reports are Jill 2nd place on her race!!

BOOM

Nice work Jill! Congrats.

hotness!!

Oh man. It's been a long time since I've gotten shelled off the back so hard. From my angle it looked like the whole field exploded on lap 2. Niall and Sean were in better shape than I was when I finally puked into my mouth and had to dial it back under 300 watts. DNF'd, ate a grilled cheese sammy, rolled home. Looking forward to hear more race reports from this STACKED 4 field.

So yeah, apparently after doing 12 straight minutes in your VO2 range ...

I got spit out the back on the first hill, Ugh, I feel so demoralized 

Awesome job Jill!!! Congrats!!! Girl deserves every ounce of that podium! Killed it yesterday too!! HOLLER!!

ChaimSeewald said:

I got spit out the back on the first hill, Ugh, I feel so demoralized 

I've never done that race...for that reason. Chaim this race has to be a season's goal...or at the very least something you train specifically for for a long time.  It's a climbers race...there are few of them on the calendar.  Don't be demoralized...be motivated.  Park races should feel easy now

Another perspective....

Met at 530AM, no rain but wet roads. Loaded up the hire car and hit the road. Beautiful sunrise over the East River. As we approached Bear the rain started and it didn’t properly stop whilst we were putting the bikes together and getting dressed. Turns out yesterday’s race was a perfect test bed for clothing choices so I wore the exact same today. I felt very nervous, I think we all did. Whistle, "relaxed" neutral descent, lots pushed forward but despite the warnings I wasn’t one of them. I did shift down before the turn though – expert tip from the recce ride. I saw lots of people suffer without that tip.

The race didn’t start properly until we were all together on the climb and then the front group went. I was too far back but feel like I could have gotten onto it if I’d really wanted to. Instead I rode within myself at this point @Scott Kuhlke and @Will Kalbacker were behind me, @RileyHoonan , @GiacomoVischi and @MaxThorn up the road. After the roundabout I started to work with a guy in GFNY kit. The front groups were way off at this point, neutral service passed us on the stretch after the roundabouts, I’m pretty sure everyone else behind was strung out. At some point the rain stopped and the roads started to dry. For the rest of the race my companion and I would share the wind pretty evenly, catch people, ride with them a bit and then eventually drop them. We did this consistently for the whole race. Third time up the climb by riding mate was blowing hard but he held on which was handy for the flat sections and rollers. At some point we passed Riley and towards the last 10km or so we caught up with Giacomo but he didn’t join in, at this point my GFNY pal was losing touch on the ups. 7km to go and I decided not to hold back so just pounded hard for the remainder and passed a few more people. Finished feeling very tired but not totally exhausted. Maybe I didn’t ride hard enough but I’m glad I finished strong and enjoyed it. It’s tough to gauge the effort levels I guess. Maybe I could have ridden with Max the whole way but I don’t think so, he did really well. Felt like great training for Battenkill in 2 weeks. Ultimately I don’t think my position on the first climb made any difference to the outcome of my race there is a lot of disparity in the 5s it seems which is amplified in such an elevation heavy race. Cheers to Riley for transportation logistics and big kudos to @JillSink for 2nd, that’s mega.

Today was awesome, when will this fun stop? I’m having a ball riding bikes for Kissena.

Great job everybody - excellent prep for Battenkill as well.

The race was very good, I think we all did a great performance.
Max was very strong today, me and him joined a counter attack in the first climb and stayed in the group for the first 2 laps and half. Lost some contact in the last descend, I tried to delete the gap in the last climb but I was pretty stiff and I kept them at eye distant without pushing too much to reach them. After the top of the climb in the flat section, riding solo I totally finished the energies and saw Max and the others go away. James caught me before the finish, didn't have legs to keep up. 
Still I am very happy of the result and see we all were pretty aggressive fighting all the time.

Oh so humbling, oh so much fun.  Rain, then loads rain, then a bit of dryness.  It was awesome.

Rolling behind Max, I got dropped halfway up the first hill. My positioning was mid-pack, and like James, it really wouldn't have made a difference.  I settled in with a group with Will and Riley and we stayed together for the rest of the race.  A moment of weakness struck on the second hill climb as the group pulled ahead of me and a motorcycle put-putted behind me.  I thought I was finished.  But as we hit the flats after the hill and into the exposed lake crosswind, no way was I gonna the rest solo.  I dug in deep and bridged the group.  Got my fitness back, did some more pulls and fast descents. Props to Riley pulling for a long amount of time.  It seemed like Will, Riley and I were near the front of our group the entire 2nd half of the race working a lot together.

At the end of the race, Will and I worked together to bridge a gap and catch and beat two riders for the final sprint.  Hey, its Cat 5, we're far from the front, but honey badger don't give a  ...

Killer time.  Looking forward to Battenkill.

That race was stacked, hard, and a bit humbling. I cramped up a little on the second climb up tiorati and wasn't able to go with the front group of 20 or so. Chased for the next few miles but wasn't able to get on by my lonesome. Did the next 3/4 of a lap with 2 others, picked up 2 more that were chasing and then there were about 10 of us together until the end. 

I felt pretty good, bummed I didn't get in that front group, but definitely got some hard miles in the legs. Looks like the group of 5 or 6 that got away must have been hammering and working well together considering the winner of the 4 race beat the winner of the 3 race time wise, which came to a bunch sprint.

All in all a solid day of racing. Props to Jill and all the 5's who ventured out in the rain.

Trying to figure out how Whitey DNF'd a climbing race on an 8lb bike ??? 

anyone knows of where we can find pictures of the race?

twoyacks said:

Trying to figure out how Whitey DNF'd a climbing race on an 8lb bike ??? 

Dunno.  Maybe because be tried something new and went out and did a race that wasn't on the same one of two pan-flat courses that he had raced on, over and over for decades on end.

You should try it, Yacks.  Otherwise, you'll simply be known as Chris 'Nascar' yacks.  Round and round, all left turns...

Oh look....we've got Harry Styles throwing insults from the west coast. Keep it up and I'm telling immigration your visa expired....
Pan flat course....PAN FLAT COURSE !!!!  If there are no hills in Prospect...then explain this !!!

 Please...calm your tits...I just competed in the Palmer & Monson race weekend:

04/29/2001 - Monson Road Race | RR
DNF / 77	-	Christopher Yack	90621
04/28/2001 - Palmer Road Race | RR
42 / 77	-	Christopher Yack	90621		281

Thank god there isn't a King of the Smack Talk Mountain... we'd be up to our eyeballs in Yaks-Jersey-Pr0n....

Respect. 

Hors catégorie

I always look forward to this race.  Love the course, love the challenge.  

Last year was a disappointment.  i had good legs all week, and then empty on race day.  This year, I was sick during the week and cut my training.  Could it mean good legs for race day?

The weather was good.  about 60-degrees and sunny.  A guy I barely recognized offered to feed me.  Covered.  Air in the tires, and not feeling terrible.  I like it.  

I know the race is supposed to be "neutral" to the bottom of the hill, but the front is always easier.  I get to the front quickly and stay there.  round the corner, race starts, I stay at the front, figuring steady riding will minimize early attacks.  As I'm riding solo, and there are a number of teams with three riders, I worry that a small split could occur and then no one would chase.

about three quarters of the way up, Andrew Bernstein, whom I had been chatting with at the front moments earlier, just ups the tempo slightly.  I could tell he was going a bit harder, but I didn't think it was a big deal.  I stay steady, expecting the "teams" will up the tempo.  They don't.  

Felt kinda dumb, though I had all of a few seconds to decide whether or not to join.  Bernstein was out of sight.  A few miles later, the SRAM support car leaves us to join him.

There are a few attacks, but people aren't going for it.  I'm staying in the top ten without issue.  

Second time up the climb, my front tire starts to get squishy.  I drift back when it seems serious.  THere's no follow car.  (up the road).

Race over.  I wait four minutes for a wheel.  I get one from the follow car for the following race.  It's a 19mm wide rimmed Zipp 404, a problem because my brakes are set up for a 26mm wide rim.  No real braking power in front for the rest of the race, but I'm not going to be riding in the field.

Several miles later,  guy chases me down and proposes he does the majority of the work on the flat and I set tempo on the hills.  Turns out I'm stronger in both, but it's company, and we catch two more.  And a few more.  I end up doing my last lap and some with Tony Taylor, who had been dropped early in the pro/am.  

22nd.  Beautiful day for riding, even if the racing part was over in 17 miles.  Power numbers were pretty decent overall, would love to have seen what I could have done without the flat.  

4 mins for a wheel change completely sucks JP. 

Great to hear everyone's RRs, we had a lot of representation too.

If anyone has time, I'd love to hear what the learnings were... For those new to racing, it's constructive to run through expectations before; team strategy; tactics; individual goals and describe how that played out. How you'd do it differently next time. It's also good to examine how the winning team & rider did their thing. That way we can all learn about the pitfalls, tips and challenges of a particular race course.  

i had fairly low expectations going in. i haven't been on a training plan but i figured i'd do what i could. initially the 5s had told each other to stay together and put in some moves later on. however plans can be hard to keep when some people (me) can't keep up. 

first decent was neutralized and stayed neutralized for a couple hundred meters into the climb. then the motos went off and the paced picked up. i immediately made the decision not to chase the front guys, i knew i would blow up before the KOM and i'd get spit out the back. i looked around for a group that i could stick with and found Scott. the group we formed (maybe ~10 guys) stayed together for the most part for the rest of the race. we picked up Riley after the feed zone. 

i didn't suffer too much on Tiorati (probably because i wasn't going very fast), but didn't enjoy the uphill home stretch (right after the turn onto Lake Welch Pkwy from Seven Lakes). If you're feeling decent this seems like a good bit of road to attack, as everyone is working. I'm sure that those with sprint point ambitions keep a keen eye out here. 

the rest of the course for me was keeping on the wheel in front of me, pulling a bit, and closing small gaps.

overall a fun race even with the heavy rain in the beginning. next year i'll do a lot more to prepare. 

Learnings:

A lot. Echoing Sean, it was a humbling experience. I need to work more climbing and descending into my training, probably a lot of us PP / CP resident cyclists do. 

I was really glad to have the 28 on my cassette. Obviously changing gear before a race is risky but seems like this is a race worth cutting as much weight as possible for and being realistic about what is needed for a 12min climb at that grade.

Re: team strategy, I think the lot of us have a good opportunity to work on bunching up and racing as the sort of tight group that can hold a breakaway (or chase one down as the case may be). It hasn't happened yet, but with a little practice, it seems like it could be a reality for some of the park races in June. Maybe there's a good time for team drills in the park? Practicing bridging, rolling in a protective group, leadouts etc..

Having spoken to Jeff W about my race when bumping into him in the park I don't think I worked hard enough at the right points. Instead of having juice left at the end to ride over the line in  the middle of the results on my own seems kind of pointless. It's better to be in the right place at the right time so you can put the effort in when you need to. I should have tried hard to stay with Max and Giacomo basically. Here's to putting this into practice this weekend at Battenkill. 

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