Providence Velo Club

I went back to Okemo this year (last year’s report can be seen here) unsure what to expect. My overall training volume has been much lower (something about being a new father…) and I know that I am slower relative to other riders on the team. Finishing DFL in a men’s B collegiate road race didn’t do much to boost my confidence either. But, my sense of riding Mount Tom back in March was that I did better than I did last summer at the peak of my summer training schedule. So I had figured I would finish Okemo within 2 minutes either way, and couldn’t decide what would be better. If I finished 2 minutes faster, then I would know that I was still improving, albeit at a slower pace relative to my teammates. If I finished 2 minutes slower, I’d have confirmation that I had lost a bit of speed from last year, and I’d know that I could, with a more regular training schedule, get that form back. What actually happened? I finished 7 seconds faster than last year. Add in the fact that the first 2 miles were noticeably faster than last year and my time is all but identical. So who knows what that means. I guess I’m in a holding pattern. I haven’t dropped much form, but I also haven’t improved a whole lot either.

The race was pretty uneventful for me. Once the climb started, I took it fairly easy on the opening 14% gradient section. A lot of riders went up the road. I decided I’d rather catch riders than be caught so I hoped riding the bottom section easier would help me in the end. I did catch a few riders before the top and I did get passed by a couple more, but after the opening section it looked like probably 20 or so riders up the road. And that’s about how many finished in front of me. I tried my best to ride my own tempo and not be screwed up by others. At around the 1 mile point I was riding with some kid in a national champion’s jersey, who had clearly never been a national champion. He was way over-geared, but I couldn’t quite shake him. This was mostly due to the fact that he had clearly watched way too many TdF stages. Everytime I or anyone else seemed ready to overtake him he would thrash all over his bike and try to accelerate to catch a wheel or attack. He lasted longer than I expected doing this, but eventually he was weaving all over the road, sounded like he was about to have a heart attack, and finally unclipped and stopped. Never saw him again. I’m pretty sure he finished at least 5-10 minutes back on me. As with last year, I probably could have done with some easier gears, but it probably would have had little effect on my overall performance. On to Ascutney!