Posted By: vladWhy neutralized?

Masters breakaway was coming through. Slow race, as usual.

Bummer. Get them back in the TT. You can't get neutralized at that one.

Stage 1 of the Killington Mountain Stage Race.

Safe and Sound

The course: three laps of the same route, with a 50+ mph descent leading into a wide, flat finish. When we arrived at our house (after an 11 hour highway driving marathon), Keith asked us if we had 54 or bigger (!) chainrings. What?!? We're here for a climbing race, dude. "So-and-so is using a 56; you'll spin out a 52 and won't even be there for the finish - it's that fast..."

I went to sleep mildy terrified, and began the race in total fear. Ryan, Norm & I did a great job of riding as a team - staying close to one another, letting each other in to good drafts and communicating about upcoming KOM sprints, and of course, the "big descent". The KOM was followed by the Big Descent and then a flat fast stretch into the finish.

Once through the Big Descent, I was emboldened and we began to discuss the alternatives: attack after the KOM, sit in and wait till tomorrow, or...?

At one point a Foundation rider went off the front with someone else and got almost 30 seconds on the field. A second pair attacked and were soon dangling 1/2 way to the lead group. I kept close to the front of the chase group where Velocity, Norm, and some other guys were pulling but I began to get anxious as the gap wasn't closing down.

Out of nowhere, the referee's motorcycle pulled ahead of us and signalled that we were neutralized. A break from another field soon passed us and we all sympathized out loud with the misfortune of the breakaway guys to have their race neutralized. When the moto got us going again he gave the leaders back their time though, so it was sportsmanlike. The chase was back on.

...

Suddenly Ben Turrell (who won Battenkill in our field this year) came roaring by and I jumped straight on his wheel. Wherever he was going, I wasn't going to let him go alone.

Ben can hammer - his position on the road bike looks almost like he's time trialling. Ben took almost 20 seconds out of the lead and we were soon all together again.

Coming into the third and last KOM, some guy attacked with 5km to go. I didn't chase but I did get to the front (we were going uphill) and set a comfortably hard pace. I wanted to keep the guy's lead within 30 seconds.

When I looked back I had a big gap. Wow. What to do? I wasn't going to burn a big match and bridge up to the leader but it didn't make sense to sit up. I kept it up thinking at the least I'd be able to relax ahead of the KOM sprint. We were caught before the KOM and I could see Ryan, Ben, and Velocity's Alexi jump to the front and begin to hammer. The KOM was only 4 or 5 miles from the finish line.

I got to the front on the right and rode tempo trying to stay up front ahead of the fast descent. After a little rise I realized that there was nobody on my wheel. Uh oh...

"Well," I thought, "If they're not going to chase I'm not going to squander an opportunity." So I put the hammer down for the next few minutes; hoping I could stay away until the real descent began. Each time I grabbed a look back the pack seemed the same distance behind - maybe 15, 20 seconds?

"Is this possible?" I thought. "Am I burning it too hot, wasting energy that I'll need tomorrow?"

I kept up a steady pace, and before the descent I heard wheels behind me - caught!
...

"Come on Jules!" someone yelled and I dug deep to latch on to the passing field. I wasn't going to give up time because I was dropped just a couple of miles from the finish. I caught back on and worked my way up as best I could ahead of the descent. I was about 1/2 was to the front when we got to the fast downhill section. I kept safely on Ryan's wheel and when the road flattened we were neutralized AGAIN for something - we all muttered and asked if there would be time bonuses for placing in this stage given all the neutralizing. Soon enough the motorcycle signalled "game on" and the shenanigans began.

At 500 meters we had the whole road (prior to that the "yellow line rule" was in effect) and I promptly got to the middle of the road near the back of the pack giving myself enough space to dive left or right depending on where the crashing happened. We were all going about 40mph and I was spinning hard just trying to stay with the bunch so that I wouldn't loose any time on the field at the finish.

Sure enough with 100 meters to go, I saw some people go down on the left and people were falling like bowling pins. I saw two, three guys go down, people crashing into the downed riders and people zooming left & right of the carnage. I knew I was DFL (dead F-ing last as they say in cyclocross), so I braked hard and then took the righthand line, staying safe. I rendezvoused with Ryan and Norm and we counted all our fingers and toes in gratitude. The "hard" stage was over, and we made it.

Details I left out were the seven foot tall 120 pound jr riding his bike like a bucking bronco, the clown from Hunter mountain (200+ pounds, Cervelo R5, 6'4" handles his bike like a blind butcher throwing cow tongues) and the - at this point - ceremonial altercation between NYVelocity and our team...

In all a very good day.

Jules wrote:"...ceremonial altercation between NYVelocity and our team..."

Glad you had it.

All the same, maybe you should make a point of having the altercation in advance of the race, so they feel much better about themselves and they can let go of their insecurities during the race itself. Plan it, let them know, kind of like 'pistols at dawn' or 'nyvelocity you ignorant slut' or some other such nonsense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k80nW6AOhTs

I got 7th

Great work. Ryan in 26th too!

Jules looks good on a TT bike.

I was just happy not to get passed by Norm.

Joe on course now, probably. According to Jeff he had a 5 minute warm-up, so, uh, he's fresh??

And the wind is HOWLING now - in Joe's face.
FWIW the doughnuts (made fresh, local) are so good I'm considering abandoning cycling and taking up doughnut tasting as a full-time gig

Congrats on the results dudes, Jules was that on a TT rig? Are most of the top 5/10 on full TT rigs?
Great results.

How could I have forgotten to post this gem from after yesterday's stage. Joe and Leroy, overcome with emotion at being reunited again.

@Ashley, I was on a full rig. Disk, helmet, shoe covers. I sure hope someone got a picture because I was as aero as I can be (I think) I almost never looked up; just stared at the white line in front of me.

Not sure about the rigs - but the two guys who were almost 30 ahead of the rest of us appear to be TT specialists - racing them almost exclusively. Lets hope the guy who WON High Point Hill Climb this year forgets how to climb tomorrow...

Action shot of me going for a water handup and Ryan looking comfortable after the second KOM.

https://picasaweb.google.com/102114219843717837251/2012KillingtonStageRaceStage1Photos#5747035922131870034

Fuk that hurt

Whappen?

It's supposed to hurt

I was 8th today, 11th GC. Jules was 12th I think and 8th GC? Norm was 30th and did a lot of helper stuff for me and Jules.

The competition was murderous. Lotta juniors. The final k to the mountain top finish might be the worst pain I've ever felt on a bike.

More later.

Nice work. Looking forward to the report.

Whut Ryan said. Damn tough final 6 miles. Yesterday's GC (and TT stage) winner gave up over 15 minutes, if that gives you any idea. Goya ferry kids back, etc. race reports before too long I hope.

Huge thanks to Owens for his soigner extraordinaire support and Normanzo for his devilish 10-15 mile pain train he took everyone on to the bottom of the final hill.

Short race reports outta this crew mean some serious shit went down. Looking forward to some reports once you've composed yourselves!

Sounds gnarly... Those TT times were fast.

When I was waiting at the bottom of the beast today with the drink handups, and Norm came barreling through with Jules and Ryan in tow, positions 1-2-3 (I kid you not), I was brimming ear to ear. Even before that last awful climb, they had clearly taken the race by the neck... and hell or high water, they were going to go up that fucker with everything blazing. Great to see Ryan pull out a top ten and collapse after the finish, while plenty of the "pro"/Cat-1 guys all just rode to their limit, but never beyond. Lots of them whining "this sucks" while paper-boying all over the place.

It was a great weekend out of town: sitting on my ass and eating just as much as the guys racing! Leroy chased down some chipmunks and it is confirmed: Jules' wife is indeed a superhero, continually cooking while taking care of the kids and solving jigsaw puzzles (oh yeah, she's also a doctor and sings in France when called overseas). Normally I would be jealous of not being in the race, but watching dozens of tortured bodies strewn across East Hill Road at a snail's pace had me happy to be standing on the sidelines!

Until next year...

Rutland Herald front Page!

Got home too late and tuckered-out to write a report --will get around to it this evening. Briefly, it was with great pleasure that I worked for Jules and Ryan through the weekend. It was the role I was planning to play for this race --and I wouldn't have traded places with any other rider. I only wish the motor had weighed-in significantly lighter so that I didn't have to waste so much energy chasing back on after getting dropped on the climbs. -Norm

Ditto; got to bed at 1am. Gathering pictures & notes as I can.

Norm's final pull to the bottom of that beastly climb was the real deal. I spent 35 minutes third or second wheel behind Norm & the other guy who was pulling - avg for *me* was 215 watts and Norm & co took us the whole way at 22-23 mph up a 1/2% grade.

in the spirit of "pictures or it didn't happen"...

and one more

studs.

looking forward to the report.

This was a really great weekend with Jules and family, me & Maria, Owens, Norm and Joe. The house was comfortable and roomy with a great kitchen and nice hot tub, and it stood less than 4 miles from race HQ and all the start finishes.

For me, the whole race was really about being ready to do something on the third stage.

The first stage was 3x around a 17-mile loop with a steady but not difficult KOM at mile 12 that crested at the feed zone. Then, it’s a 50 mph descent for less than a km into a hard right hand turn at a stop sign. Finally, its about 5 miles mostly downhill into a super fast finish.

Jules, Norm, and I talked about the need to stay near one another, the only real goal being to finish safely. Traditionally the KOM has been a great place to launch a counter move because everybody sits up and if you can get a gap and bomb the sharp descent into the right hander you have a chance; I was in a move last year there that eventually failed and Al Barouh got into a move there last year that was successful and put 30 seconds on the field.

I launched that move on the final lap and was followed by Ben Turrell (winner, Battenkill) Aleksy from Siggi’s, Jules and Norm, and 6 or 7 other strong guys. A gap formed and I looked back and saw the field strung out in real difficulty. And then…neutralized for a breakaway coming through and we all came back together. Jules got away for a couple of KM. I did my best to muck up the rhythm of the chase but eventually the bunch got serious about shutting him down. I got swarmed and we ended in a field sprint with one horrible crash at 45-50 mph as idiots sprinted from mid-pack.

Next day was the TT. Tough course: 11 miles, flat, lots of slight uphill. Jules crushed it and took 7th. Norm was tough too just outside the top 10. I didn’t do very well, 26th more than two minutes off the lead. One, I’m not great at flat TTing. Two, I don’t have a $10k TT rig like ¾ of the guys in the top 20. I did, however, finish well among the guys we knew could climb, so I wasn’t too worried and I really didn’t care much about the GC, anyway. I wanted the third stage.

When we woke up Monday morning, I was damn nervous. I haven’t felt really nervous for a race in a couple of years but I did for this one. Not sure why…I guess because I’ve really worked harder at my training this year than ever before, and this was the first race of the year that I felt really suited me. Jules saw I was nervous and gave me an awesome pep talk that really helped. Joe and Jeff helped by telling Sophie (Jules and Lisa’s terminally cute 3 year old) to say “Ryan wears diapers,” which she did, over and over again, as I struggled to force down oatmeal and eggs on a sour feeling stomach.