Memorial Day weekend has come and gone which means the New England stage races are upon us. Killington Stage Race is back on the calendar for the first time in years and in 2010 was the first of several high quality stage races.
This year’s cat3 edition was made up of 3 stages in 3 days, including what I would consider to be a moderately hilly 72 mile circuit race, a slightly uphill point-to-point 17 km time trial, and a 61 mile queen stage with 2 major climbs. Absent from the race was a criterium.
In addition to the general classification competition were sprint and KOM competitions. 30 sprint points were up for grabs on Stage 1 and only 6 on Stage 3. For the KOM, 20 points were available on Stage 1 and 32 on Stage 3. No points were available in the time trial.
There were not a lot of big teams in the cat3’s. Onion River Racing had 4 and was the only team with more than 3 racers. NEBC was lucky to field 2, with Keith having to deal with all sorts of moving issues the week of the race. Exhausted and off his game, he showed up ready to race. I was pumped to have a teammate.
Stage 1 – Circuit Race
Four laps, 18 miles per lap, and one KOM and one Sprint on each lap. I wasn’t at all familiar with the course and was a little worried about how serious the KOM hill would be. The GMSR circuit race climbs have historically given me trouble, but I’m also climbing a lot better these days. I didn’t need to be strong up the hill and at the front over the KOM, just strong enough to be able to stay attached after thrashing my legs in the sprint every lap.
For some reason I thought there was no chance of rain this weekend and brought no rain gear and very little cold weather gear. It was pouring at the start. Sort of like Quabbin the course was downhill for the first several minutes and with no warmers or rain gear I was freezing until the first time up the KOM hill.
On the first lap I stayed near the front so I could sag climb the KOM hill if necessary. It wasn’t necessary. The climb was pretty long but I don’t there was anything above 4% or 5% on the way up. There were also several flat or even short downhill sections for recovery. Only a huge effort on the front or a complete betrayal of the legs would have put me into difficulty. In fact, on the first lap I think I even had the legs to go after the KOM points. That was a first.
A 4-man break went clear at the KOM. I descended the steep hill and made the 90 degree turn on the front of the field, so I thought I would attempt a bridge effort. We were just going after sprinter’s points and it was very early in the stage race, so I thought maybe the field would let us go. They didn’t, and we were brought back quickly.
The 4-man break wasn’t too far up, certainly within sight, but we weren’t bringing them back. There was a section after the KOM hill that was surprisingly tiring. Every lap I would start feeling tired and couldn’t understand why. It didn’t seem like we were going up anything steep. I think this may have discouraged a serious chase.
The run in to the finish line/ sprinter’s line was a long downhill followed by a 400 meter perfectly straight section of road. We were descending at around 45 mph so a big gear was necessary for the sprint. My 53 x 11 was fine, but if we were going any faster or if I had one less gear it would have been a lot harder. The tech manual recommended a 55x11 “if you are a sprinter going for the win.” I’m beginning to think gearing recommendations are more for the fastest fields than for the slower fields.
So we approach the sprinter’s line on lap one and I’m watching the signs carefully. The 5 km sign passes and soon after the 3 km sign passes. I’m crunching numbers in my head as we go, thinking 60 kph is 1 km per minute, we’re going faster than that, so 500m to go is less than 30 seconds out.
We come around the corner just after the 500m to go sign, and I get my first glimpse of the finishing straight. 400 meters sure looks like a long way to go on a dead straight road. I was sitting second wheel and wasn’t under any difficulty, so I rode off to the side of the person in front of me to give myself a clear line. With 4 people up the road there was only 1 spot left for points, and I didn’t want to make a super long sprint if I didn’t have to.
Danny Habig (Luzzo’s) jumped hard from about 300m and really caught me off guard. I hesitated too long and got gapped. I did catch him right at the line but there wasn’t enough road to come around. The finish line seemed to be several meters in front of the officials stand, so that threw off my perspective a bit. Second in the bunch sprint meant 6th across the line, so no points on lap 1. At the time I wasn’t sure if the break was 3 or 4, so I thought we might have been sprinting for 4th and 5th.
Lap 2 was much more of the same as lap 1, except this time I didn’t fight as much to stay at the front over the KOM. I sat in, ate some food, and waited for the KOM to pass. As I started moving to the front I realized that the break was hovering out there still and we weren’t doing much to bring them back. A few people took some pulls, and some others attacked, but we were making very little progress. One guy did drop out of the break and verified that there were only 3 left in it.
Somewhere before the final descent I lost my good position and was 20 wheels back. I was a bit panicked and didn’t think I’d be able to find the front before the sprint. Luckily a gigantic space opened on a right hand turn in the breakdown lane as racers drifted towards the outside of the turn. I moved right on up to second wheel by the time we hit 500m to go.
Again, I was sitting to the side of the wheel in front of me ready to jump as the finish came in to view. My teammate Keith jumped with ~350m to go. I was ready for someone to jump on the early side, similar to the first lap, and I was able to get on his wheel. Knowing that I had his wheel, he led me out all the way to the finish and we went 1-2 out of the bunch, so 4-5 for the sprint.
On lap 3 we went a bit harder and caught the break before the KOM. I think I must’ve been getting a little tired because I found myself floating towards the back. I also lost a lot of positions going slowly through feed zone looking for Erica, then nearly crashing with Aaron who was trying to take his feed. I got forced behind the feeders and was lucky not to hit anyone. I got my feed from Erica but was gapped by 100 or 200 meters by the end of the feed zone. Aaron and I made a short hard chase and caught back on by the steep descent.
Needless to say I was way out of position for the sprint. I moved up like crazy from about 5k out, and once again was able to move up huge amounts of positions on the downhill right hand turn about 1k out. I was about 10 people back coming around the final turn with 500 meters to go. Once again the inside of the turn was clear and I pushed through IN THE BREAKDOWN LANE until I was second wheel, right on Gary Aspnes’ (Horst) wheel.
We were sprinting for max points this time, and with 200m I took what I saw to be a lane on the yellow line. I had great acceleration, and I thought I had the points, but as I came around I think a gust of wind or something forced us all just a little to the left. For me, this meant I crossed the yellow line by about 2 feet, and right in front of the official’s stand. Not wanting a penalty, I sat up and hit the brakes so that I could move back behind Gary, within the yellow line, and back into 3rd place.
Ever sit up and brake mid-sprint when you’re overtaking first place? It sucks and it takes a lot of discipline. You do it because you’re aware of what’s going on, aware of the rules, and because you want to race within the rules. Given the situation, I thought I did the right thing and I still think so. Despite my multiple protests, the officials did not agree and decided to give me not only the 30 second GC penalty but remove me from the sprinter’s competition altogether as well.
Ultimately these penalties would make little difference on my result. However, this was my first time ever protesting anything with US Cycling, and I am really disappointed about how that process works. After a conversation that lasted over 20 minutes, the conclusion was that the penalty would stand because I advanced 10 positions and deliberately crossed the line, even if I did sit up and concede the sprint. This isn’t at all true, and I just can’t believe that I wasn’t even allowed to speak to an official with decision-making capability when I was being hit with a penalty that would hurt me in both the GC and sprinter’s competition.
Anyways, that’s a bit of a side story and there was still a race on hand. We were gruppo compacto on the fourth and final lap and it was lining up to be a bunch sprint. The pace up the KOM hill was stiff on the last lap and if you were tired or cramping it would be easy to fall behind. I was feeling small signs of cramping in my right ankle of all places, so I was trying to stretch that out. Otherwise I felt good and snappy and was loving my odds in the sprint.
Coming around the 90 degree turn after the fast descent we stretched out single file and the pace was nuts. I was probably under more pressure here than at any other place during the race. To move up during this chaos would surely have been a maximal effort for me. In hindsight, not doing so cost me my chances at a good finish.
When we reached the downhill we bunched up as tight as I’ve ever seen. Nobody was under pressure and everybody wanted to be at the front. Without any large team presence to set up a fast leadout train we remained bunched up for the entire descent. I eventually worked up to about 25th wheel on the inside when a cross of the wheels brought about 4 riders down including Matt D’Alessio (Threshold) and Gary Aspnes (Horst). I was just to the inside of this and eased up a bit as racers demonstrated their maneuvering skills to avoid the crash.
A bunch of 15 or so went clear in front of the crash. I sprinted to catch up with them but there was no fighting for position beyond that. The road was still packed from side to side and there was nowhere to go. It sure is frustrating ending a 72 mile race with a sub maximal effort. In hindsight my mistake was not moving up more when we stretched out single file, or maybe during the KOM climb.
Guido Wollmann (the happy German) took the win in a very uncharacteristic sprint victory. Either he is just really good at being aero or he has more sprint power than he gives himself credit for. Big congrats to him.
I finished 19/73 in 2:53:03.
Stage 2 – Time Trial
The stage 1 road race was a very important race to me since very few road races having flat finishes. Since I was no longer in the sprinter’s competition I just wanted to see how well I could do on the GC. I had no teammate to work for, so the plan was just to sit and see where I’d end up.
I didn’t feel very well prepared for the time trial. In previous seasons I’ve spent hours and hours trying to dial in my position and test what feels good. I didn’t do any of that this year, although I think I did benefit from the previous years’ experience. Prior to Sunday’s stage 2 time trial I’d spent just about exactly 1 hour total in 2010 on my time trial bike.
Fortunately for me, that 1 hour of TT bike time was surprisingly successful. I started off at a place beyond where I’d left off in 2009. At the CBTT, just 3 days before KSR, I PR’d by 50 seconds with a 22:48 (25.7 mph) time. That PR effort included mechanical issues and all sorts of bike comfort issues that resulted in terrible average power. The good news was that I am way more aero on my new bike than I’ve ever been before.
The KSR TT is 17 km of very gradual uphill grade and includes a few moderate kickers. This year we were also treated to a headwind of 18 mph according to weather.com. I figured that between the wind and gentle gradient aeroness would trump power output. I could have raised my handlebars to increase my power output, but I didn’t want to risk losing my sweet aeroness from Wednesday’s CBTT.
My plan was simple. Put the cruise control on modest TT target of 285W (3.85 W/kg) and keep it steady all the way. There were just a handful of places that I would go slightly harder or easier on, and I wanted to really go hard on the kicker just before turning off of Rt 4. I was expecting it to be a 27-28 minute effort, and I really didn’t want to blow up after 15 minutes.
I could have fallen asleep in the first bit of this race. Almost nothing happened, at all. I did pass my teammate, but I knew he didn’t have much aero gear or ambition for the TT. Other than that I just stared at that white line that brought me towards the finish.
Sean Smith (Champion System Racing) passed me on the rollers just before the gondola station going into the stiff headwind. He had no aero gear. None. I think he even had box rims. I was maintaining good power output at this point too. For a minute or two I tried to catch him, but I got incredibly frustrated when I realized that I could not.
The long, straight grind after the gondola station was brutal. I was so uncomfortable that I came out of the aero bars for a brief period. Realizing how much slower I was going, that didn’t last long. My power output dropped below 250W for a 5 minute period along this point. I was also getting blown all over the road. Luckily no one was trying to pass me. I passed another rider without aero gear just before the kicker.
Ken and Erica were at the kicker to cheer me on and they couldn’t have picked a better place. Ken sprinted alongside me like it was le tour and when I got to the turn I realized I was doing over 500W. Granted the effort nearly killed me and I needed to completely stop pedaling for a few seconds on the following downhill, but that was absolutely awesome!
The twisty final section running into the finish wasn’t nearly as cool as I expected. I’d envisioned myself flying around the turns at over 30 mph with laser-like precision, but instead I struggled to hold 25 mph as I weaved all over the road. Falling apart, I was doing short little bursts of 400W over the rollers while suffering at 200W in between. I crossed the line a broken man and expected a terrible result.
My finishing time was 28:27.86, 2:36 down, which was good enough for 32/69. My average for the effort was a measly 270W (3.65 W/kg) with decent pacing. That sounds terrible to me and I can hardly believe it put me in the top half on my field. Once again, whatever setup I’m on right now seems to be very aerodynamic. I’m going to have to start testing more upright/powerful positions.
TT bike efforts hurt in a bad way when you’re not used to the position. You can’t go any harder and it feels like you’re only using a fraction of your legs muscles. I get done and my legs feel fine. Other people are talking about their muscles feeling torn or something. I just don’t get that on the TT bike despite feeling like absolute death while I’m racing.
Stage 3 – Road Race
This stage is the reason we drive to Vermont to race bikes. 61 miles isn’t anything unusual for a cat3 race, but when you throw in two ~1,000 vertical feet climbs that are ~15 minute efforts you’ve got something special for New England. The climbers were licking their chops.
I’ve done way more climbing this year than ever before and I wanted to see how I’d stack up against the best 3’s in New England. My expectations were still low as I’ve been training climbs to survive the hills, not to excel at them. Also, these climbs are way longer than the punchy 5 minute climbs I do around Boston. I didn’t know how I’d hold up.
The first 25 miles were rolling gradual downhill and I did nothing but conserve. I think Leo (Threshold) was up front for an awfully long time keeping the pace high likely to discourage attacks. They were defending the KOM jersey for Devin.
Actually, I did more than just conserve in those first 25 miles. I avoided potholes. That road was like trying to cross a minefield. I really didn’t want to flat and I really didn’t want to wreck my good carbon wheels. I think I only cracked one pothole hard the entire time. Luckily there was no damage. It was also tough to eat in the meantime and I dropped a Cliff bar.
A small break went up the road shortly before the sprinter’s line. The guy wearing the sprinter’s jersey was too far back and missed it. I think Guido ended up third in the sprint and taking the jersey, but somehow he crashed right on the line. Not sure what happened there but he finished out the race.
I wanted to be in good position for the first climb so I could stay with the group and ride a steady pace. Somehow I ended up being the first guy to hit the climb and set the pace. Not sure how that happened. I think I was a little flustered/excited at the time and despite starting off at what felt like an easy pace, I’m sure it was way too hard for me.
It took a while for anyone to come around me and I tried to stay in the middle of the road to slow down the pace as much as I could. Slowly and surely more and more riders came around me, and they continued to get bigger and bigger. The road was just started to get a little less steep when I got dropped, but I was deep into the red at that point. I was in a small group of 3 initially, and I could see another group of 3 not far up, just behind the peloton.
The majority of the climb really isn’t too bad, it’s just that initial wall that’s the killer. Once we got gapped, the lead group of ~25 or so put all sorts of time into us. There was probably a good drafting benefit to be had along here.
Our chase group caught the chase group in front of us just after the KOM. We started pacelining, but a fast descent and sharp left turn broke that up. A large chase group of 10 or 12 caught us on the climb up the feed zone and we were now a chase group of 20. I got a good feed from Erica as always in the feed zone.
This 20-man chase group was amazingly cooperative. All things considered, we rotated smoothly for miles and miles. We even kept a decent pace through the uneventful dirt section and reorganized when we hit the pavement. We were rewarded by catching the peloton at about mile 45.
Once we rejoined our group was probably 50 people or so. I heard someone say there were 2 people about 1.5 minutes up when we rejoined the main field. I’m not sure, but I don’t think we caught them before the base of the final climb and it’s possible no one ever did. I was just happy to be back in the main field as it was a huge break for the legs. Not that a 20 man paceline is overly taxing.
We hit the base of the final climb in what felt like no time. Suffering over the long first climb and chasing made time fly.
Our group exploded on the lowest parts of the climb. I was dropped quickly from the middle of the pack along with several others as I was unwilling to go above threshold.
Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the raw skin on my thighs, or maybe I just need to train on longer climbs, but I never got into a very good groove. I just couldn’t find the right spot to start cranking away in. I ended up losing 7.5 minutes to the eventual winner, but he also had 2 minutes over 3rd place so I think he might have been in that breakaway. Still, I lost a solid 5 minutes on this climb and I thought I’d be able to do just a bit better than that. Oh well.
I finished the day 45/67 which isn’t too good considering how many people had flats or had other goals. At least I made it though, this really isn’t a strength of mine. I finished the race 40th on the GC, so pretty much mid field.
Summary
Despite my little dispute with the officials, this race was awesome and I had a ton of fun. I would have liked to have a little more to show for it as I felt like I was on really good form, but that’s OK. There are a lot of good races on the horizon. I’ll leave you with some of the behind the scene highlights from the weekend:
· A jam-packed car ride there http://tweetphoto.com/24410918
· Threshold Cycling’s hot tub time machine http://yfrog.com/2pt85ej
· Race/wash repeat http://twitgoo.com/xq5tv
· Tim wins another TT http://twitgoo.com/xu73r
· 545 AM wakeup call for stage 3
· Post-race @ Long Trail http://twitgoo.com/xwqxe
· Dave’s phenomenal packing efficiency http://twitgoo.com/xwnyo
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