Boloco Heartbreak Hill Grand Prix

Sunday was the first ever Boloco Heartbreak Hill Grand Prix which was put on by the Metlife Cycling Team. The race was on a 2.6-mile loop starting and finishing in Newton Center and wound its way along some very heavily used roads including both Beacon St. and Commonwealth Ave. I think most people had a common reaction when they saw the proposed course: will they really be able to close down so many intersections and pull this race off? In the end they did but several last minute changes to the course resulted in the master’s and women’s fields being cut which was really too bad, especially for the women who ended up racing with the cat3’s and did not compete for prize money.

The course itself was pretty cool, technical, a good short hill (Heartbreak Hill), and a fast finish. The start and finish line was in Newton Center which was spectator friendly. The course wove its way through some tight roads with several 90-degree turns and a technical chicane section before turning onto Com Ave. Shortly after turning onto Com Ave. the course went up Heartbreak Hill, which was a gradual 1-minute powerclimb on a bike. After cresting the hill the course turned onto a narrow back road that led out to Beacon St. The turn onto Beacon St. was tight and came after a brief downhill, and was more technical than I expected after my pre-race inspection. Beacon St. led down a fast 40+mph downhill with about a half-mile runout to the finish. Yellow line rule was not in effect except for on Beacon St. (the finish). Beacon St. is pretty wide as it is so this wasn’t much of a problem. The last 100m of the race opened up to the entire road.

97 racers started this race and many of the stronger cat4 names were there. As we lined up in the center of town, I looked around wondering how the heck I would have any chance of sneaking into the top 10 (my goal for the race). After last weekend at Nutmeg I vowed to race near the front (or at least not on the very back!) throughout the race in order to give myself a chance. Of course everyone had the same idea and wanted to start at the front. I hate lining up at a bike race like this. If you’re not being an A-hole and squeezing yourself in at the front, you’re going to start at the back. One racer (who’s name I won’t mention) showed up just minutes before the start well after everyone else was in position and squeezed himself in on the front row, right in the center. Moves like this just seem like bad etiquette.

The race finally got underway after at least 10 minutes of waiting on the line for last-minute changes to the course. I had positioned myself in the second row, between two riders on the front line. Luckily, the racer in front of me with Speedplay pedals clicked in right away and was off, and I was able to sneak through and get a good start within in the front 20 racers. The first lap was an insane pace, and the second lap wasn’t much easier. The racers on the front must have been accelerating hard out of the corners in the technical section of the course. Even in the top 20 I was really feeling the accordion effects and I can’t imagine how hard it was on the back. This start quickly reminded me of the Tufts Criterium where I was either doing 600-800W or coasting, nothing in between. Trying to avoid a repeat of that disaster of a race, I made a conscious effort to smooth things out and avoid hard 1,000W sprints coming out of turns (although I still did this twice). I suffered more during the first two laps of this race than I did at any other point, just praying that the pace would eventually ease up. After the first two laps, (~10 mintues) it did.

As the pace calmed down a bit I was able to rest and settle in, but I was overheating pretty badly by the mid point of the race. Doing any work at the front of this race was completely out of the question. Going with the long sleeve skinsuit was a bad decision with the mid-80’s temperatures. I did carry an extra water bottle for cooling and that proved to be a huge relief when I finally used it with about 3 laps to go. Until then I was suffering pretty badly each time we went up Heartbreak Hill. My legs were tired on the climb, but weren’t too bad. I was breathing hard, but not too hard. It was mostly my battle with the heat that was killing me. In my mind I was going to be lucky to finish with the pack, let alone shoot for a top 10 finish.

So with 3 to go I gave myself a shower with my extra water bottle and cooled off significantly. At this point it had been several laps since I had worried about gaining position, and if you’re not moving up, you’re moving back. I was easily 40 wheels back but I felt good now. Gradually I started working on gaining position, moving up a few wheels on the climb, and a few more on the downhill. By the time we came around for the bell lap, I was sitting in around 25 wheels back. Fortunately the course played out such that any break attempts were quickly brought back.

My plan for the last lap was pretty clear in my mind: make sure to have good position through the technical section to ensure that I would start the Heartbreak Hill climb in good position as well. I expected that the last climb would be the hardest part of the race for me, and that I would have to suffer tremendously as the pace picked up on the last lap. I needed to start the climb towards the front to maintain contact with the leaders and have any shot at the finish. It was unlikely that I would be able to climb strong enough to gain position on the finishing lap.

As we came out of the technical section I was in good position for the climb. Much to my surprise, the pace felt mellow going up the hill and there was minimal swarming. Perfect! I did bump tires with a racer in front of me as I got squeezed in and tried to hold my position. Luckily I was able to keep my front wheel under control. As we crested the top of the hill for the last time I was on teammate Bernard Tan’s wheel, and he had a close call of his own locking shoulders with the guy next to him for a few seconds. They both played it cool though and stayed upright.

I was still about 20 wheels back as we came to the tight right hander onto Beacon St. By chance I was on the outside of the turn, and with the pace really heating up for the final sprint, I just wanted to stay upright on this turn. Being on the outside I knew I was in the riskier lane, but I was also in the faster lane. I stayed as far to the outside as I could, and immediately went into sprint mode during as we came out of the turn. The racers at the front were really drilling it, and if I hadn’t powered through the turn a gap surely would have formed. I did overtake a couple racers in front of me who were letting big gaps open up, and I powered my way up to the lead group of 10 racers.

Coming down the Beacon St. hill wasn’t exactly easy, but considering that it was the 1-mile stretch approaching the finish it was extremely easy. Anyone that didn’t have an 11-tooth cog was hating life right about now. Juniors didn’t have a prayer. Our speed reached 45 mph and if you were spun out, you weren’t going to finish well. I was sitting very comfortably about 10 wheels back, practically coasting, as the people at the front of this group were probably totally drilling it. When we hit the flats I came out into the wind for no good reason, considered going for it, but wised up and stayed sheltered for just a little longer. I kept the pressure on the pedals as we came across the flats, just moving from wheel to wheel, being sure to continue moving up nice and smooth.

The finish line came up a lot faster than I expected. As I moved into 6th position I finally got a sense of how the race was playing out for the win, but the finish line was only about 100m up. Ben Liang (Target Training) had launched a super strong sprint coming around Ari Shocket (BHCC) and Colby Ricker (NEBC) who were out of the saddle in full sprint mode. I ramped up my power output just enough to move into 5th place as we crossed the line. It was a very conservative and efficient finish, and I felt like I never really laid it all out on the line, but I was thrilled to finish in 5th.

After playing the race out in my mind a bunch of times and looking at my power data, I’m still not sure which point in the race gave me the chance to be at the front. I’d quote some power numbers for the finishing durations of the race, but they’re all so low that they’re really meaningless. Looking at the results, there are a lot of names that I am surprised did not finish in the top 10 or 20. I would have expected these people to be right there for the finish. The one unique thing in my power data that I noticed was how “spikey” my power output was. My efforts on the last lap were anything but smooth, instead full of light sprinting and coasting. This kind of effort is taxing but doesn’t give high average power over short durations (like in the 1-minute range). Perhaps it was these super spikey efforts that got me to the finish near the front, I’m not really sure. Another theory is that I just stayed out of the wind for the entire race, but then again there must have been a lot of other people to do that as well. Either way, I’ll take the result, $53 is my biggest payday yet.

After the race Erica and I hung out and had beer and pizza at Bob’s Pizzeria in Newton Center while watching the cat3 and Pro/Am race. A lot of very fast riders were in the Pro/Am race and it was a blast to watch. I hope they can bring this race back for next year.