May 21 Mt. Sunapee Ski Resort NH
Men Pro 123
62 Starters
62 Degrees Cloudy Showers
23 Mile loop X3-68 miles Rolling
Preview-I was racing the P123 field for training as the upcoming KSR is next week. Time to take some lumps and get some fast miles. Condition is good and I hope to get a top 20 but the work is the main goal.
Lap 1- Right at the start one guy rolls off, I am surfing at the back, it seems a small enough group the front is not so far away to be in real danger of not getting there if need be.
We cruised about 35MPH through the first 5 mile downhill section then turned onto the highway for the first obstacles of the day, a series of rolling climbs, none more than 1KM long.
I really had no idea how I was going to fit in with this group so at this point it was keep up and see how it goes. The speed was steady fast with lots of small attacks, but it seemed doable. At about the 10 mile mark the front break had swelled from one to about 8 and they were rolling. This triggered a panic in the main field that lasted for the next 30 miles. Everyone it seemed felt left out and wanted to bridge to the break. Attack after attack. The field would string out and break up on the climbs, then come back together, but always at speed. Despite the fact that the first lap was covered at about 26 MPH average, the front group had actually pulled out to more than a minute ahead. Incredible. They were flying, the field was flying and the gap was still growing. Attack, counter, attack, counter it just went on and on. This was the most aggressive race I had been in in years. Through the fireworks, I was stretched, but OK> Make no mistake, I was not comfortable, but not getting dropped either. At one point the field had separated into 3 groups and I was in group 3, and vowed to not let that happen again I decided it was time to really race bikes. I was not going to settle for less than group 2 and would do what it took to make sure that happened.
At about 35 miles, the leaders were now at about 2 minutes up, despite unrelenting pressure from the main field, which at this point had dropped about 20 guys. So maybe 30 in the main group and 8 or so ahead. Now in aggressive mode all the way, I sensed the guy in front of me was going, as 4 guys had established a gap to form group 2, and I was going to get there as well. He went, I followed but he jumped so hard he gapped me by about 4 bike lengths and it took me full gas for maybe a minute at 32MPH to get firmly on his wheel, holy christ that was hard. Fully redlined, we finally made contact with the chase group. That was the good news. The bad news was it happened just as we hit the major hill on the backside of the course. This was not good. I was way over the red line and had no reserve to call on at this point. The group pulled away from me, then, oh crap, the field catches me, and guys are attacking out of it up the hill as well. Really not good. No one is going even steady, it is just a full on shoot out and I am getting shot full of holes.
I had to keep contact before we crested the hill. Had to or game over. Rider after rider went by me as I labored out of the saddle praying for the top to get there before the last guy passed me. 50 meters to go, and the back of the train goes by and now a gap is forming. What can I do? Not a damn thing, I am just so blown at this point, but know down deep that unless the field slows down, which has not happened all day, I will never see them again and still have lap 3 to go. There is one straggler with me and we both put our heads down and chase for our very lives, but the field in front of us is strung out and shows no sign of any slowing. Crap crap crap. We soldier on for about 5 miles and pass the line for one lap to go and the field is now out of sight. Well, I could turn left and head to the parking lot, I have 2 tremendous hours of training under my belt for the day, but what the hell, I don't DNF unless I have a broken bone. I mention to my co-hort, at least it isn't raining. 5 minutes later, it starts raining and he is gone. OK then, 23 miles in the rain solo. What the hell, are we a bike racer or not? I guess we are, for better, or worse.
I settle into a steady tempo and ride it out to the finish. Once I got some recovery, I was actually OK, legs tired but not shelled. I picked up and passed a few blown souls from my race, they never even twitched to stay with me. Smarter than me, they were done I suppose.
Finally hit the finish, the box score showed me 41st out of 42 official finishers. 14 minutes behind the winner. Wow. That is my worst finish maybe EVER. Bottom line, my 30 year old race brain wrote a check that my 56 year old race legs could not cash and a perfect storm of events at that time blew me out of the box. Oh yeah, training was the goal. Well, I did get that.
Onward. Killington stage race up next weekend and against all old men like me!
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