being a late registrant to battenkill, i haven't as yet booked any kind of accommodation.  i presume most places in and around the actual race are full already, so i may need to look farther afield. 

does anyone who has booked recently have any recommendations?  thierry mentioned a place when i saw him sunday and i mailed him separately because i forget what he told me.

and is anyone still looking for lodging and interested in "rooming"?  let me know if you want in and i'll look to sort something out.

i'll probably be driving and so will have space for two more.

i'll be driving as well and also need suggestions for housing.

@Mark, I'd like to take one of the spots in your car, if space is still available.  I don't yet have a place to stay, so happy to coordinate with you about where and when.

joe and i coordinated a room for friday night.  though i have to say his handsomeness is a little worrying.  i'll just have to keep remembering what they told me about that kind of thing in bible studies.

@bruce -- a spot in the car is yours!  joe has the other.

Last year, I got a motel room at about half distance between NYC and the race start.  Figured I didn't ahve to leave as early that way, and the morning of, I'd have less time to futz around.

Mark Clifford said:

joe and i coordinated a room for friday night.  though i have to say his handsomeness is a little worrying.  i'll just have to keep remembering what they told me about that kind of thing in bible studies.

Cue Tuggus chat in 3...2...1...

I did Battenspring today in C-group / cat 5s. My first "proper" spring classic..
Nice 3x20km circuit with 2 climbs per round of which one a dirt road; with a fast descent. Lots of snow next to the roads meant that the dirt was packed but sucked in the tires (i rode conti 25mm 4 seasons and loved them).

Started off rapidly with single line forming right from the start because of the strong wind. On first climb, 5 or so guys broke away and got a small lead. Rest of the field was split into several groups and I stayed in the first 10-man group just behind the early breakers. Quite good coorporation / pacelining brought back all but one from the breakaway halfway in the race.

Lost one of my full bottles on a bumpy road so had little to drink for the final half of the race. Big cramps started in final lap; (here comes the "racer's excuse":); probably due to too little drinking. The final 8km were flat with strong headwind so nobody tried to escape my group. At 1km; two guys raced away and became #2 and #3. I finished in the middle of what was left of my 10 man group; getting #7 overall in 34 starters. The strong guy (Brian Fuller Competitive Edge) who won (by almost 15 minutes) seemed misplaced in cat 5; I heard he was a cat3-4 crosser that was not upgraded or something....

Overall great experience, and with my high place on the Battenkill waitlist, I very much look fwd to doing the big race [with better bottle cages ]

Nice work Floris.  Great job getting the early recon in.  Those cramps come to everybody at Battenkill.

Jules et al (is Jim here, too?),

Great job, Floris!  For cramping, as well as stretching and hydrating, I take Endurolyte pills, before a race or a long ride, especially when it's hot.

thanks guys

@ JP - i would love to join an informational on battenkill

@ Jules. On food; we started at noon and I already had breakfast (6am) and decent "lunch" (10.30am). At the start, I ate a cliff bar. During the 2hr race, I ate 2x blocks and 1x gel. Is that enough or too light? I struggled with finding a moment to eat; downhills were fast & furious, flats were windy / risk of gaps. I actually felt strong on the climbs so I typically ate at the top of a climb.. any tips / tricks?

@ Bruce, I'll try the Endurolyte. The irony was that I lost my bottle with gatorate (which has some electrolytes in there).... Which Elite cages do you have?

Floris,

You can hunt online but the guidelines seem to be 1 to 2 grams of carb per kilo per hour. You'll have to experiment and see what works for you. I can do about a cliff bar an hour.

Your Pre-race meal should be bland (think eggs & rice) about 3 hours prior to your event start. 40 minutes out you can start nursing a drink mix to keep your sugar topped off.

Eating during a long road race is tough for lots of reasons:

A) you're in a pack
the opportunities aren't evenly spaced
C) keeping track of "have I eaten enough/too much?"

I've been using a single bottle with a very thick mix - think close to pancake batter - of Perpetuum (hammer product) as my sole source. This works for me, all caveats apply.

I can mix a bottle with the right total amount of carb for the race and I know when I need to have "eaten" half, all, etc. it's dead simple - which I need because I'm pretty bad at math during races.

It also lets me use water for drinking or head-pouring without also losing precious food over my noggin.

I'll also carry a backup cliff bar or two in case the bottle (!!!) bounced free.

You still have quite a few long rides before BKill so I encourage you to experiment.

Oh, and put enduralytes in everything; food bottle, water bottle; pockets... The cramping in that race is savage.

Jules,

Count me in!!!

The nutrition bottle works great on hot days in my experience. The caveat being that your other bottle is purely for hydration. The liquid nutrition bottle actually has better osmolarity properties than solid nutrition.

JP, I'm down for an 4/8 pre-race talk if you don't make it to the Ronde van OhGodKillMeNowBrook (although it would be fun to have the talk amidst BBQ).

I've failed spectacularly at this race in the past, and I'm determined to do well this year.

Peter - I am also an avid Perpetuem user. Out of curiosity, how many scoops do you use per hour of racing?

Peter, Great explainer! For us dummies might you share a product type/amount and timing regimen for 2 days leading up to and day of/during race? 

Do you have any thoughts on the different approaches of Hammer v Scratch Labs? I find Hammer's nutrition regimen to be mindbogglingly complicated (so many products/protocols!)

Last year at BK I tried loading for the three days prior with hammer race-day-boost stuff. Endurolyte powder in three bottles + Gels. Carrying 4 full bottles up Juniper swamp seemed foolish, so I relied on getting 1 bottle from neutral feed. The neutral bottle contained what tasted like super concentrated Gatorade which I didn't want to drink, but feared dehydration. It definitely felt wrong to drink. I guess what we really need is a Kissena in the feed zone with musette bags and water-only bottles. The cramps set in at 9km to go they were savage and I wasn't carrying Endurolyte pills (just in bottles which were empty by that stage). I had PT on and I noticed that suddenly I couldn't seem to get above 240W or the cramps would return.

I was just informed that i'm off the waitlist and in Cat 5A! Together with Mark and Rostislav.

In terms of logistics, I'm planning to drive upstate on Friday evening (leaving at ~8pm) and staying in a hotel near Albany. Then drive to Cambridge the next morning to arrive at ~10am (5A starts at 1140). Anybody on the same schedule and would like to go together? I can put two bikes on my rack and one (clean...) bike in the car. Let me know.

Cheers

Hi Floris, if you don't mind, I would like to coordinate?  My race is at 11 am.

Definitely interested Adam. Post away.

My opinions on this year's course in this year's conditions:

2) For some reason, Cambridge, NY, is very sandy/chalky??  This manifests itself mostly as sand, dirt and gravel accumulating at road junctions.  I'm talking all junctions, including those between two paved metalled roads.  So, in order to not lose your front wheel, try to avoid the inside line on the junctions.  That's where everything seems to accumulate.  You'll see what I mean when I get up there.  Take it wide, you won't lose much time really and you will definitely not lose your front wheel.

3) The worst section!!  I don't know what the course was like last year but this year, the KILLER off road section was Carney Road (about mile 33).  The previous sections were great, some roads I ride in Long Island are not as smooth as those were.  Not this fucker though.  Loads of rocks (not gravel, much bigger).  A real bitch.  This is where the race will come apart and people will crash.  Promise.  Also, some really steep, short bits here where it was impossible to get out of the saddle as the wheel just span.  So, if your race strategy was the ever insightful 'stay with the front group over the last climb' I suggest you also add this in conjunction: get to the front of the field by mile ~33.  This section, yesterday, was simply about not unclipping and keeping the bike going forward.

4)  It was cold!  Admittedly, I started before sunrise at 7am but dress appropriately if you have an early race.  3 hours north of here is not the same climate at his time of year.  There was still snow by the roadside where as all the snow down here has disappeared by now.  Food for though...  It did warm up to a nice 45 degrees by the time I finished at 11am though.