Day 4, Downtown Burlington Crit:

Last year with my waning form and bad positioning at the start proved to much for me to handle and my race ended fast. This year despite being a bit down from not being a rock star in the road race I pumped myself up and got ready to rumble. I won the sprint to the line after they called up the GC and jerseys. The first five laps was fast, all out riding and it seemed to me I was about mid pack. Better yet when the first, be it subtle, lull in the pace came I seemed to recover fast. Good news for me. I rode strong and avoided the 2 crashed that happened right in front of me. Mostly just people making minor mistakes and going down. No big pile ups.

I was able to move towards the front a few times but Joe was fine. In perfect position as usual. I conserved my energy for when it may be needed instead of attacking for a little personal glory. In the end Joe was able to get a few GC points at a mid race sprint and move back into 4th over all.
I moved up from 40th to 29th after surviving the crit. I was told after the race that about 40 riders were dropped. I was pleased and the team did great. 4 riders in the top 20!!

Day 3 Road Race:

we started with rain. And more was on the forecast. The race started with a fast pace. Per- usual. The sprint was hot I was in my biggest gear just in the pack. After that we settled a bit and I moved to the front for the first climb. Bethel Mt. road is a steep one. And at 5 miles it settings a bit. I felt good. and road in the top 10 rides to the top. Grabbed a water bottle at the feed, ditched the rain cap and plunged down the 40+ MPH decent in the rain. I descended quite well. Never really loosing a lot of my position. we dropped about 1/3 of our 125 person field. Quit a lot for only being 35 miles into the 104 mile race. the pace after the decent was high. Our team laid down some hard tempo to set up our man for the KOM jersey. After hurting everyone he escaped into a small break but was pulled back on the next climb before the top. Mean while between the first and second climb. Our GC and most important man, Joe, was having some trouble. After hitting a vertical crack in the road his carbon wheel was ripped up pretty bad. It was rolling but breaking was impossible. A team mate gave him a quick wheel change. And 3 more of us chased him back on. A hard chase but not to long and Joe didn’t have to do any work. After a 5’, breather I went straight to the front again and we hit Middlebury gap. Another big climb. 4 miles of 2-4 percent and the 3 miles of 8-12%. We hit the first 4 miles pretty hard and this was the first sign of heavy legs I had. The climb hurt but I was there in the top 20 or so over the top and the race leader attacked. This was a critical move and I didn’t see it. Not that I was going to go with him and the 4 others but the chase it caused on the 20 mile rolling decent was the hardest most desperate section of the race. I was in a small group just behind the main leading group of maybe 30. So… race situation: leading group of 5 w/ race leader. Main field of 30+. Chase group of 15 maybe. With me. We had Joe in the first “main group” group with a few teammates. But not me. 40 miles to go. last 10 miles of the race, uphill. The chase was hard and I was feeling the pressure. I got down some red bull but its tough to eat descending at 40 MPH. the tail wind on the decent made for a fast one with stretches at well over 50 MPH. And made it very hard to catch the group ahead of us. At the bottom of the decent there is a sharp right/ left had turn. I was gapped just a bit buy my group I was in. the menacing tail wind quickly turned into a head wind. The group I was in now just catching the lead group. And I was 300 meters behind chasing at 28 MPH into a cross/head wind. Not easy. After 10’ or so a came to a down hill and was blasted with a head wind. And that was that. The group drifted away. I road alone for some time then with a group of 3 others for a bit. Then alone again on the climb. Never caught by the bulk of the peloton further behind. I finished 43rd. not bad I guess for being dropped 25 miles from the finish. Joe are main man for the race came in 5th and now lies 5th over all just 1 point out of forth and 9 away from first. a great ride by him today and still more to come!
I love this race.

GMSR Day 2

The circuit race at GMSR is one of the best races in NE in my mind. A classic. However this yr. shortly after the start a crash was caused by a misplaced car. The crash was large. I am not sure on the final injury count but I do know that I have never seen more broken bikes from one crash in my time. I avoided the crash and caught back on with a short but hard effort. With out a chase car and one lead we neutralized ourselves and to make a long ridicules story short they canceled our race. I am not sure how that came to be the best decision but that’s what it was and its over.

GSMR: Big world Prolog:

The mass start up hill prolog of he GMSR can be the hardest, most painful effort one make on a bike in there life time. Climber or not its hard. 1 mile neutral through town. Neutral in a nervous pro-1-2 field means 23 MPH. as we hit the climb last yr’s race winner had his team put everyone on the rivet. The first 4 miles of the climb are not steep. Only 1-3% not hard but not flat. We averaged 27 MPH. I was caught in the back of the pack after the ride through town and riding at that speed had me under pressure right away. As we hit the last 3 miles of 10% grade I saw that Joe our GC man was up front. I was supposed to be there as well. I had been chosen to be one the final riders to keep him into position in the final km’s or lead him out if that was the case. Now I was just trying to reduce my losses. The entire target training team went backwards fast after there blistering pace setting. I went hard in the first 1 km trying to gain some ground on the front of the pack but they were 45” ahead or more already. Loosing position in this race can be the end of you. I was determined to keep my pace if Joe or another teammate had a flat or a mechanical issue I needed to be as close as possible to help. I found a good rhythm and wasn’t blowing up. The more I pushed the faster I went without paying any price it seemed. I dug deeper, pushed harder and passed more riders. I could still see the lead group and the amount of riders between me and them was getting smaller. In the end the climb to short and more so the pace way to high for me to catch them. In the end I did feel great and finished 30th. Not bad for starting 120th but fact of the mater is I should have been in front when it mattered. There is more to bike racing than pedaling hard. Lots more.
Joe, our GC man, got the job done and finished 4th. He saved the day as he does a lot and we all will surly be called upon in the days to come.