Road season is over, cross season is heating up, and perched perfectly between the two is The Great Josh Billings Triathlon in the beautiful Berkshires. What a great event that has a little something for everyone. The first leg is a 500 person mass start 27 mile road race with a couple of moderate climbs. It attracts anyone from pro’s, to mtb’ers, to cruisers. Although come to think of it I’m yet to see a hipster here. That would be something. Paddling is just fun whether you have a kayak, fishing canoe, or a 20 lb carbon fiber racing boat. And runners? Well, I don’t run and have trouble appreciating what makes it fun, but being the final leg of a three leg team event has to help. (just kidding runners)
Per usual I was part of my family’s team, although this year we did have to mix it up a bit. Todd is normally our runner but he lives in Cali and couldn’t make it back for the event. So about 2 months ago Shawn decided to come out of the canoe and take up training for the run. Dad opted to paddle his Cobra Eliminator one-man kayak (K-1). Both canoes and kayaks are OK in the family division.
There were two other teams that my buds put together. The first was Erica cycling, Pat and Jamie paddling, and Pat running. The second team was Andrew cycling and his buds Bob and Greg paddling and running.
"the barf bike"
Since my Tarmac seatstay cracked at GMSR I had to build up my old Six13 in a hurry (which is also has a minor crack). I did everything I could to better my chances of getting in the breakaway and ran my carbon tubulars as well as my skinsuit. That presents some logistical challenges. I can’t repair a tubular flat on course and there’s no wheel car, so my plan was to call my high paid soigneur (THANKS MOM) if need be. Well that presented problem #2, which was that I didn’t have a pocket in my skinsuit to carry my cell phone. We got a bit creative and ended up pinning a plastic zip lock bag underneath my race number, and you couldn’t even tell it was there. Great idea Pat.
Naturally we get to the start later than I want, about 40 minutes before the start. Warmup was a bit rushed and I got to staging late. I line up at the back of the USCA racers and when the first rope dropped (think GMSR criterium staging) I was able to get to the front row although on the far left side. Nice.
On the line I finally have a chance to look around and start sizing up the competition. What do you know, the guy behind me is wearing an aero helmet and an Indy Fab kit. I think it might be Robbie King because I’m a pro results stalker and do race against him from time to time, although it’s usually a p123 race and I’m going off the back while he goes off the front. Turns out it is him. Our conversation went something like:
Me: Should I be concerned that you’re wearing an aero helmet?
RK: No, not at all. Should I be concerned that you have Edge wheels and pink handlebar tape?
How witty. We shook hands, wished each other good luck, and I was blessed with his pro/cat1 roadie power and it was awesome.
Actually it turned out that there were a few more fast guys than usual. Will Dugan (who also had an aero helm!), Josh Dillon, Josh Lipka, Chris Fischer, Todd Roberts, Dieter Drake were some of the other upper category racers. No Jamey Driscoll or Nat Faulkner this year. OK that’s enough name dropping, but you get the idea, a few more fast people here than usual.
me and a girl in pink leading out robbie king with 27 miles to go
I was too busy posing for photographs and wasn’t paying attention when they dropped the rope for the start. Somehow in a panic I clipped in right away and off we went.
The start through Great Barrington seemed faster than usual to me. 500m in I thought I even saw 3 or 4 guys with a gap and thought that would have to be some sort of new record for the earliest break ever. But that may be too early even for riders of this caliber and we booked it through town as a big bunch like usual.
I rode the right side of the pack and it was one of those days when I just couldn’t get in a good spot. I was sliding back too quickly and kept having to come up the outside taking more wind than I’d like. When we hit the right hand turn to the first hill I was about 20 back on the inside.
I may just be stronger than the last time I did this race for real, but I’m pretty sure the pace up the hill was way slower than usual. No power meter to know for sure but about two-thirds of the way up the climb I was barely under pressure and we were super bunched up. The fastest guys tend to dictate the pace, and with so many new fast guys I think there may have been less of a plan than usual.
Attacks came near the top I was boxed in ~20 back and couldn’t respond immediately like I wanted. A few holes opened up as some of the people in front of me reached their limits and I started riding like a madman. 9 riders had gapped the rest of us by 50 meters already. I really did not want to let this move go and dug as deep as I could like it was the finish of the race. Another BCA rider was in the same boat. When we weren’t able to catch them at the top of the climb I gave up. I’ve fallen trap before to chasing down groups on the descent that immediately follows. With so many cat1’s it seemed like suicide.
However, the BCA rider was more spirited than me and he continued to chase. I really thought he didn’t have a chance. I watched him chase and chase and chase in no man’s land as I settled in to what would become the first main pack. He must’ve been riding alone for nearly 5 minutes, but he did actually make it onto the breakaway group. I was really impressed.
Our first pack was HUGE after the first hill. Like 40+ huge. In 2008 I think we were only 20 at this point. And we were motoring too. The breakaway group was going a lot slower than I expected and I’m pretty sure we were slowly reeling them in, all the way to the second climb, but we never did catch them. The gap was probably down to 10 or 15 seconds at the minimum though. I did nothing to contribute because I couldn’t. I had really spent myself trying to claw back on to the breakaway group over first hill and went deeply anaerobic. My legs were shaking, my breath short, and just recovering in the draft was difficult. The second hill that was coming up is usually the hardest of the day for me and I needed a good recovery.
In 2008 our smaller first pack hit the second climb at what I considered to be an easy initial pace. It seemed much harder this year. With the breakaway group still in sight, two or three people attempted to bridge. They didn’t make it, but it was a darn brave move that really made me suffer and you have to respect that they tried. A lot of people were sag climbing or blowing up at the last little kicker of this second hill and I think there may have been some additional selection.
With the 2nd hill behind me I was recovering well and confident about not being dropped. I contributed a small bit to the pace making including a long pull on the big descent of the day. I hoped my aero toys would let me go fast so I really drilled it like we were on an uphill. I may have given a little too much on that downhill and actually had trouble getting back in the group.
Around the time we went through West Stockbridge one of the Battenkill United guys made a crazy move across the bunch and just missed chopping off my front wheel. That really shook me up and made me especially irritable for the next 10 minutes or so. I didn’t have many nice thoughts during that period, and I don’t really want to write about them, so let’s just skip ahead.
starting to move up along the false flat after stockbridge
Things were pretty uneventful until after the Stockbridge hill, other than more stupid riding and near crashes. I was sitting on the very back of the field going up the steep parts of the Stockbridge climb, but on the long false flat after that I went straight up to the front. That was refreshing; less people to worry about.
Some dudes were drilling it along the fast rolling downhill section just before the Stockbridge Bowl causeway and the final climb of the day. I was being a pest wanting to stay at the front but not contribute much to the pacemaking. I knew people would attack the last climb of the day and wanted my legs to be ready.
Sure enough, people attacked the second the road kicked up. Actually, several people attacked on the false flat just before the climb really begins. I remember thinking, yeah right, good luck holding that pace. Sure enough they didn’t hold it once the road got steep, and that’s when the counters came.
I was all over the counterattack and we held a fast pace all the way to the top of the climb. My legs were screaming but the course was packed with spectators and you can’t stop pedaling. I heard the guy in the Cherry Picker call off my number, 168, also motivating. Four or five of us had a little gap, and someone had the legs to keep drilling it even at the top when it flattened out. I was totally at my limit and could never have been pulling at that speed, so I was surprised when some people were able to reattach to us on the flat.
There were lots of punchy little moves the rest of the way to the finish, and I don’t think anyone really got ahead by much. I generally stayed within the first 3 to 5 wheels, just hopping around as I could.
Like everyone else I was almost in a sprint as we pulled into the finish where all the paddlers awaited. I was right with the front of the group and was beyond anxious to hand off my wristband to my Dad so he could run over the chip timer that would stop my cycling split time. He had a humble position far from the front of the masses and it took him maybe FIVE SECONDS to take my handoff although to me it felt like FIVE MINUTES. And when I finally did see him I thought it was a good idea to toss the wrist band to him. You know, so he could save 0.5s from reduced running distance. Of course I tossed it poorly so he couldn’t catch it and ended up costing us more time.
By the time I finished clowning around I was scored officially 14th place, 1:07:13. The guys that I remember finishing with were in 11-12th place, 1:07:02 to 1:07:05. A few seconds isn’t a big deal in the overall picture even those it’s an eternity in a road race. I can’t knock on the handoff too much though, it was probably pretty average overall. One of the other guys I finished with is scored 10 seconds behind me. And I heard Robbie King threw his wristband deep into the mass of paddlers that were standing around and that it took a good minute for anyone to find it. Another paddler was in the John when his cyclist came in. Yea, so it could’ve been a lot worse.
Erica finished in 1:19:53, 5th bike split for woman I think, and Andrew did a respectable 1:23:26 after getting dropped from his pack due to a dropped chain. Who built that bike anyways?!
The paddlers had a slightly longer day in the water than usual (see below). Dad finished in a respectable 1:06, Pat&Jamie in 1:09, and Bob also did a 1:09.
Shawn did a 46:02 10k to get us finished in just under 3 hours which is always a big target. Solid split for a 230 lb’er too. I wish I had a powermeter on him! Pat did a 44:46 and Joel a 48:25. All real solid splits. I don’t think I could get under 50 minutes. That course is hilly!
We were happy to finish under 3 hours and got 4th in the family division. Really exciting considering we were a man down this year. Results are here. Great pics here.
bike splits plot
You can really see a lot about the race when you plot time and place. The cycling plot is the most interesting because you can see the different groups. The 10 person breakaway group split into 3 and 7. The 3 finished very fast while the 7 weren’t particularly fast for a breakaway. The first pack was the biggest that it’s been in years (23), and it also finished fast too (the two probably go hand in hand). The second pack was quite large as well. Beyond that, things were pretty typical.
canoe splits plot
Here’s the same plot but for the boats. Like the cyclists, the very fastest boats are abnormally fast. Generally the fastest boat time doesn’t vary much either. This year’s fastest boat time was nearly 44 minutes, which is really slow for a winner, and they beat out 2nd place by over a minute. Times stay slow pretty much all the way out on the placings. Having not paddled in several years I don’t know if this is due to wind or buoy placing or what. Assuming that the race isn’t any less competitive (more entrants this year), the trend seems to be that the boat leg is getting longer.
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