Two Days in May (long race report version).

We had a busy 40 hour period this weekend. Starting at 4 am on Saturday, a time I thought I needed to be up for to get to my race at Jiminy Peak, that I thought started at 10 am, and ending at 8 pm on Sunday night when the last bag made it out of the car and back into the house. It turned out that the JP start time was 11:18 am, dohhh! Arriving early for a change would have been nice, but the morning drizzle took some of the fun out of it. At least the temps were moderate and the rain never got too bad. We rolled out right on time, with 86 out of 100 pre-registered 45+ riders showing up to take the start with the 20 rider 55+ group racing with us. A break went at the gun, just a few riders, rolling away by 40 seconds by the time we got to where we turned from 43 onto 7. The pace up 7 was spirited, but nowhere near as high as last year in the 35+. I felt good and easily moved up when the field strung out a bit. The break lost ground and I think some of them came back to us. I had good position at the crest, but then on the short downhill before the turn to the finish climb road, I got swarmed by a maniacal surge into the intersection.

After losing a bit of momentum through the S at the bottom, I nonetheless managed to extricate myself from the cluster of non-climbers and stay in a good rhythm amongst the front fourth of the pack. A groupetto was forming a bit up the road, and possibly the remainder of the break got absorbed by them at this point. I was working pretty hard, but still a bit under my limit, and with a few good wheels left to follow, I stayed patient. Here is where poor judgement took over. Read my last post. Nearing the top, the gap to the leaders was only 5-10 seconds (I'd say 50 meters). I know I had an acceleration left in me at that point. It would have taken me right to the edge, but with the downhill coming I think I could have recovered. Of course I can't say for sure, but I think I could have gotten across. However, caution prevailed; I had a team mate in the break, and I decided not to burn that match. Big mistake. This was the break. They rode up the road, never to be seen again.

Six races into the season, a pattern is emerging. I knew going in that to be successful in the 45+ group, I would need to race more aggressively than I did in the 3's and the 35+. The race is always up the road with these guys. Once again though, I was too conservative and failed to pull the trigger at shooting time.

To make matters worse, shortly after we turned on to 43 again, at this point with the ~15 rider break in sight and only perhaps 40 seconds away, the wheel van moved ahead of us in the main field (which itself was down to about 35 riders. Most of the 55+ and several 45+ were in a 3rd group further back). A few seconds later, we passed the flat victim from the break, who was our team mate. At this point the large BiKyle flyers team had organized a chase and were stringing us out at 50 kph down the backside. Me and the Cronoman dangled at the back to see if our guy was coming back after the change, but apparently it took too long for him to get a wheel. With only two of us, it would have been suicide to wait for him with the field strung out the way it was.

The break must have been moving because even with six Flyers on the front chasing, we did no more than keep them in site. Going up Rt 7 again, I went to the front myself and towed it for a few k's, up through the rocks and by the motels. A few others contributed, but many in the group were just surviving. Over the main climb and back on 43, the Flyers once again got in formation and paced it along nicely. The break was gone though. Up 7 one guy got away and dangled, then the attacks started. I got nowhere, so the Cronoman went when the paced eased and made it up to the other guy. This allowed me to sit on a chase that formed. The other guy (a Benidorm) forged ahead solo, and we absorbed the Cronoman just before the turn. I went to the front and just drilled the hill as hard as I could. The Benidorm guy held his ground. A Toga/Gotham guy jumped by at 800 meters to go and I could not respond. Just after, a Bethel guy (who happens to share my last name) came around too, and I got on him. He drove to the line and did some fancy swerving in an effort to shake me, but I held on and surged by him where it flattens with 50 meters to go. With the large break up the road, this amounted to only a dissappointing 17th place.

Later I learned that KL had been taken down in a stupid crash in the S turn. She was bruised up a bit, and really pissed. BCA has done a great job putting on JP for years, but this year they combined all the women, from Cat 4, which is the lowest women's category, and includes first-time racers, up to the Cat 1's and 2's all in one huge 100+ rider field. KL knew this was a recipe for disaster, so when she got taken down at the front it really set her off. Later at the NEBRA meeting held to discuss the state of women's racing, a lot of the 4's got all whiney when the 2's suggested they should have been excluded (which is a no-brainer. A promoter would NEVER combine Cat 5 men with the Pro 1-2 field, not even in Master's, so why it would be done with women is a mystery). One Cat 4 went on to say "you don't know what it is like to upgrade." Hell-O? Does she really think the 2s were born that way? Not to mention her hypocrisy. What the 2s were advocating was a separate race for the 4s, where they actually could get the points to upgrade rather than struggling to finish. Bike racers, man, what a bunch of ...

Onward to the west we went. We caravaned out to a suburb of Syracuse where one of the Terry girls had hooked us up with host housing. Tim and Susan were awesome, Tim raced at JP and was going to Hollenbeck too, and their recently purchased Victorian gave us more room to spread out in than we have at home. We were very lucky to have been put up by such nice people. The town of Manlius was pretty cool, and the Wegman's supermarket was by far the best food store I have ever been in. Unbelievable selection of everything.

Sunday morning Tim led us down to Hollenbeck at breakneck speed. The Geo was no match for his A4 wagon and we got dropped on a few climbs. Hollenbeck was a great course. Near Cortland, in very hilly apple country, the race headquarters was at a cider mill. The course was a 22 mile loop, pretty flat at first, then a winding climb of about 2k, then some rollers through farmland, more flat, a 600 meter wall, and some descending back to the finish, which was on a spur off the main course. The last 250 meters was about 15%, so no camera was needed, just a sketch artist.

The 35+ was only a one lap race, so I opted for the two lap 3/4 event. 36 riders toed the line. A guy went solo literally at the gun, and a few k out someone else went to bridge. Being the oldest guy in the field, with no teammates, not knowing the course, and having raced 90k the day before, I had more excuses not to chase and not work than the rest of the field combined. Nobody seemed too concerned about these guys, and I thought maybe they just wanted a head start for the climb. Wrong. I guess they hooked up and won by 3 minutes.

The first lap on the long climb I rode near the front and I thought it was pretty hard. Rather than spin and blow up, I took a tip from Markie Mark and powered up in a bigger gear to hold my HR lower. At the top I went as low as the 38x17. I was surprised to find that we didn't lose hardly any riders. Over the rollers a bit of a chase organized, and Tim's team had the most guys, and a few Cornell guys also drove it a bit. I did a turn or two, but being unfamiliar with the course, I sat in most of the time. There was one little climb in the middle of the loop, then we got to the wall. This looked very similar to the thing I got shelled out on at BKR. I stayed focused and took this in my 38x21 and 19 standing. Short as this climb was, we lost more of the field here than on the first climb.

When we went by the finish we heard the break had 3 minutes. Oh well. Rolling down the flat highway, I was reminded that there were 4s in the race when some guy beefed it hard at 45 kph for no apparent reason. He must have been asleep at the switch and touched wheels. As he was sliding down the pavement, he got whacked in the head by the pedal of the guy immediately in front of me, and that stopped his trajectory from crossing my path and I squeaked by on the right. I heard later he was OK, but he can't be feeling too well this morning. Up the long climb I did not allow myself to sink back to my own pace. I jumped on every acceleration even though I was very, very close to my limits. The past few years, on the climbs I have gone into survival mode because I have not had the reserves and recovery to confidently make extreme efforts. After Saturday, I knew it was time to start learning to do that again, so I closed every gap as if my life depended on it. Over the top, we had shelled half of the remaining group, but one by one a lot of them got back on. Some of them took several kilometers to do so. I am thankful that I didn't need to do that.

Saturday's racing had taken its toll on my climbing legs, and I knew that if I went to the finish hill with the group I would be lucky to get in the first 10. I tried an attack on the flat road leading to the wall, but they were having none of it. Others tried too, but the field was chasing everything. The wall confirmed my fears of the finish. I hung on, but clearly I was not one of the strongest that remained. More attacks followed on the downhill, but each time they were brought back. Coming back into the tiny town, about 2k to go, an opportunity presented itself and I went clear. I got about 200-300 meters, maybe 15 seconds at one point. Saving a bit for the hill, I took advantage through the turns onto the narrow farm finish road. There was about a kilometer with a dip in it before the final pitch and they swallowed me up before I got to the steep part, and I could not challenge. I trudged up in my 38x27 and got 19th. This was great training for Sunapee though.

Rolling back down, I waited for the women. A few minutes later, the pace car appeared, and I could see KL's team mate Anna soloing in for the win! Awesome. A few minutes later, KL, Anne, and two women from the Canadian Aquila team chased in. KL ditched the Aquilas on the finish climb to take second. One of the Aquila was a climber and took third, but Anne rounded out the clinic that Team Terry put on by taking fourth.

Afterwards there was a folksy celebration/awards ceremony in the spectacular sunshine. They had apples, great cookies, coffee, cider, lots of dogs frolicking about, very cool. We said our goodbyes and headed home via the southerly loop, very hilly route 206 to 88 through Cooperstown, etc and back to home. No Wal-Mart trucks this trip either.

So now it is only May 8 and I have done six races already. My form is better than I thought it would be, even though I have yet to come up with any impressive results. With two weeks to Sunapee, now I'll do some training. I still have the duathlon on the 27th too. Rain in the forecast this week, so I will make the most of today. Thanks for reading.