Josh Billings Runaground

This weekend was the 2007 Josh Billings Runaground triathlon in Western Mass. The Josh is one of my favorite events and this was my 11^th time doing it. The triathlon starts off with the bike leg, and it is a 27-mile road race with drafting and a 400+ person mass start. The second leg is a 5-mile canoe/kayak, followed up by a hilly 6-mile run. It’s a great end of the season event that gives friends a chance to get together and race as teams. In fact, most competitors in the Josh are part of a team and there are very few ironmen. My report for this race will be a little longer and detailed than most.

This year there were three teams that I was close to: my own family team (Jay bike, Dad & Shawn canoe, Todd run), Erica’s team (Erica bike, Ryan & Ken canoe, Maria run), and my work team (Erik bike, Erik& Jay canoe, Mickey run). We expected all three teams to be relatively close as each of the bikers, canoes, and runners were similar in ability.

The night before the race I think I slept for an hour at most. My new tires that I had ordered 2 weeks ago didn’t come in, and my existing rear tire had a flat spot on it a half-inch wide. If I were to flat, not only would it be bad for myself, it would affect the rest of my family team AND my work team.

It was cold the morning of the race, less than 50°F, although when the sun poked through it felt much warmer. I opted for the long-sleeve jersey which ended up being a good choice. We got a decent warmup in, although not the full half-hour I was looking for. I wanted to be very well warmed up for the beginning of the race which is fast and has a 200+ foot climb that sorts things out. I also took off my heart rate monitor because my nerves were causing my HR to skyrocket (~140-150 at zero wattage).

Erica and I lined up with the USCF riders and Erik got stuck somewhere in the middle of the citizens racers. Being even a third of the way back in the citizen’s group means you have over 100 racers in front of you, no good if you’re trying to stay with the lead pack. When the rope was lowered at the staging area and we moved up to the start line, I was able to move up several wheels and started in the fourth row. Erica was on my wheel and Erik was MIA.

The gun went off and we flew out of the start. I got lucky for once clicking in and pushed through the two guys in front of me pretty much immediately. The pace was very fast through town, my garmin data showing that it dipped below 27 mph only for the 90-degree turns. Erica wasn’t expecting the start to be this fast and wasn’t able to keep my wheel. I wasn’t able to get into a very good draft through town, although it wasn’t too bad.

The first hill is where everything happens in the bike leg of the Josh because there is such a wide variety of abilities including from a few cat1/pro riders to untrained senior citizens on mountain bikes. The beauty of it is that if you’re staged correctly, this first hill breaks the initial bunch of 400+ into groups of 20-60. If you end up in a group that is too easy for you, you may be able to bridge up to the next group but it’s very difficult. Instead, it is best to get in as good a group as possible on the first climb and fall back if you can’t hang.

That being said I went into the first hill knowing I had to leave everything I had out on the climb. Going around the right-hand turn headed out of town I must’ve been around 30-40^th wheel. I kept my speed high and charged up the hill passing a good number of riders, and found myself somewhere around 20^th as we got to the false flat, but I began to struggle. I got on a wheel that looked like it was climbing at a more modest pace, and stuck it out for the second half of the climb. A good ten riders or so passed me back. As we crested the top, a bunch of us started stretching like a rubber band until it snapped, and we were separated into two groups, and I found myself just behind the split.

There was a little bit of confusion in this second group on the flat section after the first hill. I thought we were going pretty slowly, and people were trying to encourage each other to work hard as the first group was less than 200m up the road. Feeling motivated to work I did head to the front and take a short pull or two. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t.

The second climb comes at mile 6 and raises about 400 feet in sort of a staircase style where a flat section or downhill would follow each steep rise. Being at the front I did a little sag climbing for the first two rises. Half-way up the third rise I cracked and lost contact with the group, which was really the breaking point of the race for me.

A few other riders were shelled here as well. Three of us took turns pulling, then became four, and then five. We were all spent and taking very short pulls. The riders joining our group were joining from behind, not from in front. Finally, Erik, from my work team, and another rider joined up. I found out later that Erik had dropped his chain on the first climb and was trying to bridge up to the second group that I had just dropped from.

Erik and the other rider were strong. The two of them were pretty much the only two riders pulling strong. I wanted to help but felt unbelievably bad after having been completely anaerobic for the first 8 miles of the race and was struggling to stay in their draft. I don’t think 21 mph in draft has ever felt so hard. Coming through West Stockbridge we were “neutralized” (that’s what they called it anyways) for the two ninety-degree turns. On a short but steep pitch shortly after I died off again and spun up the West Stockbridge hill trying to recover.

The third pack caught me just after the top of the West Stockbridge hill. I let a good numbers of people go by and settled in nicely. Wow it felt good to get a little break then have a big pack to ride with. I think we were about forty strong. By the time we got to Stockbridge I had recovered quite nicely.

I think things started breaking up in that pack coming out of Stockbridge but I’m not really sure. I felt really strong on the climb out of town and sat at the front helping out with the pacemaking. We picked up a few riders that I recognized from Erik’s chase group. He must’ve been really laying down the hurt.

When we cross the causeway overlooking Stockbridge Bowl, I had just taken a pretty big pull and was nervous that I’d be dropped on the final hill. To my surprise, the group didn’t have a single rider in it come to the front to nuke up the climb. I quickly ended up on the front and ground away in my big ring the entire way up. This is funny to me because the first time I rode this course when I was 15 I had to walk here. It was exhilarating hearing the radio in the cherrypicker call my number off first and I really cranked up the pace. At the top of the hill I looked back and I had one other rider on my wheel and a good 30m gap on anyone else. A larger BCA rider led a train of 4 or 5 riders back up to us on the flats and we finished together on the last downhill.

My official time after the handoff was 1:13:51. Erica finished in the next pack in 1:17:26, 5^th place for female bikers. Erik finished about 30 seconds behind the second pack. Apparently one other rider and himself took 30-60 rotations pretty much for the entire last 20 miles and came up just short of catching them. They must’ve done a ridiculous amount of work overall.

This put my Dad & Shawn in the water first, followed by myself and Erik after taking a minute to change shoes, and shortly after Ken & Ryan. Erik and I started off slow in the canoe, as he had never been in a racing canoe before. We started from the basics such as “you’re holding your paddle backwards” and went from there. He learned quickly though.

The canoe was pretty uneventful other than a few brief events. Dad & Shawn were about 200m up on us the entire race, but we couldn’t make any ground on them. Ken & Ryan came by us around the end of the first lap. Ken has to be the most comical canoe racer in existence. They also ended up passing Dad & Shawn just before the finish. I smashed my thumb repeatedly on the side of the canoe and got a nasty splinter that caused me to bleed everywhere. Also, my legs were cramping up horribly the entire time. I must’ve spent more energy dealing with the bloody finger and cramping legs than I did trying to paddle fast. In the end, Ken & Ryan finished first, with Dad & Shawn finishing 24 seconds later. Erik & I finished 2 minutes after that.

The runners finished in order of the canoe finish. Erica’s runner, Maria (Mickey’s fiancée), is very fast, and finished the 6-mile run in 37:55, 18^th place overall, and the fastest female run of the day by 2 minutes. I’m not sure but I think Ken threw their wristband into the water too (she had to get her feet wet). This put them in 57^th place overall and a total time of 2:49. Todd ran a 42:42 to place 71^st amongst runners, and gave us a finishing time of 2:54. Mickey came through at 44:07 to give our work team a finishing time of 2:58. Tight race.

Green Mountain Stage Race

This was my first full stage race. I was reluctant to sign up having had a tough time keeping up on the hills all season long, but I decided to go for it anyways. I was put in the cat 4A group, or the 32 and under cat4 group. The plan for the race was to push up the hills the best I could and to contest the sprinter’s spots. The forecast for the weekend was perfect, we had an awesome condo lined up at Sugarbush, and it looked like it would be a great weekend. Nothing but biking, eating, resting, eating, and sleeping.

Stage 1 – Egan’s Big World Hill Climb

8.2 mile hill climb up the east side of App Gap for a total 1,730 vertical feet. Mass start and neutral for the first 2.1 miles as the field goes through town. 1,276 of the vertical comes in the last 2.7 miles. There was a new KOM spot 6.7 miles into the race at the Mad River Glen parking lot. The weather today and every day of the race was perfect, high of 72 with clear skies.

I lined up towards the back for this race, with a plan to let the hill climbers duke it out while trying to conserve for the sprinter’s spots in the next few days. We lined up on a dirt driveway just off of the main road. Not three feet after rolling out, the kid in front of me wipes out, I think because his front tire fell into a pothole and turned sideways. Ironically, this kid went on to win the sprinter’s jersey that I was shooting for. Being stuck right behind him, there was nothing I could do but wait as the other riders went around us. By the time he finally got up and I could get around, I was already chasing the field. It’s a nice thing having neutral starts so mishaps like these don’t kill you.

Right after going live, a BRC rider (Chris Bailey) made an attack off the front. I’m not positive what was going on up front, but our field was crawling. Either everyone was scared to work across the flats or his team was doing a great job of shutting things down. Every time we’d get to the bottom of a roller we’d screech to a hault barely doing 15 mph. Chris got long out of sight; so far that the SRAM car passed the field which I believe means he was over a minute up. He easily took the KOM.

I stayed with the main field until about 500m before the KOM, making a big effort not to go into the red just to hang on for another minute. We were going less than 10 mph so there was little to be gained from drafting. Towards the top, I may have picked off two or three guys that went out a little too hard. Either way, I finished towards the back in 66 out of 81, 5:56 back from the lead rider. This was fine by me, I know my W/kg at AT aren’t very good, so I was OK with saving my legs a bit and getting this finish.

Stage 2 – The Bridges Resort Moretown Circuit Race

The description of this day in the race bible was confusing to me. It’s a 19.9-mile loop with a solid 550-foot climb. The race starts about 8 miles into the loop, right at the base of the climb. The start is neutral until the KOM point and goes live with a fast 40+mph downhill. We crossed the finish line three times, with the first two times being sprinter’s hot spots. Total length for the race was something like 52.5 miles. My plan was to contest the sprinter’s spots, pray to hang on the KOM hill, and give an NEBC teammate going for the GC the best leadout that I could at the finish.

I lined up in the front third, and knew that I had to get to the front to contest the sprinter’s competition. The yellow line rule was in effect during the intermediate sprints which makes positioning critical. Moving up ended up being much easier than I expected. A lot of the riders seemed a little squirrelly, so once someone would give me a space I took it. One mile after going live I was in the front six wheels.

Riding at the front in this race was an experience. You could really tell who the guys aiming for the sprinter’s jersey were. The top 10 GC guys that were lined up at the front were quickly overtaken by a bunch of bigger guys making aggressive moves. Numerous attacks went off of the front in the first 8 miles, and I jumped on a lot of them. One of the attacks got a little gap, but it only lasted for about 30 seconds as no one was willing to work for it. With about 1k to go I was about 15 or 20 wheels back, feeling a bit tired from covering the break attempts. At 600m or so a young rider that I recognized came flying up the left so I jumped on it. We had barely cleared the front when another train of sprinters went shooting up the right side. My leadout was crushed and sat up, also ending my shot at this sprint.

About half way up the KOM hill, the pace felt like it picked up big time, surely racers going for the KOM. The pace of the entire field seemed nasty, and with a little under 1k to the KOM, I was blowing up. I lost contact with the field, as did several other riders. We got a decent chase group going, starting with just the two of us but getting as big as ten riders or so. Younger cat 4 groups are tough to organize though. I swear more than half the riders we picked up would charge ahead when it was their turn to pull. One guy did actually just ride away from us for good, but the others were all caught and dropped. Useless. Everyone thinks they’re Lance Armstrong. Luckily we had a core of three guys that kept things smooth, otherwise that would have been a long 30 miles.

We finished 10 minutes back from the field, and I think I was 58/81 today. I was disappointed to have made such a weak attempt at the first intermediate sprint and completely miss the second. It was a lot of fun going for that sprint though. I was also disappointed not to be at the finish to give a leadout to my teammate. The big trouble was that I had worked way harder than I wanted to. Between chasing down breaks and riding in the wind for 30 miles, I was toast. This could make for a long day on Sunday’s 65-mile road race.

Stage 3 – Mad River Road Race

This was the stage most people were afraid of. 65 miles with two major climbs including Middlebury Gap and Appalachian Gap. Smaller 200-foot climbs weren’t even noticeable in the course profile because they were so dwarfed. The gearing recommendation was a 39x27 or smaller, I went with my standard 39x25 (you know, because I’m so fast on hills, ha). There was one intermediate sprint at the 18.5-mile mark. I drove the course the night before and was glad I did. The intermediate sprint is 5k after cresting Grainville Gulf, and those kilometers were all moderate downhill grade through a narrow winding valley. Again, the yellow line rule was in effect.

Motivation was low in the morning having had a somewhat disappointing day on Stage 2. I was considering not even contesting the sprint in order to save my legs for the hills later in the race. It was a little cool in the morning, some riders opting to go with arm warmers, but it was warming up quickly and I went with my short-sleeve jersey.

The race starts with 3.5 miles of neutral riding. Turns out this neutral section was on a huge downhill which made for the fastest neutral start I’ve ever seen. Our average speed was easily over 30 mph which made me a little cold. Today was the first day that I did zero warmup for, but I figured given the length of the race, it would be OK.

Right after going live, a familiar group of sprinters went shooting up to the front. Unlike the circuit race, I sat back somewhere in the middle. I was in ultra energy conservation mode. The pace was super slow for the most part, with maybe a minute or two push going up Grainville Gulf. I’m sure the 65 people that beat me on stage 1 wouldn’t have called it a push though.

Cresting Grainville Gulf we had 5k to go to the intermediate sprint. I was pretty far back in the field at this point, at least half way back anyways, and was pretty content continuing to sit in. The road was super narrow and passing seemed impossible, especially to move up that far. However, I noticed Chris Bailey of BRC practically right next to me, and I knew he had been contesting the sprints on stage 2 so I got on his wheel. With 2k to go I was concerned that he too had little interest in the sprint. Sure enough though, he started making some aggressive moves to get to the front. The field was descending at 30-40mph, so it felt a little sketchy at times squeezing my wheel in. Much to my surprise, we made it all the way to the front with just under 1k to go. There were a lot of familiar faces here. We passed the 500m mark and I was sitting behind a clump of about 8 riders, all in the middle of the road. The road had flattened out here, but our speed was still over 30. We came around a right-hand turn, and I had pictured the sprint finish being just about 50m after this. Just as I came around to the front, I realized that the line was still a good 200m away. Also, the kid wearing the sprinter’s jersey saw me and moved out to get on my wheel. I eased up, letting him lead me out instead. I was only his wheel for a second, as he didn’t continue to accelerate. I came around giving it everything I had, but I knew what was about to happen. With 50m to go three guys came around me with a huge acceleration and took all the sprinter’s points. So close. I was disappointed I went too early but was thrilled to be in the running. I heard a nasty crash behind me that must’ve been something like 5th-10^th wheel. Scary. Crashing at 35+mph with a field of 80 behind you on a narrow road has gotta suck.

After the sprint, things eased up big time. It was like a Sunday afternoon recovery ride which was good for me because I sure would have struggled to stay with the pack after the sprint. We were going so slow that the 4B field, staged 5 minutes behind us, passed us. We were neutralized until the 4B’s got something like 1 minute up on us.

Approaching Middlebury Gap our pace picked up a bit and we started making ground on the 4B’s. I think a few people even attacked to go by their field. The feed zone is located just before the real climb and I had planned on picking up a water bottle as I was only carrying two. Much to my horror, I dropped the water bottle right out of my hand! This was devastating as I had 35 miles to go and about 16 ounces of Gatorade. On the plus side at least my bike would be a bit lighter for the climbs, haha.

Climbing Middlebury Gap I thought I was doing great, the pace seemed slow and we were passing a bunch of dropped 4B riders. Up a steeper pitch I started to fade but did my best to push through it. I was willing to give everything I had to maintain contact with the field as a lot of time can be lost over the 20+ miles of flats between Mid and App Gap. I was beginning to blow up just as we passed the 1k to KOM sign. Seeing this I eased up big time and just did my best to keep pace with the other dropped riders. There was no way I was going to keep up at that pace for another km.

Descending Middlebury Gap was fun. We were averaging 40mph for what felt like forever. Some of the turns were a bit sketchy being bumpy and tight, but I was definitely riding a little conservative and it wasn’t bad at all. We formed a chase group of about twelve and got a pretty effective paceline going. I was trying to stick to riding with just the 4A’s, but people were mixing together constantly and everyone seemed content to just go with it.

I can’t say enough good things about getting in the paceline after Middlebury Gap. We kept the pace around 23-24mph or so without working too ridiculously hard. The sprinter’s jersey was in this paceline, and seemed to be irritating everyone. He was unwilling to take equal pulls, and when we approached a short but steep hill he attacked which really broke up our group. We were down to groups of four coming into the dirt road section. Once we got to the dirt road our group consisted of myself, Tom & Julian of NEBC, and a fourth rider. The fourth rider got a flat not far into the dirt section. Tom stopped to water the bushes, and Julian’s bike wouldn’t shift into the big ring. The dirt road wasn’t bad for the most part, but the last half-mile or so was really rough. My hands were totally numb by the end of it. I also ran out of water here.

Not long after the dirt road I was on my own but I bridged up to another group of four. We were moving along at a decent rate, and picked off another rider or two as we got to baby app gap. The beginning part of baby app gap again split up the chase group with all of us climbing at different rates. This climb really wasn’t too steep and I felt decent going up. Somewhere a few miles before App Gap there was a neutral feed zone, and I was lucky to get a can of generic coke. This was a lifesaver for me. I was really getting nervous about the final climb not having had anything to drink.

Coming into App Gap I felt a lot stronger than the other riders around me that were really taking it easy. Maybe they were resting for the final climb, who knows. The beginning of App Gap isn’t very steep, but it gradually gets steeper. During the first mile or so of the climb I was really hammering and passed three or four more riders. As things got steeper I really started hurt. My quads showed signs of cramping on the first steep pitch when I came out of the saddle. Probably dehydration. There was a little bit of a false flat afterwards so I stayed in my 39x25 and spun at a high cadence. Also tried to do a bit of stretching. This seemed to help as the cramping never returned. With 2k to go the grade was really steep, I must’ve been doing 50-60rpm in the 39x25, it wasn’t fast anyways. Legs felt like bricks. A few of the racers I had passed earlier were passing me back. I overheard a gearing conversation where two of the riders commented that their 34x27 wasn’t low enough. Ha! They were even tacking back and fourth to make the grade more gentle. NEBC teammate Tom who had stopped to take a leak earlier passed me around here. He was hammering away in his 39x23 out of the saddle looking like a champ.

The last 500m or so comes after a false flat (the 5% grade was a nice break) and averages something like 18-20%. After 65 miles of racing that is tough. My speed was dropping as low as 3.5 mph here. I think I could have walked it faster but there was no way I was going to walk. The crowd was great and while I wouldn’t say it was easy, the cheering really did make it not seem impossible. I crossed the line in 3:30 exactly, about 20 minutes of the leader and in 53^rd place. Much to my surprised this was my best stage.

Stage 4 – Burlington Criterium

This was the stage I was most looking forward to. A six-turn criterium in downtown Burlington with ninety degree turns, cracked pavement, and brick section on Church St., hay bails on the corners, and both a fast downhill and nasty little uphill. All of this in only a short 1km loop. We ate dinner in Burlington the night before and walked the course so I could visualize it in my mind. My typical strategy for a technical crit such as this is to identify where I would make a move on the last lap, and be ready for someone else to make a move there. I figured someone would surely attack going into one of the downhill turns and I planned to be ready for it.

I arrived plenty early, allowing for a good 30-minute warmup and so that I could line up early to get a good position. I’d been told repeatedly that staying towards the front is crucial in this race. In fact, you could overhear people saying this everywhere as they talked strategy before the race.

Around 25 minutes before the race I went to the staging area. There was already an entire row of racers lined up. Wow. I took a spot in the second row towards the middle, behind the BRC team. As more and more racers lined up, the front row got packed, spanning the entire width of the road with maybe 20-25 racers. In fact, I think all of the remaining 60 racers squeezed into two rows, with only a few in the middle of the third row. There was a rope in place to prevent people from moving up too far. Like every other stage, the top 10 GC and jersey wearers were called forward. The rope was then lowered and we moved into a second staging area. Moving from staging area 1 to staging area 2 was a race in it’s own. Not at all a peaceful and smooth movement up the 100 foot distance. Again, we were behind a rope with the leaders up ahead. The leaders were announced one by one as they moved to the start. The rope in front of staging area 2 was then lifting and we had an all out sprint for the starting line. I felt one rider to my left leaning onto me heavily, trying to squeeze in to my side. I gave a good shove back and off he went. I was still in the second row in the middle. Again, the field was behind a rope with the leaders on the other side.

The whistle blew and the race started. It seemed unfair that the top 10 were able to start ahead of the field that had a short delay as the rope when down. The first corner into Church St. came about 50m after the start line, and everyone sprinted into it and came screeching to a stop. Church St. is much narrower than the Start/Finish street, so it was like a funnel trying to get through. There was a lot of bumping and yelling here. I made out in a decent position, but not great. Looking up the road the leaders were already going around the next turn. The pace went ballistic, an all-out sprint. I tried grabbing a wheel, but it seemed nearly impossible with all the passing and crazy moves going on. A peloton was non-existent. After the first lap I stuck to my strategy, making an effort to move up towards the front. I succeeded somewhat in this, but was still unable to grab a wheel. By the hill on the second lap I was already feeling it, and by the third lap my legs started cramping horribly. One by one more and more riders came around me and it seemed like no one was doing any drafting. It was more like 60 people TT’ing in a big crazy frenzy. By lap 4 I knew my race was over, and was pretty much foaming at the mouth about it. The officials were out in the course pulling people out including myself after completing only seven laps. I wanted to throw my bike into a dumpster at this point.

Overall

I finished 53/81 in the GC which seemed OK. The race certainly didn’t go how I had pictured it in my head, as I finished with the time limits in both Stage 2 &3 despite getting dropped, and having a horrific day in the criterium. I was a little disappointed not to have scored any sprinters points, but felt that I had made some good efforts in the road races. Despite not really being fit enough to make a good run at anything, the experience was invaluable, and I would do it again without question. It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for my next stage race. It was like living the life of a professional cyclist for a weekend, or at least how I picture it to be. Longsjo next season could be a ton of fun being able to come home at night. Also, I have to give huge thanks to all the people who supported me during the race, including Erica, Aaron & Hillary, Tim, and all of the NEBCer’s. It’d be next to impossible to do something like this alone.

I'll add some pictures once I get them uploaded.

Green Mountain Stage Race

report coming soon! work and other things have had me swamped since coming home, so stay tuned!

Wells Ave 8/26

Stayed out at Mohegan Sun Friday night until 5 AM doing some “mental recovery” after a few weeks of high volume and with lots of intensity. A workout gone bad on Thursday suggested that I needed this. Anywho, 4 hours of bad sleep on Friday night and a four-hour ride in the heat of the day on Saturday (97F) really had me feeling destroyed at Wells Ave on Sunday. Was so close to going back to bed when the alarm went off. To make things even more interesting, I got a flat about a mile from home when riding down to Wells. Ran the bike home and drove there. Thanks to Tim for fixing my flat while I got ready for the race. I don’t think I would have made it otherwise; the race went off within 10 minutes of me parking.

There was finally a B race for me to enter so I didn’t end up sitting in praying not to get dropped for 32 miles. What a nice change to compete against people in your category. It was noticeable immediately that the pace was much slower than the A races. Moving up to the front is a lot easier when your heart rate isn’t 95% of max.

For the first prime I was way out of position and didn’t contest it. For the second prime I was somewhere in the middle and made a move up the inside to go straight to the front. Two guys had already gone off the front though and although I tried, I didn’t have a shot. Similar story for the third prime. Also helped pull back some break attempts. Felt much stronger than usual.

By the time the fourth prime came around I recognized that they were calling primes every three laps or so, and I made sure to be in the front ten wheels at the start of the lap. A larger Union Velo rider made a good strong move coming up turn two and I snagged his wheel. He pulled off going into turn four and there I was up in the front with an MRC rider glued to my wheel. Broke a little to the left as I throttled it to 95% and I thought I had it. Nope, the MRC rider was sprinting balls out up in the inside. I reacted with a balls out effort of my own and we crossed the line within inches of one another. Neither of us could tell who got it, but in the end the officials voted 2-1 that he had it. Darn! This was a huge effort for me though, hit a new max HR of 199, and I was gasping for air. It wasn’t the plan to go 100% after any primes! We sat up and chatted for a bit, and the field didn’t catch us until well into the back straight.

As I accelerated to hop on the back of the field it happened, I puked. Staying on the back just wasn’t going to happen. Sat up and waited to get lapped. Upchucked again a little bit in my mouth in the meantime. Ouch. I guess that’s what happens when you think your max HR is 194 at the beginning of the season, and hit 199 mid-race. Good stuff.

Hopped on the back just intending to get a little more workout in. Quickly ended up at the front again though. Seemed like no one wanted to work. I’d be up front for half a lap, pull off, come up to the uprights, let the HR come down, and STILL no one would pull through. Fine by me as long as I’m not working.

With three to go there was a two-man break that got a solid gap, maybe 100m or more. Two or three of us took some good pulls and brought it back for the last lap. As the pace came up for the last lap I drifted to the back, not wanting to get in the way of people that hadn’t been lapped. It was kind of nice watching how the race played out from the back though. One BRC rider make an early break and stayed away for the win. Most everyone else scrambled with their own solo efforts, scattered all across the road.

After the race I went for a one-hour mt bike ride. Got my highest intensity ever (according to my HR) and some good long miles in this weekend, not to mention a good amount of fun. This week I will be tapering off for GMSR.

Norwell Circuit Race

I never would have made it to this race if it weren’t for Tim pushing me. The two-hour plus drive home from the hilltowns the evening before in addition to fixing my bike while trying to recover from the 56-mile race just seemed like too much. Also had to drive Erica to the airport in the time. However, I was back at the house wide-eyed at 8am, so I set out to get my bike working. It took over two hours but I was finally able to bend my rear derailleur back into a workable position and get it tuned up nicely. I was a little annoyed to see that I banged up my two-week old handlebar tape in the crash.

The ¾ field at Norwell was a 21-mile race including nine laps around a ~2.5-mile loop. There was one hill on the course, climbing about 100 ft with grades of up to 8%, so it was pretty flat overall. There was no yellow-line rule in effect with the exception of a 200 meter section, so it was really nice for moving around.

My goal for today was to just sit in and see how I felt, as my legs were pretty sore from the Tour of the Hilltowns. Surprisingly I felt plenty strong, and my heart rate was way lower than I’ve ever seen before. With two laps to go I was licking my chops for a sprint finish.

Coming up around the right hander and going up the finish hill with one to go there was a crash right next to me. Myself and several others had to slam the brakes to avoid it. There was no hope of catching the field as they were powering up the 8% grade at 20+ mph and a good gap had already formed. I fought as hard as I could but the pace was just too much to catch. I ended up finishing 28^th out of 35 or 40 starters. What a bummer though, two extremely disappointing finishes this weekend despite feeling as strong as ever.

I made the decision to sign up for the Green Mountain Stage Race after this weekend. Despite the disappointing finishes, I feel as if I’ve continued to make dramatic improvements in strength over the past two months. Like Oscar said this weekend, if nothing else, GMSR will put hair on your chest.

Tour of the Hilltowns

I had sworn off doing any more hilly races this season after Bow, but unfortunately I had already registered for the Tour of the Hilltowns. The course is in my old stomping grounds, and I know every little roller and twist and turn from Notchview to Berkshire East and on route 9. Also, I’ve felt strong in some crit races since Bow, so I was willing to give it a shot with the 4/5 field. There were some very strong cat 4 climbers in the race, so I was certain the pace would be nasty up the 1200’ vertical East Hawley Road. At 80 kg, my weak W/kg @ LT would surely leave me dropped on the 8% climb, and the plan was to organize a chase and hope to catch the main field before the route 9 climb to the finish.

The wind that morning was incredible, steadily blowing around at least 20 mph. Seeing as though it was coming out of the west, it would make for an interesting finishing climb into the strong headwind. In addition, temperatures were just 60°F, which made for an unseasonably cold race for August. I suited up in my long sleeve jersey.

I sat in as much as I could for the first 21 miles which were downhill to the East Hawley Road climb. Apparently everyone had this idea. The pace was so slow it was ridiculous. There were a handful of semi-hard pushes up some of the rollers, but that’s it. My average heart rate was probably somewhere around 135 during this section which is nearly in the recovery ride zone.

After the more or less neutral first 21 miles, we came to East Hawley Road and sure enough things blew up. I maintained contact with the lead field for only the first half-mile of the 3.5-mile climb, as I noticed my heart rate climbing above 185 which would put me way into the red. I eased up just a notch and settled into a nice groove, climbing at my LT heart rate of somewhere around 180. Initially a lot of riders went by, but in the top half of the climb I was picking them off. Cresting the top a spectator indicated that the lead group had a 3-minute gap on us.

I quickly paired up with a skinny younger-looking rider. We had a little bit of trouble working together effectively at first as he would push himself too far into the red when it was his turn to pull. Eventually we found a groove and were picking up two more riders when we come around a turn and a pickup truck from the fire dpt. is blocking off the road. There were three other riders that they stopped in addition to the four of us. Apparently a tree branch had been blown off by the high winds and caused electrical wires to fall across the course, making it unsafe for us racers.

As we waited more and more fields that were staged behind us caught up and were stopped. It was very unfortunate that it was my field that ended up being split in two, as it pretty much ended my race. We were told that the gap was somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes when we were stopped, and I really think we could have made it, especially with the significant tailwind that was to come in the next 5-10 miles.

This must have been a race promoter’s nightmare. Probably around 200 racers were stopped, then rerouted around the dangerous section before being restarted. The rerouted section involved somewhere around a mile or two of dirt roads with large rocks and steep pitches. Most people walked their bikes over a good portion of it.

So we get restarted, and the twenty chasers or so in our field were told to just sort of go, with no lead car or anything because we had been dropped. Fair enough, but for some reason a statey pulled out a lead the way for us anyways. Cool. So the twenty of us are trying to stay enthusiastic with nothing really to race for, but there’s no way anyone was giving 100% at this point.

Maybe 5 miles or so after being restarted, the statey made a right turn down some road that was not the normal course. A NCC rider commented after the turn that he didn’t think this was right. It wasn’t really a big deal at this point so no one said anything as it was a turn in the right direction. However, the road bombed down a steep grade, probably 12-15%, went over some deadly potholes, then made a sharp left-hander. The two racers in front of me were very close to going down, another rider lost his chain. Just after this though we were back on route 9.

As expected, the headwind was ridiculous. At first we weren’t organized at all, and moving along at 16-17mph on the flats. The NCC rider did a great job of organizing us into an echelon, despite a few riders having no idea how to make it work which caused a little bit of yelling but whatever, at least we were going to finish some day soon.

The last five miles are about 5% grade average. With 2.5 miles to go we were still rotating around nicely, when I locked up wheels with the guy in front of me as I rotated on the back of the echelon to the forward-moving line. I think there must’ve been a huge gust of wind or something because his wheel came back rapidly at me just as I was moving over. My weight was leaned in the direction I was moving, and it resulted in me crashing. We were only going 10 mph, and I was actually able to click out and hop on my right foot without totally touching down. Unfortunately my rear derailleur impacted pretty hard and was bent. I tried to hop right back on but as soon as I did my chain went over the top cog. I shifted down a few gears and got it to work, but I was now 50 meters back. I pushed hard into the wind but couldn’t close the gap. Every time I would try to pick up the power gears would skip back and forth between cogs. By the time I made it to the top of the climb and through the finish I was pretty darn frustrated. What a crazy series of events.

Was the Witches Cup Hard?

Or at least that's what I think my Garmin data is suggesting. Below is a graph of heart rate and time. First off, my heart rate was pretty much pegged the entire Witches Cup race. Half way through I got a "break" that allowed my heart rate to fall almost to 180 (my max HR is 198). I remember feeling really good here.

In the 3/4 race at Fall River my heart rate was significantly lower. It may have been because it was my second race of the day, but I'm not sure. It also may have been the nature of the course having a significant uphill section. I recall working extremely hard when my heart broke 180 up the hill. There was a good amount of time to rest on the downhill, but I recall gasping for air there too.

This second graph shows calculated power in a range of heart rate bins. Peak power is pretty similar, with the Witches Cup being slightly higher. The bigger difference is the width of the two curves, which shows that my heart rate didn't come down as much during the Witches Cup. I'd like to figure out why this is. Was it the slightly higher power? Was it the peakier nature of the race, coasting into and accelerating out of turns three times per half-mile? Or maybe it had something to do with the Fall River 3/4 race being my second of the day.

Witches Cup

My first downtown criterium, and one of the bigger events I’ve done this year. 69 starters in the cat 4/5 race, lots of cash primes, and the strongest p123 fields I’ve seen to date. The forecast called for a perfect weather, and it turned out to be just that. The course is a triangular-shaped loop that circles Salem Commons. It is nice and wide, but there were a ton of potholes and cracks in the pavement, most of which were marked with orange spraypaint. The back stretch was the worst part. I was warming up and pedaling super soft, going maybe 14mph or so, when a rider passes me five feet to my left. Out of nowhere, the rider’s front wheel falls into one of these maneater potholes and BAM! He goes right over the handlebars and is laid out on the pavement. This is right in the middle of a straightaway pre-race, no turns or other riders in his way to force the crash, felt like a pretty ominous sign.

My legs were incredibely tight in the morning, maybe not enough stretching after my recovery rides on Monday and Tuesday. Took a few minutes out of my work day to go outside and stretch out. It seemed to help a bit. Got about 20 minutes of warmup with three, 1-minute high-cadence intervals, before the race. Heart rate seemed high, easily going up to 140-150 at low perceived efforts. If I was pedaling hard enough to keep up with everyone passing me, surely I would have been in the 160-170 range. I wonder if they warm up at higher intensity than me. Sitting at the starting line I tried to relax, heart rate still 110-120, must be nerves.

I got a really bad start. At the line I was positioned in the back third, but when the gun went off I just couldn’t click in my second pedal. EVERYONE passed me, and I had to sprint to catch on the back. This pretty much set the tone for my first four laps. There were a lot of riders in the race that were in no where near good enough shape. People starting dropping out after lap one. I’d be on a wheel, the rider would lose his ground, and I would move around. Between moving around dropped riders and dodging potholes I was expanding a lot of energy. Four laps into the race I was questioning if I’d even be able to make it 45 mintues.

Luckily, as I moved my way up things got a whole lot smoother and I was able to get in a groove, staying out of the wind. As I got more comfortable I was able to identify a section in the course where the pace eased up and I could move up relatively easily. By the mid-way point I was riding comfortably in the front third and felt very good. A few NEBC riders were doing a really good job of leading out for the primes. I was told afterwards that NEBC got 3 out of the 4 primes. Unfortunately I can’t say I had any significant part in that, I’m pretty sure I would have blown up with any big prime efforts.

The plan for the race was to stay in the front 10 wheels within 4 laps to go, no matter how much energy expenditure is required. No interest in conserving in the mid-back of the pack only to sprint by 10 people or so and take 20^th like at Fall River. Therefore, the real race is jockeying for position in the last four laps. This is tough with a strong field because everyone has this same plan. People were burning matches all over the place to move up. There was lots of bumping, moving up the outside in the wind, and just overall very aggressive riding. With 2 to go I was severely anaerobic and started riding poorly, letting big gaps form in front of me, sprinting too hard, then braking. With 1 to go I had slipped to the back, and as the pace went crazy I sat up and spun in to the finish, crossing the line 40^th out of 69 starters.

Mike Rowell made a great break going into turn 2, and stuck it out for a great win, so congrats to him!

Fall River Crit

The 4/5 field started at 8AM, which meant rolling out of bed at 5AM again on a weekend. This is really getting old fast. Not only does it suck getting up that early, I have no appetite then and I have to force feed myself. Erica says her biggest motivation to upgrade at this point is so that she can enter races that start later in the day. She’s right, it would make these races so much more enjoyable if I could “sleep in” until 7 or 8.

We arrived at about 7am, and things really weren’t all set up yet. It took a little bit to find the registration table. Ended up only getting 1 lap of warmup, so ~1 mile and no more than 5 minutes. Unlike Bow, there was no 400-foot climb right at the beginning so the first couple of laps served as a decent warmup I guess.

The course itself was pretty cool, four turns, 60-foot hill on straight, 60-foot downhill on another. The turns weren’t super-sharp, but did seem to cause a little bit of trouble here and there throughout the race. The downhill turn and straightaway had a lot of cracks in the pavement that made things a little unpleasant. The finishing stretch is a quarter-mile flat straightaway just after the hill. The course was closed to traffic so it was nice and wide. People that did the race last year said it was backwards this year.

The 4/5 race was a little squirrelly. Early on I was following a rider around turn one and he just sort of rode off of the course onto the grass for no apparent reason. He must’ve been uncomfortable cornering at that speed. Good thing he wasn’t on the inside lane. Towards the end of the race another rider locked up his brakes or hit a crack in the pavement or something, causing himself to fall and luckily only pushing a couple of other riders off of the course. It was very uncomfortable overall in the turns.

Early on Oscar went off the front, so another NEBC rider and myself raced up to the front to try and shut things down. We sat up and forced the field to come around. It was pretty meaningless in the end but made things fun.

Not a whole lot else happened during the race. A few worthless attacks went off the front, but like every other cat 4/5 crit race it came down to group finish. I was hoping to be in the front ten coming around turn one on the last lap, but I didn’t make much of an effort to position myself that way and found myself in the middle. Coming out of turn 3 and up the hill the pace really lifted up and the field pretty much exploded. I didn’t have a good wheel and was doing 25-30mph out in the wind coming up the hill. On the finish stretch I was really blowing up and got passed by two more riders despite getting out of the saddle trying to sprint. I crossed the line in 16^th out of maybe 40 or 50 starters. Ironically, a guy that Erica used to date in high school ended up winning the race.

In hindsight it wasn’t a bad race and was actually quite good in that I felt strong. It’s been a tough first season of racing and my experience in group finishes is limited. The lesson learned here is to “stay awake” at the end of the race, and that it may be worthwhile to expend a little extra energy earlier on to get into the right position.

Because I felt good, I decided to enter the 3/4 race as well. It went off at 12:15, so a fair amount later in the day. I was doing the race for experience and a workout, not so much to seek a result. This was also my first time racing in a 3’s race.

The difference from the 4/5 race was immediately noticeable. People braked BEFORE the turns which made things much less sketchy. Besides the constantly-occuring attacks, the pace was buttery smooth and it was a really fun race. An attack would come up the side, a few people would shout and call it out, and the field would swerve to the side of the road that the attack came from. There must’ve been an attack on pretty much every lap coming up the hill, we were doing 24-27mph coming up it almost every time. This kept putting me well into the red, but luckily the pace would slow dramatically across the finishing straight. This took it’s toll on me. I was beat and puked in my mouth with 4 to go, so I called it a day and pulled out. Too much free vitamin water and powerbars between races maybe, or perhaps it was the sun. I would have liked to finish the race, but was happy to have gotten such an intense workout in.

Tim had an amazing finish to the race, getting maybe a 10-second gap on the field on the last lap. Apparently he attacked on the downhill, and managed to keep the hammer down all the way to the finish.

Central NH/Bow Road Race

Felt confident coming into this race having completed two of the best and most intense weeks of training this season. Opted not to do the Concord Crit on Saturday to allow for additional recovery from an aggressive three-day block of high-intensity training Mon-Wed. Also got a new Specialized Toupe saddle on Saturday to replace my Alias which had split into two pieces.

The forecast for Sunday was great, and it turned out to be correct. Cat 4's went off at 830 AM, so it would be cool but also require a 5AM wakeup call to get to the start in time. Bummer. Almost fell asleep at the wheel on the way up. Got there a little bit later than I would of liked too, and had zero time for warmup other than pedaling a quarter-mile each way to the registration table.

From reading race reports and studying the course profile, I knew to expect a hilly course. In fact, part of the reason for choosing this race was to test my legs on the longer hills. Just a few days before the race, an email was sent out alerting racers that the course had been changed somewhat due to road construction. The change added 0.3 miles per lap and "a few hundred feet of climbing." Interesting. Cat 4's do 4 laps so thats a lot of additional climbing in the end.

Hanging with the teammates before the start, I found myself pretty much at the very front of the 100-man field. Well that's cool, I usually end up closer to the back. We roll out and pretty much immediately come across some big hill that was the result of the new route. Within 3 minutes of pushing the start button on my Garmin my heart rate reached 190. Soon after this first hill and a nice quick descent is the KOM hill. The first two-thirds of it are pretty gradual, but the last third is close to 10%. Heart rate reached 195 but I made it over intact. A turn or two later is a pretty good downhill that we got up to 55 mph on. There was a cone placed on the side of the road marking a deathly hole in the pavement. Someone at the front of the pelolton clipped this cone which sent it flying into the middle of us. Riders parted the cone like Moses parting the sea, but sure enough I heard that terrifying sound of metal against pavement. I found out later that only a few riders went down, but that it caused a nasty little split in the pack. Never did find out if anyone was seriously injured. The rollers on the back of the course weren't too bad. I do remember thinking that this course either went up or down, very few flats. I was putting in good effort, but nothing too crazy.

Coming up the first big hill on lap two killed me though, and I went right off the back. Looking at my data afterwards, my heart rate really didn't get very high (~185). I remember feeling as if my legs were just toast. Maybe it was the lack of warmup followed immediately by a 350+ watt 5-minute interval. I think this caused much more lactic acid buildup than normal. It also could have been just a lack of motivation and feeling tired from the 5am wakeup. Bottom line, need more power. Looking at the power charts afterwards I didn't even reach 300 watts for the 5-minute interval when I got dropped. I should have been able to do this.

I actually felt better as the race went on and picked up a lot of other riders that had been dropped. Seemed a lot of others were suffering too. Lap times were 31:10, 37:26, 35:27, and 38:10 for a total time of 2:22:00. The field finished in roughly 2:02:00. Most fields were doing about 30-minute laps.

This would be my last hilly race for the season were it not for the tour of the hilltowns race in 2 weeks. I pre-reg'd for that before Bow, so I may as well give it a shot. Hopefully the 4/5 field will be a little bit slower but I won't hold my breath. Maybe with some good efforts put in over the winter I can get myself ready for the hills next season.

Working Man Stage Race: Stage 2 - Circuit Race

Had a good recovery from Stage 1. Legs felt like a million bucks.

The circuit race course was pretty much the same as the time trial but with an additional little section that lengthed each lap from ~6 miles to ~9 miles. The new section introduced a new little hill similar in size to the KOM hill according to my garmin (which was only about 130’). Cat4’s went 4 laps, ~36 miles. There was a sharp 90 degree right-hander leading into a ~250m finish stretch. Yellow line rule was in effect until ~50m after the turn, which made the turn a bit sharper than it already was.

I only showed up 30 minutes prior to the start, so I was a bit rushed to sign up, suit up, and do the bathroom thing. No warmup other than doing a few circles around the small parking lot in a low gear. Got to the line and ended up pretty darn close to the very back. I hate jockeying for position before the gun goes off and just hung out at the back even though I’ve been told a million times “race at the front! race at the front!” Whatever dude.

First lap was nice and easy, was hardly breathing across the flats. The rode on the back stretch of the course had a deadly right side to it. I was dodging cracks and holes the entire time. The KOM hill was a bit of a push for me, definitely went anaerobic getting over it with the heart rate going over 185. Stayed on easily enough though.

Lap two things got more interesting. TPM and his young NHCC team did a nice job pushing their way to the front. Every time the pace picked up coming out of a corner I noticed Tim being on the very front, sweet. Well he’s cat3 now so I don’t have to worry about that any more.

Anyways, I thought I was moving up towards the front a bit myself which would have been good given the narrow course, however half way through lap two I looked back and no one was there. That sucks.

It was on lap two where my brakes started giving me some trouble. I was rocking the 44mm carbon rims but I didn’t take the time to set the pads with the proper toe-in before the race. The result was a big loss in braking power with the pads screaming and screeching every time I got on them. Talk about a good way to mark yourself as a guy to pass. The few remaining people at the back were working hard to stay ahead of me and rightfully so. I felt like a danger trying to keep tight on a wheel and was allowing way more space than usual.

This braking issue had me stressed out beyond belief. By the time the KOM hill came around I was pretty shaken up. I got on a familiar CCB wheel from the NEBC hill rides, but half way up noticed that a handful of us had been gapped by 5m or so.

Over the false flat I pushed up the power a bit to close the gap. I was almost successful, but couldn’t quite make it and completely blew up doing so, heart rate reaching 194 (196 max HR). My teammate Tom passed and urged me to push to close the gap on the downhill, but I couldn’t move.

In hindsite I should have let the gap stand over the false flat and picked them up on the downhill. The pace of the peloton slowed considerably here and I nearly caught them while gasping for air. Had I allowed the gap to gain another 2 seconds while they raced for the KOM I surely would have caught them.

Instead, I was off the back all on my own. Coming by the finish line Erica was there cheering for me to catch back on, as I was still chasing a 10-15 second gap. I destroyed myself trying but I just didn’t have it. What really hurt was knowing my error on the KOM hill and putting myself in that position.

On the plus side I felt very fit riding alone, averaging just under 21mph for the last 20 miles, not that it matters. I was close to pulling out of the race due to frustration, but in the end it felt really good to finish.

My goal for the day had been to stay with the field for the group sprint, as I think sprinting speed is my strong suite. Would have been nice to test it in the group finish, but maybe next time.

Teammate Mike Rowell (built Erica’s bike up) followed up his strong time trial with a top 15 performance, and ended up nicely in the GC as stage 3 was cancelled due to heavy rain. TPM picked up 3^rd in the GC being on the unfortunate side of a 2^nd place tiebreaker.

Working Man Stage Race: Stage One - Time Trial

David, Mike, Myself lined up at the start (photo credit two adventures)

Took the day off from work to get ready for stage one of WMSR. My plane didn’tget in until way later than it should have, and I didn’t make it to bed till 4AM. It was nice to be able to sleep to noon and get my stuff together.

Not a whole lot to say about the time trial. I came in 52 out of 57, finishing the ~6.25 miles in 16:53 @ ~22.2 mph, about 2:30 back from the leaders. There was a ridiculous amount of aero gear at the event, especially in the masters field. As a guess, 95% had aero bars, 75% aero helmets, 66% deep dish rims, maybe 10% disc wheels. I’d really like to try it again with some aero bars at least, maybe I could have finished somewhere in the middle that way, who knows. All I know is that I got a measely 24/100 points for the stage which puts me so far out of the GC it’s ridiculous.

The course itself was a lot of fun, and time trialing was overall a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There were some pretty technical turns and it was tricky judging how much to slow down. There was one hill of any real size about a mile out from the finish. It was just a little bit longer than the other rollers in the race and I may have gone just a little too deep into the red there. I was cranking my 53x19 over painfully slowly, 60 rpm tops, and couldn’t get it going too quickly over the flatish part to the top. Teammate Mike Rowell was staged 30 seconds behind me and blew by me a mile into the race like I wasn’t even moving. He finished 6^th for the cat 4’s. TPM had a big first-ever time trial for him, finishing 3^rd in 14:23.

Stage two tonight is a 35-mile circuit race. My legs feel good and fresh today, and I’m hoping to hang in there and be around for the sprint to the finish.

Colorado Trip

Awesome trip, can't wait to go back. We biked some pretty sweet routes, and there must be a thousand others in the area that are just as sick. Erica and I both rented a Giant OCR-1 with triple cranks dressed in 105. $50 for two days, much cheaper than spending big bucks bring our bikes on the plane and easier than shipping. The bikes didn't fit the best, I had an XL and Erica rode a medium, but it wasn't bad. The tall headtubes gave a very upright position so it felt pretty relaxed which was good for touring.

Being a weekend trip, my plane left at 5:30AM EST on Saturday morning, which meant I had to get up at 3:30 AM EST, the equivalent of 1:30AM RMT. Between biking every day and a severe lack of sleep, I was exhausted.

With Working Man's Stage Race coming up I was being pretty cautious not to go out too hard and stick to light to medium tempo, but when you do 6000'+ of vertical in a day, you're going to feel tired no matter how slow you go.

Day 1: Flagstaff Road

We didn’t have a whole lot of time on Saturday due to travel and didn’t make it out riding until well after noon. I think I read about Flagstaff road on northeastcycling.com and it looked pretty sick on the map so we decided it would be a good local road to give a shot.

Flagstaff heads out of Boulder on the south side and twists up and behind the flat irons. There are a number of switchbacks on the road and a lot of great views of Boulder. According to my Garmin, our starting elevation was 5200’, and I think we topped out around 7800’. This includes starting from Pearl St. in Boulder.

We were both pretty thankful to have triples on the way up. I think most of the climb could have been done on a double without too much trouble, but there were some sections near the top that must’ve been 12%+. Turning the 26(?)-25 at about 70 rpm was plenty hard for these sections anyways. Maybe it was the altitude, who knows.

Day 2: Vail Pass

After the long day on Saturday including getting up at 1:30 AM, doing Flagstaff Road, and meeting up with my Aunt and Uncle for dinner (and two bottles of wine), we somehow got up before 6 AM. It was kind of funny because we had set an alarm on our cell phones for 8 AM, and by the time it went off we were already in the car well on our way to Frisco.

The Frisco / Lake Dillon area is pretty sweet, being a hub to a ton of good bike trails both paved and dirt. There were paved bike paths that you could take including east to Keystone, south to Breckenridge, and west to Vail. It would also make a good starting point if you wanted to do Loveland Pass (12,000’).

We decided to take the path to Vail mostly just because it was the longest. I think the others were about 10 miles each way. Starting elevation was 8900’ and climbed to about 10,700’ by the top of Vail Pass. Along the way we went past Copper where they were having a half marathon.

The bike path was unreal the entire way. Some of it was pretty straight; a lot of it was really twisty. The grade wasn’t steep, but after 15 miles of subtle grade we were pretty tired and kinda sick of going 12-14mph.

At the top of Vail Pass we overheard someone say it was 5 miles down to Vail so we decided to go for it. I figured that even if it was 6% average grade that’d make for 1500’ of climbing at worst on the way back, ha! After descending for what felt like forever, we passed a sign that said it was 11 miles back up to the top, and we still had 4 miles to go. It was pretty disheartening to know you have 30 miles back to the car and nearly 3000’ of vertical.

In Vail we had a sweet lunch, took it easy for a bit, then headed back. Amazing what a good meal can do for your riding, I think we made it over the pass more easily than on the way there. Once over the pass we got to make the best descent I’d ever done. The grade wasn’t too steep, but it was just right to keep your speed around 30 mph with some tight hairpins and LOTS of good curves. I took a video of a brief part near the top. It went on like this for 6 or 7 miles.