Weather: 65 degrees, cloudy, threatening rain (although never did) and 100% humid
Course: 2 loops of 27 miles each. Course profiles can be deceiving. Since it looks like 3 hills each lap and there is something like 6400 feet of climbing. In truth, there are so many hills I lost count. The start is up a 1.5mile climb in neutral followed by twisting downhill into one section of climbs which included no less than 10 seperate hill sections with a couple of them in the very nasty gradiant area followed by a bombing downhill with a sharp left up another couple hills to the KOM section and that is like mile 18 and 45. At this point it gets easier into a bombing flat and downhill finish with a short .5km climb to the finish.
Attendees: Michael (No one else crazy enough to drive so far to suffer)
Race: I raced in the 3/4 race and there were some familiar faces. I had to drive my wife to the airport at 6:15 and barely made the start with no warm up. I even had a broken cleat which thankfully I had extra shoes to change into with minutes before the start. The start was neutral for exactly 9 minutes. Climbing up such a steep hill at such a slow pace with no warm up was awful and with the humidity, I was already so wet I had to change out my glasses. Honestly, the hardest part of the course is the fast downhills on wet roads. I HATE THEM especially in a big field. I hung until the killer hill section on lap 1 like a lot of guys and then just kept pushing with various people. We got passed by Cat 4 at the start of the second lap and I was so bumming since I had no problem hanging in eventhough I couldn’t draft in the field. Oh well, I shouldn’t have hurt myself so much working out yesterday in order to prove a point on my TT bike. I regreted it when I needed to be fresh today.
On to Fitchburg!