead of me. I
believe only two riders passed me during the climb, around the 2-4 mile
area. First was Dale Stephanos
(Bicycle Link). The next was teammate
Steve Humphreys (NorEast). No others
passed after this, and I passed no others.
This usually is a good sign, as when I have a bad climb, riders pass
me in the last half. About 5 miles
into the climb, I struggle to keep HR around 170bpm, just above my LT. It was dropping to 166bpm. I thought I was doing poorly, and since
nobody was coming up behind me, I may have just given up killing myself since
I thought my finishing position was sealed.
We hit a sustained stretch of headwind, and pace slows even further,
but Steve is still no more than 20-30 seconds ahead of me. I knew he would be a challenge here, as we
were neck and neck in MTB races that favored riders with high W/kg at LT ratios. Then around mile 7 with 0.6 to go, a
spectator yells out I’m in 15th position.
I thought no way and hollered back “are you sure?!” He said yes. That would make my best placing ever. We’re getting into the clouds now, and I
see Steve is passing a young Casters rider who seemed to hit the wall. I too quickly came around this rider. 14th place now? I was really feeling motivated, so I
thought after taking it “easy” for the last 10 minutes or so, I should push
what I’ve got left to see if I could take Steve. Heart rate came back up to 170-172bpm, and
I rather quickly overtook Steve. Now
I’m 13th in Top Notch wave. I kept
looking back, but Steve was not able to respond. Crowd was getting thick, and I could hear
the ruckus riot up top even though the summit was completely socked in by
clouds. I really lit it up for the
last two minutes of the climb, and now I realized my elapsed time was showing
a PR was imminent. I recorded
1:06:10.9 with my HRM. My official
time was 1:06:11. This beats my official
PR of 1:08:48 from 2001 race and unofficial PR of 1:07:46 from 2004
practice. Got my birthday
present. Made third place for 40-44
age group, my first podium finish in five years on Mt So what all do I chalk this PR up to? Here’s my prioritized list with swags at time benefits (in minutes): 1. Bike was 4.5 lbs lighter than five years ago. (1:39) 2. Thee pounds lower body weight, estimated 161 lbs (73 kg) race morning. (1:06) 3. Got more cycling volume earlier than in prior seasons. (0:15) 4. Slight modification of diet in 48 hrs leading to event - reduced fat, meats, and dairy intake. No carbo-binging though. (0:12) 5. Drive train improvements - only gears I need, closer gear spacings, high-tech lube, and latex tubes. (0:10) 6. Complete recovery taper in five days leading to race. (0:00) 7. Weather. (-0:45) This equals the 2:37 time improvement from my 2001
official PR set under similar conditions on Mt Many age group records were broken this year. It was the first year in four with decent weather for the race. Tyler Hamilton, now 35 years old, set the new 35-39 age group record at 52:21. Ned Overend beat his 50-54 age group record from last year at 54:41, coming in 2nd overall. Utterly amazing. Jack Hutchinson also broke his 55-59 age group record at 1:12:20. Several other men and women’s age group records were broken. I talked with Ned Overend briefly after the race. Last year he used a single 26t granny ring
I believe. This year he appeared to
have a completely different setup, which looked bigger. I asked him about it. He has been using the Rotor Q-rings. He had a compact 36t ring on the front, the
same Q-ring I used to set a PR on Whiteface earlier this season. He is sold on the Q-rings, as am I. However, he coupled that 36t ring with a
29t cassette. He felt this was too big
of a minimum ratio in a few places and suffered for it. He did not want to go to MTB crank to get a
smaller Q-ring. I have the same
problem, and that’s why I haven’t used the Q-ring on Ascutney, Equinox, or As always, this event is the capstone event of the
hillclimb season. Mary Powers and crew
do a stellar job pulling this off each year.
With racers and families, at least a couple thousand people are
involved. Looks like last hillclimb
for me this season, as I’ll be in Time: 1:06:11 (13:40 back
overall) 1/93 76) Mt Agamenticus Time-Trial, 3rd Annual, USCF, S. August 13, 2006. After some quality intensity work
last weekend (two races) and during the week this past week, my legs were
still feeling a little bit sore when I got up this morning. Still felt somewhat optimistic though about
this quirky 7.4 mile individual time trial.
Course begins as a few miles of flat pavement, descends to dirt which
transitions to steep 500ft climb up Mt Agamenticus. Weather was going to be ideal. My PR from two years ago was set in
rain. Strong headwind on the flat part
last year killed any chance for a PR.
Today was going to be sunny, very cool, with potential tail wind. I got to the staging area plenty
early. Picked up number and learned I
went off at 10:36. Jeff Palleiko
(Boston-Scientific) was staged 30 seconds behind me. He finished about 8 seconds faster than me
last year. I wish he would’ve been the
rabbit instead of me. You can see your
30 second guy most of the time on this course. I also put my name in for a combined TTT
time. NorEast was represented with two
4-man teams. This is not a real TTT,
as we still race individually. Rather,
we pre-select four names ahead of time (for an additional $5 per toward the
cause). Then total team time is added
up for potential awards. I think
Boston Scientific had three teams, Team BOB two teams. I warmed up by spinning moderately for
about 6 miles, then ramped up a couple 30 second threshold bursts about 10
minutes before my start time. Legs
felt ok after this, but I sensed just a touch of asthma. It is ragweed season now, and it’s been the
driest so far this summer. I went off
and immediately noticed the nice tail wind.
I held 30-32mph for much of the first couple miles, way faster than
last year’s 25mph. Then we begin
modest climbing, still with tail wind, and I start picking off riders. My 30 second guy was the hardest to catch,
catching riders staged in front of him first.
On the dirt portion, I passed at least three riders. Passed a couple more on the steep summit
road. I crossed the line in 21:40.59,
taking 1:15 off my PR of 22:55! Of
course, the tail wind conditions today were the likely cause behind most of
this time differential. Men and
women’s course records were shattered by similar amounts, with Kerry Litka
taking nearly 2 minutes off the women’s record. I was happy with my result. I did feel somewhat asthma limited in first
3 miles of TT, but heartrate came up nicely once the climbing started. Jeff still came in three seconds faster
than me. Easy to do when you have an
ideal bullseye target 30 seconds in front of you. Looks like a record number of 154 people
started the race with a few DNF’s. Two
of the Bos-Sci TTT groups took top honors (elite and masters groups), then
the group of NorEast riders I was part of took the third TTT spot. Afterwards teammate Dave Penney and I did a
65 mile loop through Safford, Time: 21:40.59 (1:12 back
overall) August 6, 2006. I
debated what to do on this beautiful day.
Do hard MTB ride in morning?
Road ride with some hills? Or Time: 2:21:48, 1:16 back, 52.6
miles, 5040ft of climbing 74) Mt Equinox Hillclimb, 3nd Annual, August 5, 2006. Having done a big volume week
(15hrs) last week, I backed way down this week in anticipation of breaking my
PR on this hillclimb. I did a few
short hill “sprintervals” on Tuesday, and a handful of 1-5 minute intervals
on Wednesday. I did 45 minute recovery
rides Thursday and Friday. Legs felt
fresh Saturday morning for the climb, and I slept well. Temps were pretty good, but humid in the
valley. I made a last minute decision
to not bring a warmup bike. I brought
only my hillclimb bike, stripped down to single 24t chain ring and one
brake. Weight was sub-15 pounds. My weight was down too, so I was feeling
pretty good going into this climb.
Warming up, I quickly realized I made a mistake in not bringing a
warmup bike with bigger gears. The
nearby hill was not nearly long enough or steep enough to get any kind of
intensity in without wildly spinning.
Legs need high tension when warming up for hillclimb TT. Cardio system needs sustained power. I could get neither. I didn’t think it was too big a deal, as it
is a long climb. I go off at 8am with
the top-notch wave. I ignored the
Kenda Factory Team bolting off the front.
They are much younger and were going for the $500 first mile
prime. I quickly settled into my pace,
but by the time I got to the first mile marker, something didn’t seem
right. Guys were passing me that have
never passed me. I couldn’t do
anything about it. I didn’t feel bad,
other than I was borderline overheating.
I just didn’t have the gas. I
held a pace I thought I could sustain to the top. I finished in 44:28, nearly 1.5 minutes
slower than last year, and nearly 2.5 minutes slower than my PR from 2004. I was extremely disappointed. Didn’t have a good explanation for what went
wrong. I don’t think a poor warmup was
that big of a factor. I wondered if I
went too easy during the week. Maybe I should have done some “opening”
work on Friday, as other riders say this works for them. I believe I fueled and hydrated properly. My bike and body were the lightest ever for
this climb, but I did my personal worst.
Maybe the extreme work stress and long hours are taking a toll. Don’t know.
I still made the podium, 3rd for the 40-49 age group. But I made the podium only because Eric
Gutbier in my age group made the top three overall and was ranked overall
only, not also in age group. This race
is awarded that way. I may have been
4th in the 40+ division actually. Time: 44:28 (5:51 back) July 29, 2006. Haven’t done a road race in a while, so I thought I do this one again. Won the 4/5’s here last year. Didn’t really taper much for this race. Just wanted to have a safe race in the Masters field. Forecast was for very hot weather, my Achilles Heel. Temp was mild at race start however, and we started out quite easy. The roads were horrible. Huge, swallow your wheels whole potholes and cracks. I heard there was a bad crash from one of these holes in the 2/3 field. Flats too. I lost one of my two large water bottles on a hole that bucked me right up into the air. I thought that was the end of my race, as I had no support in the feed zone. I needed that water. Nothing much happened until we got to the big climb the first time around 32 miles into the race. Kind of slow and boring actually. I finished with a small lead bunch over the top, but a big portion of the field bridged back up to us several miles later. Pace was livelier after this, and a couple guys rode off the front and finished that way I thought, although the results show no time split. My motivation was pretty low in this race to stay near the front. Most attacks were quickly reeled back in. With about two miles to go, I did jump on one attack with two other guys. Burned a couple matches in what turned out to be a futile attempt. We got into the final climb to the finish as a pretty big bunch, at least 30 guys. I stayed near the front, hoping to catch some draft on the flat part in the middle of the climb but not get boxed in. We approached 30mph before hitting the last really steep part with 200 meters to go. I was only a few bike lengths back from guy leading the bunch when somebody for no reason makes a wild swing all the way across the oncoming traffic lane. I locked tires with him for about two seconds. Can’t believe I didn’t go down. Speed was low, but it still would’ve hurt. I lost at least five positions as a result. I might have been in the cash had that not happened, but it doesn’t bother me much. A lot worse can happen racing. Overall a fun, safe race, and I didn’t overheat like I expected to after losing the bottle. Time: 2:20:28, 56.2 miles 72) Mt Ascutney Hillclimb, 7th Annual, July 22, 2006. The organizers told me 260 riders
were pre-reg’d. I was happy to hear
that, as hillclimb attendance looked flat or down in the last year or two
(except for Time: 29:31 (5sec slower than
last year) 71) Whiteface Hillclimb, 5th Annual, June 17, 2006. Haven’t missed a Whiteface hillclimb yet, and this year I was feeling primed to beat my PR from two years ago. Primary goal was to beat 50:26, and secondary goal was to break 50 minutes. It was a warm day, and having been cold all season, I was not acclimated to the heat. Heat is my Achilles Heel. Last year I did very poorly at this event in oppressive heat. This year I warmed up longer at much lower intensity, so as to keep my core body temperature down before the race. I carried no water, but was well hydrated before lining up. When our 40-49 age group went off, a rider bolted off the front. I’m getting much better at not doing this. But, I stayed with him, as the grade gradually increases. He was going fast enough for me to derive appreciable drafting benefit. His pace became irregular however, and breathing patterns suggested he was riding well beyond a sustainable pace. At the 1.5 mile mark, I passed him and he slowly faded out of view. So I’m leading the age group with big gap now crossing toll booth at the 3 mile mark, already passing much of the 30-39 field staged 5 minutes earlier. Around 4 miles into the climb, I hear heavy rhythmic breathing behind me. Odd, I thought, as I didn’t pass anybody breathing like that. Turns out Mark Miller from my age group was gaining on me as I began to feel overheating coming on. My speed was dipping below 8mph occasionally. Marked passed at very small speed differential, so I stayed with him for a while. I was really worried about overheating and knew I had to ride my pace. I let him go, but he never rode far ahead of me, maybe 15-20 seconds at the most. I wore no HRM, as in the heat my HR runs so high it provides data of which I have no baseline to compare. I did have my cycle computer set in elapsed time mode however. There was moderate cross wind on some of the upper mountain, and it provided some cooling benefit. Temperature dropped with elevation gain too. On the second to last switchback, the grade slackens, and a good tailwind was available. Doesn’t mean it got easier, it just means I went faster. Almost 20mph in fact. I made good time on this portion of the climb. Then taking the final switchback to the finish, it was all headwind. Nasty, especially through the notch cut through rock which acted as a funnel. Almost felt like you were being pushed backwards. Anything gained with the tailwind was going to be paid back with interest in the last 0.5 miles. But it was looking like I had a PR shot anyway, so I gave it my all. Thought I was going to explode going over the line. Computer said 50 minutes exactly, so I clearly set new PR, and it was iffy if I really broke 50 minutes, as the computer doesn’t start until you start rolling. When results were posted, I saw I just squeaked under 50 minutes at 49:59.3! That also means I took about 27 seconds off my 2004 PR. I was pretty psyched. Mark crossed the line exactly 10 seconds ahead of me, so I was gaining some lost ground on him in the end. However, placing really doesn’t matter much to me anymore in hillclimbs, as it boils down to you vs. the mountain. An optimal time is achieved by riding a steady pace that can barely be maintained for the duration of the climb. This means starting out at a pace that feels easy, but gets harder and harder to maintain, but maintained none the less. A little burst as you collapse over the line is ok. Any interaction with other riders during steep climbs is at your own peril. The next morning at 6:30am, another rider and I climbed Whiteface again before the toll road opened. This was my first non-race climb of Whiteface, and the weather was absolutely perfect. It was a thoroughly enjoyable climb and descent, nearly having the mountain to ourselves. Time: 49:59.3 June 10, 2006. I really wanted to race this
weekend... MTB race that is. The deal
was, Mother Nature dealt us yet another nor’easter this week - 5” and
counting. Half the course in Topsfield
Mass would likely be under water. I
perform poorly in slimy conditions. Can’t
seem to keep the rubber side down. So
just before online registration closed, I signed up for the Balloon Festival
road race. I wasn’t sure I would end
up doing it, but at least being pre-registered meant I wouldn’t have to leave
home as early for the 3+ hour drive.
The radar at 6am said things looked wet almost all over the
northeast. It poured the whole drive over,
getting out from under the rain just as I arrived in The first climb is one mile into the race, one of the climbs in the Battenkill-Roubaix race I did a few weeks earlier. Not much happened. But after the descent, a right hand turn goes up a short steep pitch. An intense blast up this shelled riders only five miles into the race. Roger Aspholm (Westwood Velo), ranked top master nationally, took off on us. I think everybody expected this. No chases were organized. The field just let him go and we never saw him again. I was buried in the pack, which was probably a good thing. I doubt I would have stayed with Roger for the whole race if I jumped on, and he would have been annoyed by me sucking his wheel anyway. I certainly couldn’t have added anything to his effort. The dirt section, only a half mile or so long, was in good shape despite heavy overnight rain. You could find clean lines and miss the water filled potholes, even on the 35mph descent. When the field got to the “Wall,” things got crazy. Dzmitry Buben (CCB), John Funk (Fioridifruta), and a couple others lit it up. I was about fifth to crest the top. Looking back, the field was totally fragmented. I burned about half the matches in my book in three minutes staying with these guys. The first selection was made. I made the cut. We had maybe 8 or 10 guys on the 50+ mph descent back to Rt 22. Dzmitry was hollering at all off us to pull through, go-go-go, etc. But after several miles, another sizeable group bridged up to us. We had a third of the field back together coming into town. I was first over the start-finish line with many spectators present. Approaching the line, there are two closely spaced sharper than 90 degree turns, a left, then a right, on narrow roads. In a bunch finish, these could produce major carnage. Struck fear in me. My legs were already reeling, and that was only lap one. The second lap was just plain hard. When we got to the Wall again, I think the pace was even more ferocious. This time I lost ground on the first guys to crest. I was part of the fragmented waste left in the wake, 8 or 10 riders back. We managed to close the gaps. Barely made the second cut. Our field was now down to around 15-20 riders or so, with Roger gone off the front. I was now quite convinced I would not survive that hill one more time at the same pace. The third lap gave rise to a few futile break attempts, usually just one rider at a time. I ignored these for a while. I think everybody was feeling it at this point, as the first portion of lap three was not too hard. After putting the gravel section behind us for the final time, we had a rider a little ways off the front of the pack, floundering. Then I popped off the front, one of those cases where nobody was working and I just found myself out there. Dave Edry (Fiordifruta) was with me. At this point, we’re just diddling along 100m in front of the field, with another rider 100m in front of us. I asked if he wanted to go for it. He shrugged and said sure, why not. We quickly reach Mark Sumner (CRCA) and tell him to hop on the train. We put good distance on the field. They let us go for the time being. After a bit, we see two more bridging up, both Masters 45+, Bill Thompson (Bethel Cycle) and Rick Sorenson (Casper Wheelmen). Now we had five riders working together, a bit awkwardly at times. We soon got out of sight of our field, mixing in with increasing numbers of dropped Cat 3 riders. The pace was about 40k time-trial, and we had to climb the Wall one more time. I told the others that if we can crest the top without getting caught, we’d have a good chance of making it to the line. You see, after the steep descent, there’s another 5+ miles of flat to rolling road to the finish, but with a good tailwind. Tailwind diminishes a pack’s ability to chase down a break. The work each rider does becomes more linear with speed, so riders in the pack don’t get much draft benefit. The greyhounds work almost as hard as the rabbits. Since we were max’d out approaching the hill, we couldn’t go any deeper into the red climbing the Wall. My matchbook was empty anyway. The strong guys left in the pack likely came up to the Wall like the first two laps, recovered, and then firing up the afterburners. I could see chasers beginning the climb as we reached the mid point. This was going to be real close. Our break crests together still with a good gap on chasers. We kept a decent paceline going after hitting Rt 22 at the bottom back into town. Rick started sitting in and told us he wouldn’t contest the sprint. Bill and I were taking some pretty serious pulls. I had a vested interest in this working. By making a preemptive strike 10 miles out, I got to climb the Wall at my pace, and I wouldn’t get mired up in a bunch sprint if we stayed away. As we approach town at 2km to go, I could see chasers gaining and getting scary close. I think the five of us were still together when we got to the double turns. The finish is less than 200m from the second turn. I was third around the last turn, coming around Bill just before the line for second in the sprint, and third for Master’s 35+. Dave took second by winning the sprint, and Roger finished several minutes ahead of us. Looking at the posted results, it was oh-so-close. A group of six strong chasers came over the line eight seconds behind us. A very satisfying race - it never rained, except for maybe a touch of drizzle, and roads stayed mostly dry. It poured all day back home. Small field for most of race was very comfortable to work in. ...and making the podium. Coming from a mountain biking/hillclimb background, I’m finding road racing increasingly addictive. I think it’s the “not knowing how it’s going to play out” aspect. I used to have plans for road races, like I’m going to attack here and go for it, or cover somebody else’s wheel, etc. But unless you’re riding the yellow jersey in the Discovery team, where the team is strong enough to control the whole race, you’re at the whim of all the other players in the race. Or unless you’re Roger Aspholm. Never thought I’d make the podium in this race, but things just came together in the last 10 miles. Time: 2:51:26, 63.9 miles,
5000 feet of climbing May 20, 2006. I registered for this race just before
pre-reg closed at the urging of fellow racers. I did this race in the 4/5’s last year and
didn’t do well. The course seems more
suited for the sprinter than a climber type like myself. The masters field of around 50-60 riders
takes off with six NorEasters present.
My plan was to form or find a successful break (as always), and if
that failed, to support NorEast teammate Steve Gauthier with a leadout to the
finish. He can sprint. Early in the first lap, CCB rider Ruiz
takes off solo, and we never saw him again.
Truly amazing. Was a windy day
too. The beginning of the first lap
was rather unorganized, with numbers of riders peeling off the front
erratically, always getting reeled back in.
I got suckered into a couple of these too. Things settled down somewhat for the remainder
of the first lap. Lots of red and
white swirl NorEast jerseys working at the front of this race, both in break
attempts and in chases. Pace was hard
only on the hills. On the second lap,
I suspect a couple of the stronger riders tried to peel away over the top of
the big hill on Rt 11. They carried
impressive speed over the top. I hung
on in top 10 guys or so with small gap to front guys. This burst shelled a bunch of guys off the
back. Some managed to get back on,
only to get shelled again. As we wrap
around the back side - Rt 103A full of rollers, the pace was very hard for
the most part. After the “wall,” Jay
Gump (Incline Cycling) took a few guys with him off the front. I won the Battenkill race a few weeks
earlier working with Jay in a 40 mile break, but I didn’t have the legs to
match his acceleration at this point.
Plus, many strong riders were still in main pack, so prospects were
good they’d be caught. We still had a
bunch more climbing to do before coming back down to the lake. With about 20 guys chasing, we struggled to
close a gap that grew to maybe 20-30 seconds, but hung around 5-15 seconds
for a few miles. Eventually we caught
Jay and crew before the descent to the rotary. We’re all together now, except for Ruiz who
probably already crossed the line.
Teammate Richard Brown was riding strong and offered to lead me out
around the rotary into the finishing climb.
I was supposed to lead Steve out, but he didn’t fare too well with the
earlier hill bursts. Unfortunately, a
couple other riders snuck onto Richard’s wheel before I got in line, but this
may have been a good thing. Richard
pulled an impressive pace around the rotary leading what was left of our
field. As the climb began, he got
over. Pace was very hard going up the
initial blip to finish. PVC rider Fred
Thomas moves to the front, and I take his wheel. Fred is now leading out on the flattish
part before final rise to finish line, such that we’re shooting for 2nd and
3rd place. But this most untimely wind
blast nearly pushed Fred back into my wheel (he slowed and I almost hit
him). He worked at it for a few
seconds more and I thought to myself, “sure glad I’m not pulling into
that.” I come around Fred, now
shooting for 2nd place, but I know full well that guys that can sprint are
right back there. With less than 100m
to go, a group in tight formation comes blasting around to my right. I hop into the nice little wind shield they
were creating and followed them over the line for 7th place. Was hardly a sprint finish for me, as my
effort remained fairly constant the whole way up to the line. It’s only about 120ft (40m) rise total, but
with headwind, made for a challenging finish.
I never expected to finish so well in a bunch finish on this
course. Some teamwork helped make it
happen. Turned out to be a safe and
very fun race, and I took home a little cash. Time: 1:54:17, 44.4 miles,
3600 feet of climbing 68) Jiminy May 6, 2006. Second Masters race with top riders
from northeast region present. Driving
out to venue, we hit rain. I did not
want to do this race in the rain. With
an Alaskan cycling trip coming up in June, I could not afford an injury. Light rain persisted through race start,
but then let up. Course dried up
halfway through race, making the riskiest part of the race safer. Almost from the get-go, two riders drifted
away from the field of over 100. I
believe one of them was Donny Mills. I
thought to myself if anybody can pull that off, Donny can, especially with
his teammates flawlessly blocking.
Every time the pace slowed down, sure enough, a Fiordifrutta rider was
at the front. I came around him many times,
bringing other riders up with me to pick the pace back up. The pace kept slowing down, so the break
rode off out of sight. On the back
side of the loop, we were going so slow that that Cat 3’s staged 3 minutes
behind us caught up. We were neutralized
for a few miles, including going into the finishing climb. I was extremely frustrated with this. We were going as slow as the slowest
dropped Cat 3 riders up the hill. I
eventually rode up along side our wheel van (who came up front to slow us) to
sarcastically ask the passenger official if we had to spend the rest of the
race behind the slowest Cat 3 rider as the break gains considerable advantage
on us. The official replied the gap
between fields was not big enough to let us resume racing. Around the feed zone, we were released, and
I was first in main field to crest the top.
Descent was “slow,” all tucked coasting. A few attacks occurred on Rt 43, but
nothing serious. I stayed very close
to or at the front for the first two laps.
Didn’t seem like I was burning too many matches, but it was way more
work than sitting in. Then we turn
right onto Rt 7. Our wheel van holds
out a placard informing us the break has 2:20 on us. That’s pretty good with only 1.3 laps to
go. But then the pace went
ballistic. The last portion of Rt 7,
which climbs modestly, disintegrated our field. I barely held on to lead group. One rider running an SRM said he was
pushing over 400W in the draft! But in
just a few miles of this pace, we reeled the break in. Amazing.
We also blew back past the Cat 3’s.
Wish I could claim some of that work put in up front. With no break off the front now, the second
climb up to finish line was hard, but not insane. I crested at about 15-20 back out of 30 or
so guys left in the lead bunch. The
second descent was fast, over 50mph.
The third lap began a series of attacks and counter attacks. I was still reeling from the chase on lap
two, so I sat in. All but one break
attempt came back in. Problem is,
being new to the master’s field, I really don’t know who has a chance of
getting away. A few guys did get away
and held it, just barely, to the end.
Several more riders launched on the back stretch approaching the
finish. One pair almost made it but
was caught on the final ascent. I was
third in field, with a few off the front, beginning final climb. Pace was hard, but not all out yet. Problem was, 20-30 guys were right behind
me. I lack sprint legs. Sure enough, after passing the feed zone,
many guys came around me on the gentle pitch to the finish line. Goal for the race was to finish in the cash
(top 10). Time wise, didn’t miss it by
much. Legs felt good for this
race. Felt I had the goods for a
strong finish. But as I’m learning in
road racing, it’s less about fitness and more about tactical skill and a
little luck. I’m sure I can take most of
the guys that beat me in a one hour hillclimb time trial, as I have beat some
of today’s top finishers in prior hillclimb events. Today I wasted too much energy in the easy
first lap and a half by hanging out near the front. I’m just more comfortable up there not
being boxed in. I think creating or
selecting successful breaks is my only chance of winning races like
this. It is more time trial-ish, and
energy production, although high, is controlled and non peaky. After all, my training is geared toward
hillclimb events. Overall, a great
race with a decent finish in strong field.
Felt comfortable in this race, as field seemed very experienced. I may have been the greenest of the riders
in this field. On a side note, we
noticed a rider completely immobilized on a stretcher past the finish being
loaded into an ambulance. The
ambulance just got there, yet he was all ready to go. Not sure when or where this happened, but
it looked serious. Then on Rt 495
driving home, there were the remnants of a horrible wreck. The investigators were in the highway
measuring things out. One glance at
the car told you no way anybody in there survived. You can get hurt in a bike race, but more
likely to get killed driving home from the bike race. Time: ~2:12, 53.9 miles, 4000+
feet of climbing 67) Turtle Pond Circuit Race, USCF, April 22, 2006. First race in a Cat 3 field – Cat
3/4 to be exact. Thought I’d try
something different. Course is 11.4
mile circuit with about 800 feet climbing per lap. Cat 3/4 field did four laps, plus partial
fifth lap to Time: ~2:18, about 16 seconds
back 66) Battenkill-Roubaix, USCF, April 15, 2006. First race in Masters field, having
recently upgraded to Cat 4, so I have to give lengthy report. The Battenkill-Roubaix (B-R) race loops 55
miles through semi-mountainous terrain of central eastern Time: 2:29:52, about 3 min
ahead of main chase group January 24, 2006. 5km freestyle at night. Wet snow day before left course with loose granular in most areas. Some hardpack. However, skis seemed fast. I used FastWax Bronze for spring conditions, even though temp had probably dropped below freezing by 7pm race start. Two races were run, an “A” race and a “B” race. However, everybody in both races went against the clock for overall standing. I went in the “A” group. Strangely, most people thought they were “A’s.” “B” group was small. Started by double poling down the hill from finish line (backwards to normal start). I lost no ground double poling, but I was near back of wave. Quickly passed a couple guys after skating started, then pretty much held position for rest of race. Traded places with one guy three times. I passed him in lap one, he stayed in my draft until end of fourth lap when he came around me. But he didn’t have enough to hold me off in a sprint for the finish. I came in two seconds ahead of him. Good clean race. My form was poor due to high speeds and soft conditions. But I averaged much higher speeds than last year there. My GPS measured 1.38km per lap. My first lap time was 3:55, giving 21.1kph. Avg for race was 20.3kph. Heartrates also ran lower than last year. Must be getting more efficient. Time: 0:16:20 (~2:30 back
overall) Race
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