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.