Paper or plastic?

That's the story of my criterium at GMSR, because I decided to bag it and go home without racing. The first three stages went OK, but by Monday morning my desire to start my vacation and take a rest easily conquerred my waning enthusiasm to continue racing. I was riding OK, but I did not taper at all going into this race, and I probably did too much in the last few days before.

At the prologue, I felt pretty good in warmup, but I just could not keep my rhythm when the going got steep and I finished pretty far down. In the circuit race, everything was fine. The finish was fast, sort of like the old Pepsi Road Race, but not as downhill and on a nice wide road. On the two hotspot sprints, we flew through there double file, so I thought I might be able to move up at the end. On the finish lap though, it totally bunched up and they didn't start the sprint until about 100 meters to go (no shit) and so I was boxed in.

For the App Gap stage, the forecast for the 9 am start was 53 degrees and rain... uggh. We drove to the start, because it was pouring (it was only 4 miles from the condo, but all uphill). So then as my race went off, it stopped raining. There is about five miles neutral down off the mountain, and as soon as we descended it starting raining (pretty hard) again. It wasn't as cold as they forecast, so not too bad. Most riders had knee warmers, but I had full leg warmers on. Everyone had booties, and most had rain capes. I had long sleeve base layer, long sleeve BOB jersey, and a clear rain cape. It rained all the way to Middlebury Gap (about 28 miles). I took off my cape and stuffed it up the front of my jersey just before the road started to go up. The climb is about 3k long. The first k I moved up about halfway through the field, then I was near my limit so I just hung on, but I think I blew myself up, as I started falling back. One by one, the back half of the field came by me. At 1k to the summit, the wheel van was already coming by me. I continued to fade, and I swear I might have been the last one to reach the top. I knew it was now a training ride, so I stopped and put my jacket on for the descent. As soon as I started descending, I heard my rear brake pads clicking the spokes on my Shimano wheels. These wheels have funky spokes, and you can't let your pads get too worn. Well, apparently on the neutral descent in the gritty rain, I wore them out. So now I had to descend with just front brake, and only light feathering of the rear brake. Luckily, I was alone, and on that side of the mountains the weather was clearer and the road dried out about a mile down, just passing Middlebury College. My goal was just to get to the bottom, past all the hairy corners, before getting caught by the Cat 4 field from behind. I caught Paul Weiss (cross photographer guy) on the way down, and we made it to the bottom.

Once we got on the flat, we just rode, not too hard. Then a VT Statie came up behind us. I thought it was the 4's, but I don't know what the deal was, as just the two of us had a police escort for the next six miles or so. Finally, the lead group of the young 4's (there were two races, old and young) caught us. We tagged on, but after about a half mile I hear the officials beeping the horn, so I dropped back. The official in the car was a guy I've known for years, he runs the Wednesday Wompatuck, so I was a little Pee-Ohhh'd that he beeped me out (although this was the lead group, but I was just taking a little pace from the back). Weiss stayed in there too. I dropped back, then let the first chase group go too, then when another group of 4's came, maybe ten guys, I got in with them, as there were no officials to be seen at this point. They weren't good climbers, so I was able to pace with the best of them up the little wall before the dirt road.

We stayed together all the way to Baby Gap. One of these guys had a Brown U. jersey on, so I asked him if he knew Gewilli, and at first he said no, but then I described him as a 6'-6" guy who rides a Klein, and he immediately knew who I was talking about. I had my best Baby Gap ever, and went ahead with the better riders, and we swept up more 4's along the way. There is about 10k of flat/downhill between Baby Gap and the start of App Gap proper, and the hurricane winds were unreal! We came upon a horrific crash from the 4's, where 3 guys had been taken down by the wind on a descent. They were all going in ambulances. I almost got blown over. By now we had ridden though some more Masters (including Paul W.) from my group and there were four of us together. One guy starts giving me shit for sitting on some of the 4's. It was bullshit, as by now we are all off the back by 25 minutes and it was just onesies and twosies slogging up the final 4k climb. Me and one other 40+ were able to stay with and eventually drop the 4's, and we forged ahead. The wind was unreal, and going through the switchbacks sometimes it would be a tailwind that was so strong it was like getting a push. You would accelerate by about 5 mph, right on the steep! Sometimes it was a crosswind or a headwind too, as the switchbacks go back on forth.

Finally we got to the last pitch, which is about 500 meters at 20%, totally heinous. The crowds were wild, and I outsprinted the other master to take 59th or something, so I took about 10 spots on Baby Gap and App Gap, my best ever. As soon as we crossed the line, through the gap, it was raining and zero visiblity on the other side of the mountains. I put my jacket back on, and rode back down, then back up the climb to the ski area where the car was. That sucked. It ended up being almost four hours. I was fine afterwards, but after the way I got dropped on Middlebury Gap, I was kind of demoralized. My bike was filthy and my brake pads were toast. I finished the stage strong, but I still felt like I hadn't rested my legs enough before the race, and I was digging myself into a hole. I could have cleaned up my bike, got neutral support to replace my brake pads, and probably finished with the group in the crit, but I just decided to treat myself to a day off and bag it. I would have only moved up to 38th on GC by finishing with the group, and I already had a good season, so I started my vacation a day early. So this week I am playing some golf in NH with my team mates, doing some easy training, stretching, and maybe I'll start running. I'll see how I feel at Haverhill, but I'll only enter Bob Beal if I feel good and the weather forecast looks solid. It's been a long year, and I sort of feel like the road season is over now. I had fun up there though, and at least my endurance is good and I am nice and healthy for the start of the off-season. I hope you all had a fun and productive weekend. Thanks for reading.