Battenkill

April 13, 2010 – 3:44 pm

2010-04-11

Race: Tour of the Battenkill Field: Cat 3 Green Length: 62 miles

After hearing this race hyped for years, I finally participated. Brier, Nate, and I drove up together in the team van. When we got there we ran into my former collegiate teammates Graham Garber and Giulia. I was surprised to discover that Graham, an extremely talented Cat 2 racer, had downgraded to Cat 3 and would be in my field.

The first 45 miles of the race were good for me. The dirt sections were packed hard and not nearly as bad as I had feared, probably because it had rained the day before. I was conservative on the climbs, staying at the back of the lead group. I spent a little bit of time at the front, but it was far too windy for a break to have any chance, so I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to be up there.

I was feeling totally decent, cruising along a dirt road, when suddenly the sensor for my (wired) PowerTap separated from the chain stay. It started banging against the spokes of my rear wheel. Deciding it was going to get worse before it got better, I stopped and ripped the sensor off. By the time I got going again, there was a sizable gap. Desperate to make contact with the lead group again, I started TT’ing (not my forte). I bombed down a long descent, and was going a bit too fast to make the left turn on the bottom. I went a bit of a ways down a steep embankment, did a single somersault (still clipped in), dismounted, climbed back up, and started riding again as one of the course marshals shouted out that I was going to make it onto ESPN for that. Of course, I was entirely out of contention after that. I rode most of the rest of the race solo, until a small group of stragglers picked me up at 4K to go.

By casey | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Myles Standish Road Race

April 13, 2010 – 3:38 pm

Weather: Cool (long sleeve skinsuit, long sleeve baselayer, leg warmers), and windy.

Attendees: Me. (well Paul and Dan were there in the Cat 5 race)

Course: Lolly pop with a 2 mile loop. Rolling course with one good stepped hill that turned into a headwind: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs506.snc3/26586_384731282190_571342190_4450192_1348720_n.jpg

I took the rest of this out of the web log some may have seen it already…

Okay thanks for everyone NOT telling me that it really does have a pretty good hill out there at Myles Standish.

That hill sucked wicked hard. Wicked hard.

But. Man it was fun. We did 10 laps of a shortened course. The water kind of screwed it up. But it was still pretty damn good. Basically like a crit with a hill. The first good handful of times up it I nearly got spit out the back. Then with about 4 to go i figured out how to get up and over w/o any stress. At one point on the penultimate lap I just carried speed over the rollers leading into the hill and found I had a gap. Seriously??? WTF!! i don’t want to be out front. But it was effortless, being a large/tall/big (trying not to say fat) guy carrying speed is nice. But every time I got boxed in on that lead in to the hill as soon as the road tipped up all these tiny guys slow WAY WAY down. No momentum. And I’d have to hit the brakes.

Last lap I tried to hang on the outside where there was good clean line and i could carry speed into the hill and reach that top in the pack. But…

…the splintered and scattered 55+ race was spread out around the course. We’d lapped them and it was a mess. And leading into that last time through they were all over the right side of the course and going a bit slower than we were. I tried hanging out on the left side but the guys in front of me basically hit the brakes and i had no where to go and was forced to scrub speed and I’m just not strong enough at the moment to recover enough to stick on the wheel when people accelerate after slowing when we’re going up that hill.

And I came around the turn at the top and turned into the wind with a 10 second gap or so. Drilled it as hard as I could, totally red-lined but couldn’t quite get back in contact with the group and rolled in a handful of seconds back, 30-40? i don’t know for sure. But hey all things considered on a hilly course. Yes I know, it is not a “HILLY” course, but compared to ninigret, thompson, it is hilly. And I felt pretty god damn good with how i did. Second race of the year, rolled in 28th of the scored 35. I think there were over 40 at the start. Didn’t manage a top 50% yet again, missed out on a pack finish (OTB) but it was good.

It was fun racing bikes. Not easy, and yeah I rolled with my fat slow 4 year old 28s. The smell of burning carbon coming down the left hander before the finish was pretty funny, man it was strong. No real need to brake but there were a handful of people not real confident about taking that turn at speed. Oh well.

Like I said, it was a freaking ton of fun.

By gewilli | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Battenkill

April 13, 2010 – 3:36 pm

Attendees: Nate and myself in Cat 4 and Casey in Cat 3

Weather: 60 degrees with very strong gusty winds at times which gave me a wind burn on my arms. Made half the course very difficult to be in the front.

Prerace: Decide on no warm up. First 10 miles are pretty boring and didn’t want to burn any matches.

Race: Strategy for the race was to stay towards the front, spin the climbs and conserve myself. I had not really riden a hard long distance ride in a very long time. My high mileage was 50 but most of it flat so I was concerned about endurance. Cheat sheet was valuable so that I knew of the nasty climbs coming and shifting way in advance. Helped alot. Climbs still hurt but never paniced about losing pack. Winds prevented anyone from really wanted to break. I wasn’t doing the work this day. At mile 33, a Kissena rider took off and I am pretty sure he was the winner but that was because Kissena was dominant team and no one wanted to do the hard work to keep him with us. Never felt like I was winning the race due to the climbs not being my strength but felt better than I ever had on them. At mile 46 we hit Meeting Hill Road (after you race this course a couple time, the street names burn in your brain with the word “PAIN”). This is a set of 3 hills in a row on dirt. On the downhill of the first one I dropped my chain at a pot hole. Had to stop on bike and put it back on. Lost a good 30 sec to a minute to get going. However, I could still see the pack up ahead and decided not to panic but to push it. Took me about 10 minutes but I get myself back at the back of pack. Now the problem is that mile 52 was another hill. Stayed with pack but it hurt and cramped a little. Now mile 58 is Stage Road and it is aptly named. It rises in stages. I think about 5 of them. I was spinning up but the pack was racing up to the finish and I knew it was over for me. All my matches were gone but I did TT to the end and brought a small group with me including Nate to the next group up ahead. Legs were toasted but I was fairly satisfied with attempt.

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Charge Pond Week III

March 27, 2010 – 8:16 pm

Weather: 30degrees but very windy. Wind chill was maybe 25. Tempted to wear winter jacket for the race. Instead full leggings, winter gloves etc..

Course: Same

Attendance: Me with about 40-45 starters

Race: No one could survive today off the front on a perfect day without some help. I wasn’t willing to help though to conserve for tomorrow. Felt like crap in the warm up. I think this was due to the real cold weather and the full pizza I ate last night. Didn’t take much to stay in front though and about half way thru I started to feel better. Actually put in some fairly big efforts in the later part of the race just to prep my legs for tomorrow. Last lap, I did a very hard pull into the head wind to string out the field but didn’t have enough for the last little climb before the 90 degree left to the start finish. Still finished 8th without much trouble. Still haven’t missed the top 10 yet but still need a win.

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Wells Avenue Training Race

March 22, 2010 – 7:38 am

Weather low 50’s but very windy on the backstretch.

Attendance: At least 50-60 with some more Cat 3’s mixed in including Ben Reagan who has an awesome kick and could be a 2.

Race: There were about 6 primes. I didn’t bother with the first one but contested the rest for the most part. I led out Ben on two of them since I know I can not beat him straight up on my best day and him with two broken legs. Finished mostly top 5 on most. With two laps to go, Threshold broke at the start/finish line so myself and some other guy went behind him. As we went around the first turn though Threshold dropped and I said to the other guy, lets go for it. Well, we took some big hard pulls and got ourselves a gap of about 5 seconds. Coming into the final turn I sensed they couldn’t get us but I did the back stretch turn and so he was leading out the homestretch. I tried to rest for a couple seconds while my legs and heart were yelling at me. With about 100 meters to go I tried to pull around but I couldn’t get my butt out of my seat and only could pull next to him to lose by half a bike length. Anyway second isn’t the worst. Even got some money for the fun of it.

Charge Pond on Saturday
Marblehead on Sunday coming up.

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Charge Pond – Week II

March 22, 2010 – 7:37 am

Weather: Perfect. Felt Like I was riding naked practically

Course: 1.3miles up and down with a hard 90 degree left to uphill finish/start.

Attendance: Me with 60 strangers. Decent mix of top guys including cat 3 mixed in with a bunch of slackers

Race: Was at front most of race to avoid the yahoos and get in a good workout. Broke a couple of times and chased down a bunch of breaks. Hard course to get away from when it is windy. With 2 laps to go, I was in front and pulled back a few spots to save myself for the finish and when we came around with one to go I was in good position but…..about half way thru in the back stretch, I see a McCormick come up (I thought it was Mark but it was actually Frank) and I was like shit! he must think this is the other race. But no…he was hauling his two kids who ride for Hot Tubes up thru the pack. I was all confused and had no idea whose wheel was whose since I thought they were not in our race since I never ever saw them the entire time. However, they were and I only got my head together at the very last second to sprint it out for 9th. Not great but good workout.

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Tokeneke Classic

August 9, 2009 – 8:51 pm

Attendees: Myself and 4 actual teammates, Brent, Marcus, Geoff and Mark

Weather: 65 degrees with a nice breeze. Rained for about 3 minutes at one point during race.

Course: 44 miles comprised of two loops of 22. First 5-6 miles are pretty much downhill to a reservoir, then a sharp right to a pot holed road with a nice climb. This climb is actual 3 different sections with the second one being the longest by far. Grade is about 6-7%. Then rollers followed by a big downhill on new pavement directly into a two mile climb to start finish. This climb is a nice gradual climb of around 5% with one steeper section in the middle as it comes around the bend.

Prerace: It was nice to have company to warm up with. A tent even. Cool van (oh yeh that’s mine) and blasting tunes.

Race was for the New England Championships and it was a full 100 field. Started about 20 minutes late while the police were eating donuts. Kind of defeats the purpose of a warm up. At the start, I knew to stay up front. However, even in the easy section there were sketchy riders and I almost got knocked off the rode by a guy with a bike which couldn’t stop shaking. As we crossed the reservoir, I moved to the front few and as we took the first part of the first hill I easily moved to the front and led it over the first part. Now I only remembered two parts of the hill so I gave it all out to stay in the lead pack over the second section as I fell back to about 10th or so. However….I forgot the last part and this hurt my legs. I started to drift out of the lead group of now 25 or so and was about 5-10 seconds back. I wasn’t letting go this year like I had to last year. Brett and Marcus come up and grabbed the front group and worked for the next mile or two until I could tag on. Next bunch of miles were uneventful until some asshole knocked Marcus off the road and he slid down with all his powerblocks spread across the road. I gave the asshole in blue alot of shit for that. Anyway, on the big downhill I drifted back because honestly, I didn’t trust anyone in the group. This was a mistake because when we hit the big climb I didn’t have the protection of the group with me and I lost their pace. About half way up, I found mine and it was good but by that point, I wasn’t going to catch them. Anyway, I started picking up riders to work with and kept dropping them on the climbs. Finally, I found 3 others for the rollers into the downhill which was good for them since I did alot of the work. On the hill two of them went up ahead but I was feeling pretty good about half way up and I started hauling it. I passed both and gave them no opportunity to catch onto me. Finally, I almost caught the back of the front pack since there was one more guy about 5 seconds in front at the finish. In the end, probably top 30 and maybe top 25 or so.

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (1)

Gate City Nashua, NH Criterium

August 9, 2009 – 4:20 am

Weather: Pefect for once. High 70’s with a stiff breeze

Course: About a .8 mile course around a baseball stadium. Has a nice little short uphill with an sharp skittish “S” curve.

Warm Up: Screwed up and came two hours early because I thought the race started at 10am. Oh well, finally got in a decent one anyway.

Race: Very big field of at least 70 guys. Lined up in front next to the 18 year old kid who won two race last week. I hate kids. :-) Figured to stick to his wheel like glue since I knew he had the gas to run the entire race by himself. I was right. He was at the front most of the race and I did my best to stick to him whenever I could and when he broke I went with him. Twins! I was never not top 20 except….lap 6 or so, in the S curve some do do brain loses his line and pushes into the UVM kid and that pushed me into the grass. Luckily I was in the front and within a couple laps of killing myself I was back up front. Last lap, Green Line Velo came to the front and I hitched on. I was forth coming up the hill and I was in perfect position but…the three guys in front of me couldn’t pull up a small hill on the last lap and the swarm came. Unfortunately, the hill is before the S curves so I had to sit in thru them so as not to die from skittish riders. However, coming into the finish stretch I pulled back into the front bunch and I think I finished top 10. Who finished first? The 18 year old!

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Ascutney

July 18, 2009 – 7:58 pm

My time for Okemo was 37:21. Ascutney…37:20. But since I was in the 30-39 age-group, I started 3:00 minutes after the clock started. So my actualy time was 34:20, which netted me 32nd place. I’m not feeling particularly motivated to describe the hill. It’s tough. Really tough. On some level it felt easier than Okemo, because I had nice low gears. I put a single 26 in the front and a 13-29. Unlike Okemo, where I was firmly stuck in the 34-29 most of the day, I was able to shift up and down as the pitch changed throughout the climb. I started off pretty easily and hoped that would let me catch more riders by the top, but it didn’t really work out that way. I felt pretty good afterwards, but crashed hard in the mid-afternoon. Nothing some Harpoon and chicken wings couldn’t fix. Licoln Gap tomorrow…

By Brent Wetters | Posted in race report | Comments (1)

Casey’s Attleboro Report

July 13, 2009 – 10:20 am

The Attleboro Criterium is my favorite race.  It has a wonderful atmosphere — relaxed and friendly.

I arrived Saturday afternoon with two handicaps.  First, I am not suited to criteriums.  Second, I haven’t really been training for a few months, and my last race was in early May.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I figured if I was both aggressive and lucky I might wind up in a successful break.

I had a good warm-up and moved to the front right away.  My plan was to mark Ryan O’Hara, who was a teammate of mine when I rode for Cyfac-VeloEuropa.  He’s a strong rider who has had success in breakaways before.  Also, he rides for Cambridge, which had a big team presence, so I knew they would block for him if he was up the road.

I dutifully followed him on several early and unsuccessful break attempts.  Then we both needed a rest, so we missed the break that did get away.  The break had some Cambridge rides in it, so following Ryan was no longer a good plan.  I moved back to the front and tried to get into a bridging attempt, but I hadn’t recovered enough and the move was brought back anways.

The rest of the race was pretty well controlled by Cambridge and Pedro’s, who both had riders in the break.  One random guy did a lot of pulling to try to bring back the break, and I occasionally helped out, but Cambridge did an excellent job of protecting the break.

At two-to-go it was clear that the break was not coming back.  I knew I didn’t have a chance in the sprint, so I recklessly attacked.  Unsurprisingly, I was not allowed to get away.

I am very happy with how I raced.  I had a good plan and rode aggressively.  I made the Refunds Now! presence be felt and even got us some mentions by the announcer.  That should make our sponsor happy!

By casey | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)