Guys, as it worked out today, I'm unfortunately not able to be at the meeting myself tonight, as I had to take this day off of work & am laid out in bed sick. Just can't shake this damn flu, and at the worst possible time. But, this does not change anything for you guys regarding the meeting. All our guys in the office already know you are coming and the space will be ready for you by 6pm. Again, please have at least one person there by 6:15 at the latest, as the guys have to head out to a meeting at around 6:30. JP, can you lock up after the meeting?

Again, if somebody gets lost or has issues with the doorman downstairs, call the office at 212.925.0310. My brother (Garry) will be at the office today to help if anything.

Have fun!

Ros & co,
A. THANKS! for space
B. GET WELL...s o o n&fully!
C. WILL be there @6pm.
-harry

I've got a hard stop at 7:30 but will be there a bit early (6-ish)

Very good meeting you guys for this. Thanks JP for the guidance, not to mention the enthusiasm that bubbling about in all your postings and talks --and definitely in your racing!

If someone took notes, please share!

@ Ryan. Thinking you should captain the fours. You want to kick off on a race plan? My only thoughts are Vollbach goes for a long one. This is a perfect race for the V6. Ryan, your form is kind of high cat 3 right now, thinking you should be protected. What do you reckon? Perhaps we do a 10 min watts per kg comparison, cos I know Norm is svelt and knocking out 820's around the park. Jules R, has form, big numbers, knows how to win this. The Jeff's are going strong as well. Patrick, how's your form?

My notes:
Battenkill Notes:

"you've all ridden 60 miles"
No new wheels, food or bikes on race day.

Final 10 after the last hill is slightly downhill; chasing pack will have an advantage.

Final sprint; take the corner wide and unleash as you come out of the corner (unless your name is Malcolmson in which case we lead him out before the corner)

Cat 4's we should agree on pairs or 3's who try and get away in different section of the race.  Including some who will go from the gun.

Tires; nothing special; if you flat you are probably put of contention.  Take your own wheel off if you do though because no telling the skill of the guy in the wheel car.

Bring a five or ten spot (money) for post race chocolate milk.  Yum.

It is worth being a little uncomfortable to get to the bridge in the front.

Crown of the dirt roads is safest.

Descend in the drops whenever possible.

Eat early and often.  Don't go berserk the night before.  We have all ridden 60 miles before.

Get to start 1.5 hours early to allow time for warmup, last minute whatevers

Vittoria has tire pressure guide online based on rider weight.

Bring some warmer clothes for finish line milling about

@John lets try for a Friday powwow of the 4's I like JP's idea of picking sections of the race where different guys try and get away. If you are there for the end this one will be yours WITH a muffin-worthy lead out

something to think about for starting the race. With a big group of strong guys, you can try to force some selections early. For example, on the start, have one guy slowly accelerate, clicking into bigger gears to string out the field. then have a few guys attack, potentially in turns. Sow a little fear and chaos early, maybe get a group with a few Kissenas away. If you can create a break early with a few of our guys in it, then the others can follow wheels for a while, chilling near the front without having to go into the wind.

I couldn't find the race reports from Greg Donovan's solo V, but maybe some of his conspirators can find their reports and post them.

Sadly I wasn't a Donovan Conspirator, but I do have this from April 2011...

Battenkill is my new favorite race – not just because of this podium but because of how well it is run. The atmosphere is unlike any other bike race I’ve been to. The other riders act like they’re at a triathlon or a charity ride “Good luck man!” was the phrase of the day. Don’t these guys know it’s a bike race? You’re supposed to scowl and not talk to anybody but your own team…

Tactics
As a guy with a wimpy sprint I knew my only chance was a late attack.
My experience from last year was that while Stage Road was a great place to attack, it didn’t leave any room for a finishing blow. Unless you drop everyone there you don’t have a second chance and you will ride to the finish with whoever makes it over the top with you. A quick look at the course profile told me that the best place to attack hard have to be the 70km mark, just after the second feed zone. The attack would be followed by 10 or 12 km of hard rollers where I could punish my break-mates leaving Stage Road the place where I could leave them all.
Race
I set out on my warm-up ride - getting the legs going and trying to decide how much clothing I’d need.

Once warm I rode to the start line and rather boldly rolled to the front of the pack and settled in – to be joined moments later by Bill. After quick introductions and the comical warning “This race has sections of dirt road” the pace car rolled out. Bill was super friendly and we chatted away for a little too long at the front doing zero work at a 15mph pace. Soon enough Javier (he ended up finishing 3rd overall) in bright red arm & leg warmers rolled up and recognized me from Branch Brook. Javier, for those that don’t know him, is a rock solid independent wheel who loves to attack and is not someone I’d ever want to let out of sight.

“You daaaangerous man!” he said in a loud voice, pointing dramatically, and much to my horror.

I rode as close as I dared and whispered, “No, no. We dangerous. Now shut up.”

He smiled and nodded, but it was probably too late.
After the covered bridge we were facing the first big hill and much to my shock Bill shot off the front turning his pedals with real anger.
I thought to myself, “Bill no! It’s certain doom! We have 90km to go!” but then the method behind his madness became apparent: every strong climber in the bunch surged to the front like a pack of dogs after a rabbit and began chasing.

My inner cries of distress changed instantly to praise: “Bill you sly fox! You just got every strong guy here to raise his hand. I’m going to call you ‘Wiley Coyote’ from now on.”
I did my best to do justice to his effort and memorize who these strong guys were. Distressingly there were about fifteen of them.

to be continued...

continued...

Soon enough Javier was back next to me and raring to go. “You ready?” he’d ask, “We go now?”
We’re 20km in, with over 80km to go, “No way dude, relax. It’s a long race…”
This went on for about 10km more and then Javier couldn’t hold it in – off he went with one other guy. Seventy km to go - I had to tip my hat to the bravery, but I sure as hell wasn’t chasing.
We let them get farther and farther up the road until they were out of sight. Merde.
It took some cajoling but eventually I managed to organize a chase – one especially big strong dude took a monster turn and we got them within sight again.

We caught them just before the first feed zone and incredibly, before long, Javier wanted to go again!
“Patzienza!” I said hoping the Italian would translate well enough. “Calma, calma. Vamos a setanta” I told him, figuring it would be even better to go at 70km with him because come Stage Road his legs would be nicely softened.

As we rode along between 30km and 50km and the wind picked up I started to worry that there were still too many strong guys – what if the group that comes at 70km was big? These guys were looking strong. I kept myself in the front 5 or so but I’d look back on the hills to see how they were riding – most seemed pretty comfortable.
I figured that we needed some “animation” so at about 50km I dropped back to ask Bill if he could jump at the 60km mark, hoping we could get people a little more soft before the 70km launch…
Much to my surprise I drifted back about ten guys and… that was it. There was nobody else. No Bill, no help. The selection had happened behind us and I missed it.
Merde.

Ok, back up with Javier and wait for 70km, which was just after the second feed zone.

As we rolled along Javier offered me some of his banana but I’d been stuffing my face so I declined – it was a good sign though – he was serious, and committed to the joint effort.
Soon enough, we hit an incline at 70km and jumped. I crushed it hard – did 600+ watts out of the saddle for a while then looked back and saw we’d gapped the group and I’d gapped Javier. “Too soon to go alone!” I thought so I sat up a bit and when Javier joined we began a well organized, happy paceline of two. The chase was on, so we put our heads into the wind.
Perfect… until two flag men (who are supposed to tell you which way to turn) just stood there flags pointing down staring at us as we roared by… something was wrong!
“Which way?!?” We screamed and slowed. Behind us the chase was closing and banking… and TURNING! We’d missed a turn!
MERDE!

We slowed, turned and started to chase back while screaming all manner of insult at the two deadbeat flagmen as we took the correct corner and caught on to the back of the pack.
So much for the element of surprise…

to be continued...

continued...

What now? At 80km some skinny dude on a green bike made a move and I marked him – as soon as we were over the hill I started to coach him on the paceline, but he was completely blown and I basically rode him off my wheel on a flat stretch.

This was it, I was on my own from now to the finish… or until I was caught. I put my head down and hammered, aware that I had a solid 45 minutes (my math isn’t so good when I’m suffering – it was over an hour) ahead of me. I drank the rest of whatever I had, and ate and keep talking to myself like a crazy man on a desert island.

“Just get out of sight…”
“Just get ahead of these guys up here…” (the remnants of other blown up fields)
“This is a simple sport – just keep pushing the pedals…”
“Keep your head down, stay out of the wind…”
“Descend fast, the group can’t pick as good a line as one person…”
“Descend SAFE! Baby girl needs her daddy!”
I did this until about the 90km mark when the wheels really started to come off. Cramps everywhere, I could see the power numbers dropping… then the bargaining really started:
“If it hurts you, it hurts them worse…”
“Only 10km to go, you can do this!”
“Make all the sacrifices of training worth something…”
“Visualize raising your hands at the line…”
“This is a special moment!” (thank you Fabian)
“They are racing each other for 2nd & 3rd they’ve given up on catching you…”
The cramps got really bad – I’d try and stop pedaling for a moment but then my legs would seize even worse – it was ugly. At one point I thought I was going to fall off my bike and be forced to watch the chasers ride by. I was burping vomit and gulping air. My feet were going numb.
“There is NO WAY YOU ARE GOING TO QUIT WITH TEN KM TO GO!” I’d scream in my head.
And so it went. Random memories come from those last few kilometers… I nearly hit the pace car as they slowed like idiots in the sand at the bottom of Stage Road… then some Veterans car with a flag through the sunroof got in between me & the pace car – and they started driving like idiots. I felt terrible for shouting at them.
Eventually I saw the 1km to go sign and heaved a sigh of relief… unless I fell off my bike at this point I was going to win! I kept my legs hammering as best they could and when I got to the finishing stretch (I’d scouted it the day before) I gave a look over my shoulder and knew this was it.
When I saw the finish I zipped up my jersey, sat up and put two arms high in the air as I rode across the line. Alone. It was more beautiful than I’d ever imagined or dreamt it might be.

Chicken Dinner Anyone?

Stats:
Time: 3:14
Gap to chase group of 4 (2 minutes)
Time alone: 1 hour (average HR 171)

Wow Jules, that's a pretty damned good victory... Doesn''t get much sweeter than that. Maybe a 123 team win.

It's been done before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGpW-88VioQ

Posted By: mugwumpsomething to think about for starting the race. With a big group of strong guys, you can try to force some selections early. For example, on the start, have one guy slowly accelerate, clicking into bigger gears to string out the field. then have a few guys attack, potentially in turns. Sow a little fear and chaos early, maybe get a group with a few Kissenas away. If you can create a break early with a few of our guys in it, then the others can follow wheels for a while, chilling near the front without having to go into the wind.

I'm thinking about what our crew did to the field on the last day of Tour of the Catskills. Recall that me, Jules, and Norm were protected, but that left us with a strong crew of Whitey, Owens, John M, Stephane (who am I forgetting - forgive me, it was 8 months ago).

When Tarmac sent a guy up the road to threaten our lead in the team competition Jules and I asked the team to get down to business, and they did. I sat about 8-9 wheels back and watched those guys just obliterate everyone. Everybody was saying out loud "what the hell is going on?"

For those of you who aren't worried about a top ten because the race doesn't suit you, "sowing some fear and chaos" is a great way to have an impact on the race.

Getting excited...

How about a conference call on Friday evening? I've got a line we can all call into.

Count me in for the sowing fear and chaos early.....I'm clearly not worried about a Top 10, but I'm determined to do SOMETHING to help, somehow....

By the way, re "Tires; nothing special"

My normal hilly race tire is a Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX - can I run that at Battenkill?

Or should I go with my slightly rougher Rubino Pro IIIs (which I use for training)

My 1.5 cents about any hard and hilly road race. Consider letting the course do some of the work for you. I will personally go around dope-slapping any of you Cat 4 monsters who write race reports all about your new 2-minute power records just before you got dropped 15 miles into the race. You guys are all super strong, but there will be about 15-20 other guys who are compu-trainer kings too. Think about having 3 or 4 strong guys ready to shred/respond/attack/counter ready to go in the last 15 miles of this race.

Whitey to beat LeMond:

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/10803/Greg-LeMond-to-be-guest-of-honour-at-Tour-of-the-Battenkill.aspx

Best of luck guys, super super jealous I wont be there..................next year...................

P.S Joules, Pics of your crossing of the line arms up or it didnt happen! Well done dude, great report

Marc,
The race is not hilly with lots of long climbs on steep or even medium grades. It's lots of shallow climbing, with a few steep sections here and there.

We're also going with 9 guys or so--even in a big field, that's alot of guys sitting around waiting for the finish--or alot of guys not chasing. And Kissena is in a field that is comprised heavily of NYC-area racers we're pretty familiar with.

And just a few years back, Greg Donovan won in the fours with a long solo.

Ryan,
Corsa CX tires should be fine. I've gone with race tires every year and haven't flatted yet.

All,
At about mile 57 or so, you hit Stage road. It starts as dirt and goes uphill for a bit,then you start going down and it's down pretty much all the way to the finish. If you get away solo, it's a long time trial to the end. Chances are, you'll want some company. But not too much. A big group gives tired sprinters plenty of time to rest.

So, if there's a big group after the previous dirt section on Meetinghouse Road,you have five miles of what I remember to be flattish and windy before the next real hill, there could be a mood to slow down and wait for the last hill, which could let more riders still catch back on. If we still have several riders left, the riders who feel like they don't have another hill effort left in their legs might want to get to the front to help keep the pace, or even attack to see if they can get to the hill first, rather than letting more people catch back on.

Posted By: John Malcolmson@ Ryan. Thinking you should captain the fours. You want to kick off on a race plan? My only thoughts are Vollbach goes for a long one. This is a perfect race for the V6. Ryan, your form is kind of high cat 3 right now, thinking you should be protected. What do you reckon? Perhaps we do a 10 min watts per kg comparison, cos I know Norm is svelt and knocking out 820's around the park. Jules R, has form, big numbers, knows how to win this. The Jeff's are going strong as well. Patrick, how's your form?

John, I'm always happy to captain but its also true that I've never done this race, whereas we have Jules who should also be protected and who has not only done but won this race. I propose that he captain us, as he's better fit to make decisions on the road. Jules?

My two cents: re strategy - based on what I've seen of our crew I think that Jules, Dave, and I should be our "protected riders" (I would say Norm but I believe he told me he was planning to be helper donkey for BK. Still true? If not, I'd have no problem putting him on that list)

That still leaves several guys strong enough to have success (John, Jeff, Aly, Patrick...) via earlier aggression causing a breakaway situation, or some other unexpected scenario.

For my part, I don't want to let any wheel get away from me on a hill or in the last 15 miles or so. Before then, I am unlikely to initiate anything and I would like to save as much as possible, whether that's because I have teammates in a break or because I'm sitting 10 wheels back while our guys make things hard. I would think that if Jules and Dave are thinking similarly then we should all be ready to draw guns and use our numbers in the more crucial moments.

One thing to take note of, the temp is looking to be 60's and SW winds building from 5-10 during race. JP does this effect strategy? Push us to attack hills? I'd prefer to be following wheels for the first 50km, but if there is an attack that looks dangerous, happy to play domestique.

I like what JP said about an early break with respect to numbers. If we do want to try to instigate one, we should make sure we have two or three Kissenas in it, and preferably one of our "protected" riders. Worst case scenario would be if we cause a winning break and don't have the legs to stay in it.

I have no aspirations for finishing this race in the money, but like Ryan said, I'm capable of leaving my imprint before I come off the back. So yeah, I volunteer for an early break attempt or chasing duties.

John,
If the winds are coming from the southwest, then the winds will be at your back pretty much from Mile 44 on, with the exception of 51-53. You'll be riding into the wind from mile 10-15 and then 25-45. 5mph winds don't seem that big a deal, even if it picks up to 10mph, I don't know how much that will change things. I don't think it will be like typical FBF winds.

@ Ashley: http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/04/10-Tour-of-the-Battenkill.asp

Scroll down...

I really like the idea of some coordinated sections for who needs to attack or cover. John unless you are totally destroyed you should hide until the bitter end; that sprint really suits you.

Right hand turn then 350m to the finish. Long, strong Gymkata time.

Ryan,

Lets try for that conf call tomorrow. That or meet in person early enough Saturday morning.

I'll bashfully ask to be protected this race; I've been on the podium twice and think with our crew we have better than usual chances as a team.

I'll captain if that's the vote. My instinct is for Dave/Jules/Ryan and dark horse John to wait as long as possible. Have some of the stronger climbers (Jeff, Aly, Norm) go just before or after the feed zone (the big 25 minute climb) and let loose the dogs of war and chaos early with Whitey, Patrick, Dave, etc... all subject to peoples sensations and ambitions.

Would love to discuss in person though - nothing beats face to face.

I just think the Saturday morning meet up is always super hectic

If we could do a Friday night face to face somewhere great, not sure where folks are staying. Otherwise we can decide on a time for a team conference call Friday night and I'll post the info.