Tour of the Hilltowns Race Report

It's been a week without a post, so I'm taking the easy way out with a straight up race report. Rumblings within my creative mind keep stirring up ideas for posts, but the gap between idea and blog entry proves too big for my always tired and recovering ass to close. Maybe later in the week.

So Hilltowns. Apparently spawning from the ashes of the late, great Charlemont Road Race, this one came to be during my hiatus from the sport, and until yesterday I'd never done it. I only raced Charlemont once or twice too, and that was a long time ago, but some of the route seemed vaguely familiar. I think the loop is quite similar, but the start/finish is in a completely different place. Maybe one of the locals with a sense of history can fill me in. The jewel of this route is the climb up East Hawley Road. We descended part of this in D2R2. This climb is also big enough to be ranked on Dougie's Hillclimb browser. The total elevation gain is over 370 meters (~1200 feet) in 6k or so, for an average gradient of over 6%. I checked this against ratings of similar climbs in this year's Tour de France and to my surprise it appears to be borderline between a category 3 and 2, most likely a 2. By comparison, Big Blue looks like it is a borderline 4 and a 3, most likely a 3. In the past I've read that the placement of a climb within a stage could affect the rating (i.e. same climb at the end of a long stage would be rated higher) but lately I've not heard such talk.

Back to the race/route. East Hawley Road had been resurfaced with something called "chip seal" just a few days ago. The surface wasn't something I've ever seen before; it was like a low grade of asphalt. It looked like pavement, but some parts of it were pretty loose and gravelly. It might be ok after several hard rains, but on race day it was surely among the heaviest, highest rolling resistance surfaces one is likely to encounter, making the climb harder via being softer. Got it?

First we had to get to the climb. And before that we had to get to the race. Colin had expressed interest in carpooling to what would be his road racing debut, so me and the Cronoman borrowed the BOB Magic Bus and met him at the park and ride for the drive out. We got there only an hour or so before the start and had a slight rush to get ready, and no warm up. Not a lot of non-climbers show up for this race. The age group was also 40-50 and 50+, so the mix was a bit odd. The highest number I saw in our group was 68, so figure roughly 65 starters what with the probability of a few no shows. Sammy Morse (Corner Cycle) drilled it out of the parking lot and headed up the road. He was soon joined by a lone Benidorm rider. The start of this race is all downhill. Within two minutes we're going 65kph down Route 8. This was a smooth road. Paul Richard (CCB) quickly flatted. His teammate, Tyler Munroe, waited for him. Sucks being them, so I thought at the time...

The course soon turned onto Rt 8A. This was a ripping, serpentine descent that went for several miles. The pavement here was not so good. Most of the way down, I hear a tire explode in front of me. It's the Cronoman, who has blown out his front at 60 kph. Luckily there were no tight switchbacks on this particular stretch. I chose not to wait for him. It was just us two on the team. At the speed we were going, it seemed like it would be suicide. Plus, I reasoned that Tyler and Paul were chasing back there anyway, and with any luck, Eric would get a fast change and maybe hook up with them for a real chance at rejoining. Those hopes were soon dashed when Tyler and Richard miraculously came blowing through the group seconds later. Making it even more amazing was that Tyler's bibs were completely shredded on one side from an encounter with the pavement. I later found out that just as they were about to join the group, the wheel van swerved over to stop for another flat victim (not the Cronoman), and he and Paul crossed wheels, sending Munroe to the pavement at high speed. He got up and chased again, and made it. Unfuckingbelievable.

Eventually the descent ends, we can see the ski area, and we turn onto East Hawley. I'm about midway up in the pack, right with race favorite John Funk (Cycle Fitness) and a talkative Jonny Bold (Corner Cycle). Sammy and the other guy are still ahead, but visible. The climb starts out steep. Having not done a hilly race in over two months, I don't know what to expect. One of the reasons I'm here is to see whether or not I should bother with Bow next week. I feel OK, but I haven't been able to crack 5:10 on Big Blue this month, not a good sign. I also employed an experimental strategy of outfitting my bike with 38/52 chainrings and a 12-23 cluster. That's right, just a 38/23 low gear. My reasoning was two-dimensional: I've been climbing better at low rpms lately, seated or not. More importantly though, I tend to cave in and use whatever the lowest gear I have on the bike is. If I'm suffering, and let's face it, hilly races are about suffering, I'll wuss out. So I made the choice for myself ahead of time. If I can't push this gear, I'm probably out of contention anyway. It worked, sort of.

The bottom of the climb is pretty steep. Working through those who immediately slow, Funk pulled alongside and quickly moved ahead at a pace I could never follow. I hate not knowing a climb too. I went steady and hard, standing in my 19 and 18. When the grade lessened, I sat down but kept going up through the gears, getting as far as the 16 or maybe even 15. I passed a ton of people in the middle of the climb. Then it kicked up again. I could see a few groups lined out in front of me, which I estimated to be about twenty riders total. Not so bad, but we ain't there yet.

There was one switchback on this climb. I recognized this as where we came out from a dirt path in D2R2, but that day we headed down, not up East Hawley. The steeps before the switchback were in the shade. I stood a lot. I was no longer passing people, but I hadn't gone past the 21 cog yet. That soon changed and I used the 23, but never stood up in it. After the switchback, by now having climbed for close to fifteen minutes, I started hoping for the crest. Not yet dude. I could still see what looked sort of like a "main pack" ahead, but I was looking down a lot. I tried to pick it up, but not knowing the course, could not risk blowing up. Ahead I saw Adam Sternfeld (Millwork One) and another guy. I towed my group, which included Eric Pearce (Bethel) up to them. The hill crested out. Adam tried hard to organize a chase. I did what I could, but I was worried about cracking if the road kicked up again. I also knew several riders, including Tough Guy Tyler, were right behind me and bound to rejoin, with a bigger group having a better chance...

We were only 1:08 into the race! Not even half way. Sure enough, our group swelled to about a dozen, but a few of them wouldn't/couldn't work, notably John Mosher (Corner Cycle) with team mates up the road, and a Keltic guy who was just being lazy. The rest of us still tried to chase, some more than others. Even Tyler did his share, despite his earlier efforts and troubles. Respect... The problem was, I later learned, was the groups ahead had broken up, with a leading trio of Dimitri Buben (CCB), eventual winner Greg Swindand, and Funk being chased by the rest. So we were chasing a chase, and that doesn't always work out so well. When our dirty dozen passed the feed zone, we were told "3 minutes" and that pretty much deflated the situation. After that we were riding on routes 116 and 9, big, open roads. There was some disagreement in the group and people getting pissy about the sleigh riders. I try to remain above the fray, doing my share but not being taken advantage of. Then some of the angered started attacking, and it kind of pissed me off that Mosher and Keltic O'Shea (I think) suddenly had the energy to join in. A few guys got shelled out, so they probably could not work. Regardless, nothing stuck and we continually regrouped. I waited until the last uphill stretch and then set the hardest tempo I could to see if anyone would shake off. I don't think we lost anyone. The race ends in a long, flat sprint with a U-turn into the parking lot at about 150 meters to go. Mosher jumped into the turn and held us off, with me second and the Keltic guy behind me. I think most of the others just rolled in shaking their heads about the lack of a concerted effort among the group, but realistically we only had a chance to rejoin right after the end of the climb, and at that point most of the complainers weren't doing shit. That's bike racing.

No results up yet, but most accounts have 15-20+ riders ahead of my group. I'm still pretty happy with the way I climbed. If I'd known the hill, I may have had a slightly better chance of staying with the leaders. As it was, I got in a very hard ride start to finish, and feel good about going back to known territory at Bow. The Cronoman got a wheel change and finished only ten minutes behind our group. Colin will do his own writeup, but I think his first foray into road racing was an eye-opener. He competed on a cx bike with heavy wheels too, which is how Cat 5s should race, but so few do. Hey, this turned out to be a book. I must have enjoyed this race. Thanks for reading.