While sometimes a race report can detail the exciting duel for the win or defense of a high GC position (congrats to Andrew M.!!, see below), mine is more a tale of life at the back of the bunch. Sometimes in bike racing simply surviving to the finish is cause for celebration.
Friday mornings Cat. 3 TT, held under sunny, near perfect conditions, save for the pesky, speed-zapping NW headwind provided me a clue as to what I had already suspected going into this years GMSR: I wouldn’t be a threat to anyone’s GC dreams. I won’t post my finishing time here -you’ll have to look it up online if you’re truly interested- but I will say the time spent groveling in the ‘pain cave’ did serve well to open up the pipes and legs for the next days effort.
Of the four races that comprise this stage race, Saturdays 72 mi. circuit race was the one I feared the most. The obstacle responsible for the fear was the Duxbury ‘gap’ climb which had a KOM sprint at the top. The climb itself isn’t overly hard or long in the scheme of things, more so, it’s the pace at which it’s climbed (whipped up by those contending for the KOM points). 72 mi. equals 4 times (1 neutral) up Duxbury and, heck, 72 mi. is a distance I’ve only trained at a handful of times this season. The goal was to not get dropped on that climb; not be riding in alone 28 min. after the pack had finished. Well, I’m glad to report that goal/victory was achieved. Having survived the climbing, it was time to think about the finish at the Ward Access on Rt. 100B. Coming into the last 2K or so, the field was all bunched up tight with no one team or rider willing to throw-down and open up the sprint. I could smell the upcoming crash brewing; sure enough, on the newly resurfaced 100 B bridge, wheels were crossed and carbon and bodies started hitting the deck. The unlucky (myself included) who were behind the crash were forced to slow while the front 30 or so accelerated and opened up the sprint. As I threaded through the mess and dodged the guy who saved the most insane death wobble I’ve seen in a while, I tried to bridge the split to the front group. This max HR effort involved avoiding 2 more more guys laying in the road who had come together in the fight for position in the now lead group. At the 1K to go point, I ended up working with 4 others to the line finishing about 15 sec. behind the splintered lead group. And, oh, yeah, there were 5 more guys laying in the road 50m short of the line as I rolled by. Sheezh……
You’d think Sunday’s RR might be a fearsome proposition for a non-climber type such as myself with its ascent up Brandon and App. Gaps. It actually was not, as my goal here was only to hang with the field until the start of the ‘Baby’ gap climb. Again, I’m happy to report that goal was achieved also, although it did involve getting gapped off the back of the bunch in the final 2K of the Brandon climb. Having a teammate there at that critical time provided the priceless motivation to keep pushing up and over the top and during the chasing descent (51 mph!). After yo-yoing the Bristol Notch KOM climb and rejoining the field on the dirt road section, it was just a matter of sitting in until Baby Gap and hopping in the autobus with a couple of dropped Cat. 2′s and shattered 3′s.
Mondays Burlington downtown Crit is one of my favorites and a race I’ve won as a Cat. 4, but with 3 days of hard racing already in the legs, I couldn’t be sure how it would go. With a GC time bonus sprint on lap 30 of this 34 lap crit, the race started very fast and proceeded to stay that way for awhile shelling about half the field in the process. I hung on and moved up when it slowed a bit mid-way through. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to move up enough to factor in the finale (17th, leaving me with severe post-race case of the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s), but I did see Phil B. make a nice move up with 3 to go which ultimately netted him 7th in the field sprint.
So, even without any real results to brag on, it was still a very cool and worthwhile experience made all the better by my great teammates (hopefully they’ll blog about it too, soon) and sponsor. The GMSR is a super way to cap off the road season. Heck, I might even do some practice TT’s and hill repeats before the 2010 edition.
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