Because let's face it, this race just hasn't been hyped enough already. Besides that, who cares about what the course conditions were three weeks ago? As well, most of the reports I've ridden so far were from the perspective of a contender, or at least a hopeful. Why else would you drive all the way out there and do a pre-ride rather than just winging it? Well, in my case, two reasons: 1) I wanted to try Coxsackie anyway (huh-huh. Even better the adjacent towns are Gayhead and Climax. Check the map. You can't make this stuff up). With just one Charge Pond under my racing belt this year, I was a bit apprehensive about going into the spring campaign against riders who have been doing Bethel, Wells, and Coxsackie every week. Some of these guys will have ten races in their legs already when they line up at Battenkill next week. So getting in a 100k race on Saturday seemed like a good idea. 2) The weather. The wet storm system was clearing out of New York Saturday morning, but drenching Ninigret. That was all I needed to see to make a last minute executive decision to load up the XBox and make the 186 mile trip to Coxsackie in 2:37 flat, leaving myself a full 13 minutes to get registered, dressed and on the starting line.
After that ordeal was over I carted the smoldering remains of my legs another 75 or so miles north to Cambridge, NY. The Cambridge Hotel was $150 so I said fuck that and got a ghetto room around the corner for $65, with wifi and heat that worked, good enough. Sunday morning I went out in search of breakfast but the good place was closed so I made do with coffee, nutrigrain bars, and an Odwalla drink from Cumberland Farms. At 9:30 when I rolled out of town the clock at the bank said 30 degrees, but the sun was out, briefly... Five minutes out on 313 it started snowing and there was a gale in my face that had to be coming straight from Montreal. I had no legs and this was going to be a long day. But I don't want to burden you with every detail, so let's get right to the important stuff about the course.
Note 1: Most of this course is paved. Quite a bit of it would be rather boring if the fields weren't all busted up. But they will be.
The Eagleville bridge is the same as before, we're just going the opposite way. Don't worry about it. Sector 1 of Un-Pave, Roberson Road, is straight and in good shape. No worries. Part of the reason I wanted to see this course was because the other reports I read did not make much mention of what the roads leading to Juniper Swamp are like. I checked the map and one road was "Perry Hill Road" and where I come from that usually means there is a hill. Sure enough, this nugget which nobody made much of gains almost as much vertical as any other climb on the course, including Joe Bean. According to my Polar, from the bridge to the high point gains 120 meters in about six kilometers. Most of this is in the last few. It's nowhere near as severe as the paved climb before Juniper last year, but it's enough to string out the field and probably even shake a few riders if the pace is high enough. A short, fast descent takes you to the turn onto Juniper. It is almost a 180, but I don't think there will be many issues. The entrance is pretty wide. Like all the dirt roads, the beginning and end of any intersections tend to be where the loose part is.
Sector 2: Juniper Swamp Road, including the climb, is in excellent shape and I do not expect it to be the factor it was last year. Most of the descent is OK too, just a few patches that warrant caution.
Sector 3: Rich Road. This one is new. Compared to Juniper, the surface is marbles. Not horrible, but this road contains a little climb, so it could be interesting. The exit onto Newman is pretty loose. Newman leads instantly to a right onto a state road that plunges into the village where you have to lock it up and take a 90 degree blind right onto another state road. Use your head and there will be no problems.
Now we are in a long, long, paved section. In fact, there is only one section of un-pave (Ferguson) for the entire middle (almost 50k) of the course. Rt 64 climbs out of Shushan. None of it is steep, and there are some beautiful farms. It's hard enough that riders could make a race out of it, but I think that would be foolish. Near the top you join last year's course, but going backwards. Over the crest you're descending the opening paved climb from last year, then quick right on 22, into Salem, left and then it's the road the race used to start and finish on. From here it's last year's course backwards all the way to Greenwich. Joe Bean Road will almost certainly blow the fields apart. It's over 2k at 6% average, in steps, with steep pitches.
Sector 4: Ferguson Road. You are going to hit this already flying down from Joe Bean. There is some loose stuff at the beginning, then most of it is ok, but there is a minefield patch just before the Appalachia Rusty Falcon and Old Refrigerator Museum Homestead. After that it's excellent, way better than last year.
It took me over two friggin' hours to reach the top of Joe Bean, thanks to the headwinds. By then at least the snow had stopped, and I would have friendly tailwinds and cross tailwinds the rest of the way, except for about the last 3k into Cambridge. It still took me four hours to finish this. No shit. Nothing to speak of between Ferguson and Greenwich. Leaving Greenwich you go over the skinny bridge but then immediately go right onto Rt 74. This is a smooth highway but after a mile you go right onto Burton Road. Burton is paved but it's mostly uphill. Gorgeous farms, not too steep. I guess there is going to be a feed here. At the end you take a left then a quick right onto Mountain Road.
Sector 5: Mountain Road. The fun begins. That is, if your idea of fun is riding uphill on marbles and then downhill, at speed, through soft patches that your front tire can suddenly knife into. If this course didn't already have Hilljunkie written all over it, well now, fresh off his Hawaiian lava skiing adventure, it's advantage Jansen. I would expect that even though the race would have been well busted up on Joe Bean, there will be significant regroupings and we'll be hitting this mess in fairly large bunches. Here is one section where you might want to pray for rain. The only nice thing I can say about it is it's much better than the next sector. There are some pretty views off to the right too, but you'll probably just have to take my word for it.
Sector 6: Becker Road. At the end of Mountain, turn left on pavement for about 300m then it's right on Becker, the opposite way from last year. There is not much good I can say about Becker, frankly. It's loose and rocky, some fast downhill, pretty dangerous. But these things always seem worse on the pre-ride than they turn out to be in the race, right? The end of Becker is a climb of course.
Sector 7: Meetinghouse Road. Again, opposite way from last year. In contrast to Becker, 95% of Meetinghouse is in impeccable shape. I think they brought in the track superintendent from Belmont Park to do the grooming. It's like glass. The very end is a little rough, and the paved stretch leading off it (where I was unceremoniously popped out of the race two years ago) is pretty sandy and treacherous.
Now it's fast riding on pristine pavement. There are a few miles flat, then a hard left up a little climb, then a few miles of super-fast mostly downhill stuff. At the bottom there is a covered bridge that you don't go over. But they have bridges because of rivers, which means we're at a low point...
Sector 8: Stage Road. This is a pretty big climb. Almost equal to Joe Bean. But it's on marbles. The road is not that great. If you saved some of your sit down legs for this part, you'll be glad you did. At the very end is the section of ground under repair noted in the other reports. I rode through it no problem. The rest of the road was pretty bad so at that point you're used to it. If they can run a steamroller over it this week it would be a good thing though.
That's it! Big ripping downhill, one of the fastest on the course. Then about 4k or so mostly flat right into town. I can't really imagine how this race will play out. The tough climbs are all spread out. Stage Road is big enough, and close enough to the end, that I think any non-climber who keeps getting popped but somehow manages to rejoin the climbers will not have a chance. If I had to guess I'd say this race will be attrition from flats and whatnot, and any weak moments on one of the many difficult spots. It's not good for me. If by some miracle I manage to stay with the leaders up to and over Joe Bean, I'm afraid that after the long, uneventful stretch of Ferguson to Greenville, the next climbing stretch is really going to hurt. Be wary of that. There will be no climbing at all for over a half hour, and then some real grinding. Becker is going to suck. And A-Bomb is in the 40+ this year. Yikes. Thanks for reading.
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