For the first season of my cycling career, I spent countless hours over the winter riding the trainer in preparation. When I say “countless” I mean 6 hours per week on average, so nowhere near what a lot of racers do. Still, six hours per week on the trainer took more commitment than twelve hours per week outside once the weather turns good. During those six hours each week the race that I had in mind was Battenkill. Of course I would use that fitness as a good jump start for the other early season races that I would do, but Battenkill was definitely the race that fueled my winter training motivation.
Last year I loved the race, but I got shelled so fast in the cat 4 field it was embarrassing. For this season I stepped up my training focus and it was much more specific for this type of race. Hills will probably never be my strong suit, but my goal is to at least improve enough to be more competitive in the hilly road races. The Battenkill Cat3 Blue field would be my first test of the season.
Equipment selection requires more attention for this race than most due to the steep hills, unpaved sections, and the overall length of the race. When we pre-rode the course three weeks ago I thought the dirt was very well packed, so I went with my usual carbon X-Lite’s with 23c Vittoria Evo’s tubulars inflated to 120 psi. I considered taking the 25c @ 90psi route, but I think that approach may have been a little overkill. More important was to maintain a good position on the road and avoid the nasty gravel patches. Low gear was a 40x26 which was fine. I loaded up the wheel truck with my clincher training wheels and carried no extra tubes, patch kits, or pumps. If I flatted in the group I’d get a wheel from the truck. The odds of me flatting outside the lead group were much less, and if I flatted then I’d call it a day.
I traveled with Shannon who was in the Women’s cat3-4 race that went off an hour before mine, and I was there with plenty of time to warm up and get ready. Traveling on Friday prevented me from being able to do any openers, and I did feel tight that morning. I warmed up for about 45 minutes and got a good look at the approach to the finish. I got to the start line plenty early and was able to start on the front row. 94 racers were confirmed on Bikereg.
We rolled out neutral through the center of town and I was lucky enough to be on the front row. I stayed there for the first couple of miles down rt. 313 mostly soft pedaling before other racers started coming around to jockey for position. Pedro’s controlled the early race somewhat and kept the pace high enough to prevent anyone from rolling off with ease. About a mile before the left turn onto Eagleville Road serious swarming began and I got a little boxed in and was about 30 wheels back by the time we went through the covered bridge.
The pace picked up once off of the major road and we cruised along as racers jockeyed for position. It was smooth and fast. Obviously there’s no yellow line on many of these roads, but we were instructed to allow enough space for a car to pass by. That’s not much space on these narrow back country roads. A handful of riders took some serious liberties with the yellow line rule to gain position, and one nearly got taken out by an oncoming truck.
Dirt section #1 on Roberson Road was easy enough and the road was smooth within the packed down automobile tire tracks. No problems there. I had floated back slightly and was right around the middle of the field as we approached the Perry Hill Road climb. Cramer was right in front of me so I felt OK about my position. The climb up Perry Hill was hard, but not crazy. A few people were drifting back and I picked up a few spots. Coming over the top I was breathing hard, but not yet too deep into the red.
The descent was fast down to dirt section #2, the infamous Juniper Hill Road. Initially I picked up a few positions, but I fumbled with my gearing slightly and got pushed way wide on the 180° hairpin turn onto the dirt and I gave those positions back. It didn’t seem too devastating at the time but in hindsight it may have cost me pretty significantly.
We moved across the dirt road to the steep Juniper Hill Road climb at a decent speed as I think Leo was on front. Still, I was able to recover pretty well from the Perry Hill Road effort when we came to the climb. The pace up the climb was hard, but I was just holding on. The surface was a lot looser than it was when I pre-rode the course 3 weeks ago and it was difficult to hold a straight line. With about a quarter of the climb to go, two of the riders in front of me must have bumped wheels or something and were forced to walk. I got by without losing momentum but there was now a gap opened in front of me. I was already floored and could not close up the space. As we came over the top of the climb I made one last hard push to close the gap but came up short. Those few positions that I lost on the descent may have made all the difference.
Descending the back side on Juniper, two or three guys came around me and we started to chase like crazy. Chasing on a dirt descent is very difficult because you can’t rotate through consistently with the loose stuff in the middle of the road. Also, the three of us were still suffering from being popped, and initially we lost ground. A few more racers caught on making us six or so, and once we reached the pavement we started a quick paceline. The field was just dangling in front of us like a carrot, not more than 20 seconds up.
Once we got on Rich Road we passed the wheel truck back and I figured for sure we would catch back on. The field was not more than 10 seconds up at this point. I was working my butt off nearly getting dropped every time I took a pull. The peloton was about 30 or 40 riders, and it looked like the guys on the back weren’t even pedaling. With the group so close in front of us, some of the chasers started attacking and attempting to bridge the last little bit. A few attempts got close, but no one was quite making it, and the legs in our group were really taking a beating.
Through feed zone #1 the field was still in sight, but I was really starting to blow up. Knowing that I couldn’t continue on like this for much longer, I took a big pull as we headed up one of the first hills on CR 64. Once again I came up just short but this time I was blown up badly and my six mile chase came to an end. I don’t know if anyone else in that chase group made it back on.
It didn’t take long after dropping out of the pace group to get picked up by some more chasers. First I tagged on with two, and we grew to five, and then eight. I think some masters 30+ racers joined in the mix, but it was hard to tell. Initially we were riding pretty effectively with the 8 of us trading ~30-second pulls. As we came out of Salem on CR 30 one of the racers tried to organize us into a constantly rotating paceline. This basically shattered our group as a couple of guys pulled through much harder than the others. Riders started skipping pulls and before long 2 guys were off the front and 2 guys were off the back. I stayed in the larger group of 4 but I was really hurting.
The course turned onto Joe Bean Road which is the longest paved climb of the day. This was also the last descent in the first four editions of the race. The climb is steeper at the beginning than at the top, and it really shattered our group. I fell back only staying in front of one racer and climbed steadily at threshold pace. My legs felt unusually tired, never having had any chance to recover. Descending down direct section #4 (Ferguson Road) I was all alone and I rode at a comfortable tempo pace. There were a handful of riders who were on the side of the road probably with flats.
The run-in to Greenwich along SR 29 is rolling but more downhill than uphill. The pavement is smoother here than any other part of the course and provided a nice break. After riding alone for 20 minutes or so, a chase group of about 6-8 riders overtook me at a pretty large speed differential. I was able to hop on with these guys and we moved along nicely. They were just taking pulls as they felt comfortable. This was much nicer than the previous chase group.
As we entered Greenwich a little drizzle of rain was coming down and the roads were slick. I think some turn marshals may have been missing here and there was a little bit of hesitation in our group as to which way we go. I went up to the front to lead since I had pre-rode the course and knew the way. I think a couple of the people in our group were nervous around the corners and it looked like we may have lost a few through town.
The right hand turn up Burton Road leads directly up a hill, and our chase group quickly came down to three. We weren’t crushing the pace, but mostly just riding around threshold on the hills and tempo otherwise. I picked up a water bottle from Erica in the feed (thanks!) and we kept plugging along. The three of us seemed to be a pretty good match.
Dirt Section #5 starts with Mountain Road, and is the beginning of the longest un-paved section in the race. It starts with climbing at a moderate grade, but with the soft, loose dirt it felt steeper than it really is. I was in my 40x23 riding just below threshold most of the climb. As Mountain Road flattens out, the dirt seemed to get extra soft. To make matters worse, the road had a high spot in the middle and was off-camber to both the right and left. Initially our group started off riding in the right-side tire track, but a soft patch of dirt sent him drifting down the right side of the road and into some extra loose dirt. He had to unclip and catch back on. This may have been the single best reason to ride with tires larger than 23c today, but it was avoidable by riding in the middle of the road.
As we continued along direct section #6 (Becker Road) we were getting much better at dealing with the dirt. It was a good thing because the descent down Becker Road was extremely fast and over more of the loose stuff. I led the white-knuckle descent and we overtook a few other racers. I stayed to the middle of the road and avoided the off-camber problems. By the time we got to Meeting House Road I had to wait for the other two members of my group. They weren’t too interested in crushing the descent.
Meeting House Road (dirt section #7) was largely uneventful. We charged over the steep rises to try and keep our momentum, but kept the pace within reason. It was still really nice having this group to work with and we continued to pick off racers. I think we were passing a lot of the citizens racers at this point, as well as 30+ and other cat3 racers. A few people hopped on for a pull, but they quickly fell off.
As we approached Stage Road (final dirt section #8) I was thinking that it would be a 5-6 minute climb. When I pre-rode the course it was right around 7-8 minutes, but I wasn’t doing it at race pace. I hadn’t counted on hard pacelining for 2 hours before that though. That changed everything. I also hadn’t done a very good job of eating. My legs were cramping and totally thrashed. My pace was somewhere right around threshold, but I lost contact with the other two guys from my chase group. Overtaking riders from other fields helped my motivation a bunch, and I kept up a reasonable power output for late in the race.
My two former chase-mates were in sight on the final descent before the final run-in to the finish. I was fighting for every position possible, and floored it until I caught the first of the two. After catching the first, we tried to work together but we were both gassed. We made up a little bit of time, but not enough to catch the second escapee. I led going around the final corner to the finish, and popped out of the saddle to launch a monstrous sprint to the finish. Upon doing so my legs said “no way buddy” and pretty much completely seized up. The other racer came around me and just held me off to the finish. I didn’t have a shot at giving a real sprint. My legs were completely trashed.
Official results aren’t up yet, but the results at cyclingnews.com have me down as 46th place which is about what I would have guessed. My finish time was right around 3 hours exactly (I didn’t have a computer), which is about 15 minutes down from the winner. Unlike last year, I felt as if I could have hung with the lead group for a while longer if my positioning was just a bit better. I was pretty pleased to finish somewhere in the middle in my first road race as a 3. I’m looking forward to Turtle Pond and Jiminy Peak in the upcoming.
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