April 25, 2008 - Battenkill

I am not sure what happened to everyone else posting on this race butI will give it to you from my point of view.Weather: In the 80's and very drydistance: 55 miles with about a quarter of it on DIRT roadsWe all drove up on Friday to get settled before the race. I arrivedfirst and drove most of the course and to see what all the fuss wasabout. They were not kidding, it really does have some rolling hillsand they seem to me mostly in the dirt. Oh boy, I was in troublesince I had fewer than 15 hours riding so far this year. Later in theafternoon, Nate, Mark and I went for a short ride to preview thehardest part of the course. So we left from the start and rode tomile 3 where the course turned to a dirt road which was a gradualclimb but was more suitable to cyclcross than road racing. We loopedback into downtown and went out the other way. Nice and fast. I amthinking maybe this isn't going to be the disaster I expected. Well,we took a left hand turn and now we stared up to one of those neverending climbs. I hit the wall and I was pissing in my pants sincethis was a slow ride. Imagine tomorrow. So we climbed and I struggledup to the top and figured I could rest for a few minutes. Well guessagain. Immediately the road turned again to Juniper Hill Road. Famousenough that even the pros telling the story on Velonews show panic.The road is all dirt with one section at 18% grade in about 4 inchesof sand. Thankfully, for cyclcross season, I made it up but oh boytomorrow is going to suck.That night, Nate, Mark, Gewilli and Curtis went out to some bar inBennington and loaded up for Saturday. We crashed fairly early andawoke up the next day to an awesome waffle breakfast. I usually can'teat that early but since the race didn't start till 12 and I wasgoing to need all the energy possible, I went for it.We got to the race site early and even so the place was packed. It isbilled as the largest race in the East or North America or whateverbut it was crowded. However, it was well run.Everyone but me raced in the masters 30 plus but I chickened out andstayed in Cat 4 so no one else could see me crying trying to makethis ride so out of bike shape. My race started and I stayed to theback of the pack with the assumption that I am going to get droppedso why get killed on the crazy dirt roads. Like usual at thebeginning, my pride gets in the way and when we hit the first hill Istay with the pack. People are already dropped and this is mile 3. Wecircled through downtown and now it time to hit the hills ofyesterday. Oh no! I lose the pack but tempo it. The sun shines on meand I make it up no problem even passing people. Then Juniper HillRoad and I look up and there are people walking the thing, there arepeople falling off their bikes and me climbing it almost like a realrider. I was proud of myself. Well the benefit to this is that now Iwasn't in the back anymore but was moving up. We finished the climband I said time to hit it. I gathered "people" together and startedyelling at them to paceline it. I figured why should I finish last.We make good time and at mile 20 starts a series of rolling climbsall on dirt roads and "my people" drop like flies. The scenery wasbeautiful but it was hot. Very. Anyway, I undergeared the next 15miles to save myself. Thankfully I did. by mile 45 I was crampingfrom the heat and the fact that I had not ridden even 40 miles in thepast five months. At this point I wouldn't give up with a gun pointedat me and I pushed as hard as possible to the end. It is weird to saythat finishing 56 out of 100 was a successful race but in this caseit was. I even broke 3 hours.I want to congratulate Curtis for finishing like 21st in his divisionwhich is awesome. however, I would like to point out that Natefinished in 2:40 which if he had listened to me was good enough for15th in Cat 4. Next time, listen to me.Anyway, the race is well worth it and I would recommend making plansto attend next year. You will not regretMichael