I spent all of last week leading up to Saturday's long-anticipated race (Battenkill!) tapering and allowing my body to recover from last weekends crash. It's a strange feeling when you cut back on your training – you feel lazy because you aren't doing your usual tunnel-vision workouts, you begin to feel fat even though you watch what your eating and your legs feel twitchy. The only plus side is you get a lot of extra sleep...
Tour of the Battenkill is a 62.2 mile race with 3,950ft of elevation gain and 10 dirt sections. It attracts a lot of road bike honchos from all over the US and Canada.
Anyways, the drive to Cambridge NY was pretty uneventful. My race started at 2:20pm in the afternoon and luckily it was beautiful outside: not too hot, not too windy. Things started to heat up after the covered bridge on Roberson Rd., then attacks flew on the steepest climb on Juniper Swamp Rd. at mile 12. I moved up to the front of the pack, and once the initial separation occurred I just sat on the back of the newly formed group conserving and keeping an eye out for any more moves. My legs were feeling horrible.
The pace became excruciatingly slow at times, but things started to pick up on the new dirt section on Safford Hill Rd, mile 34 baby! Newly graded, this road was skeh-he-het-chy. Rocks the size of golf balls bounced off of wheels and into frames and we kicked up a lot of dust.
Before the second feed located at mile 45 there were many sections on Wrights Rd. (also dirt) that had transformed into sandpits. The pace really started to accelerate and I was holding on for dear life. I watched numerous women loose control of their bikes and stack it hard doing their best imitations of the Flying Wallendas. I maneuvered as best I could around them (heck, it was just like a cross race at this point!), but a gap began forming between me and the lead riders and I knew I had to close it or else they'd kiss me goodbye for good. Time to really suffer.
 |
| This is at the first feed zone, mile 23 or so. This is the only picture I have of me from Battenkill – taken before my spout of bad luck! |
Then I had a mechanical at a very inopportune moment when I was trying to bridge back up to the leaders on Meeting House Road, mile 45 (second feed zone too). Massive chainsuck locked my cranks up entirely and nothing would budge. After spending ~5 minutes trying to loosen things up, I hoisted my bike up on my shoulder and began hiking up the hill where my feeder, Jon, was. Lucky for me, Jon is a wrench at Paradise Sports, and when he spotted me he began hauling down the hill. Five minutes later, things were un-jammed and I was back on my bike.
By then, I accepted the fact that my race was over. I blew it. My hopes of getting top ten at Battenkill diminished within those ten minutes. I just didn't have anything left in the tank to try to get back up to the leaders. I spent the remainder of the race picking up stragglers from my pack and finally crossed the line after all the hype was over. Even with my mechanical, I managed a 20th place finish in the 3's. All things considered, I'll take it. I ain't superstitious, but a black cloud crossed my path. Believe or perish man, I made it.
* * *
Sunday we raced in West Point, NY at the Army ECCC crit. I've never been to West Point – but boy is it beautiful there! The crit went around the track area and turf feilds on campus, and the whole day our brains were being rattled by the "sonic artillery" of Army which was blasting great pump up tunes. It was awesome.
 |
| Just to give you a perspective of the campus... |
 |
| That's the Hudson River in the background. |
 |
| It felt like I was in Europe! |
My legs felt pretty lame today again, so I just sat in the pack. A lot of people tried to attack, but no breaks were formed, so the 50 minute race came down to a massive field sprint. I thought I'd have a chance at doing something at the end, but no dice. I was boxed out and had to settle for 11th.
 |
| Finally warm enough to rock the short sleeve skin suite! |
 |
| It's all about perspective... |
This weekend I'll be sticking close to home racing in Dartmouth's L'Enfer du Nord ECCC races.
Come out and support the KMS team – we'd love to see you!
No comments:
Post a Comment