I'm seriously considering this race and if i do commit, I'm gonna do everything I can to have a break go even if that means that I don't make the actual selection. There is no way I'm letting this get down to a sprint finish.

btw, I wouldnt rock an 11-23, the climbs aren't steep but I would strap on the 25/26 just to keep the legs fresh and spinning.

alyoshas said:

I'm seriously considering this race and if i do commit, I'm gonna do everything I can to have a break go even if that means that I don't make the actual selection. There is no way I'm letting this get down to a sprint finish.

Riding with an extra wheel this year, are we?  :P

Well, whoever is on the fence has exactly 24 hours to decide before reg. closes.

huh? i had a spare in support car.

In addition to watching the Grinta guys, I'd keep an eye on Karl Nelson. 

YO! good luck Kissena's sounds like a great race...play hard, stay safe&enJOY!!! beautiful place.
-harryB;-)

harry bolick said:

YO! good luck Kissena's sounds like a great race...play hard, stay safe&enJOY!!! beautiful place. -harryB;-)

Good luck dudes.

I'll quickly summarize: alyosha -- flatted but finished; Adam -- DNF; me -- flatted, no spare, so DNF; Patrick -- was close to top 10; Floris -- finished though we're not sure where; Thierry -- not come in yet.

Rain was and is absolutely fucking awful. Could barely see the wheel in front of you at times.

Thierry just came in safe.

Still raining.

What happened to Adam?

Yikes!

gents hope ALL safe&ok...some times survival is a WIN!!!!!

do let us know details...-h;-/

quick report from me.
rain, rain, rain. i think i have been drying scubba diving
first lap was pretty slow, although some guys were dropped on the climbs. ~4 broke away but field let then go for now. Mark&I were in the front in the main pack of ~15
downhill was certainly "special"; going 75km/hr with low visibility. luckingly everybody kept distance

we caught couple of the guys from the break and then c5 35+ lead group joined us. we were we ~10 in our class
I couldn't follow on final climb; tried to get back on descent but compact crank didn't help..
15km ITT to finish line; was hard mentally and phiscally. I passed a guy from my field and a couple of other from other fields. I don't know the english term but in Dutch the 15km were "vals plat" which means; annoying slightly uphill all the time...


finished 10th; in line with my expectations although I hoped for a little bit more in the uphills

in summary, "epic"

cheers

vals plat = false flat

Wow so there was no separate 3 field? That's one thing in a park race but quite another in a race like that.

My “EPIC free" race report

I was optimistic about the weather when I arrived at Hunter. Aside from some drizzle on the way up the rain was holding off. Surprisingly, there was still patches of snow (yes, snow!) on the ski slopes. Half an hour before the race, the rain started coming down. Ugh. The temperature was in the mid 60s, so my main concern was the possibility of crashes on slick roads. After a 3 hour drive I wasn't going to back out. In the end, the cat 4 field felt pretty safe with the exception of the nasty crash in sprint finish.

The Cat 4 field consisted of 70 starters including Alyosha and Thierry. It occurs to me now that we were a French speaking Kissena crew. Midway through the race Aly started talking strategy to me in French. I was born in Switzerland and my first language was French, but I moved to the US at age 7 and my French is rusty. It is difficult to disuss race strategy when you don’t know how to say “counterattack" in French. Anyway, Alyosha looked good. He and I pushed the pace several times on the first lap when the possibility of a break looked good. He would have placed for sure had he not flatted.

I was hoping the rain would increase the likelihood of a break sticking. Nothing like getting rain and grit in your face for hours to demoralize a chase. We do this for fun, right? Siggis had the largest team present and was often patrolling the front - either chasing down breaks or sending people up the road. There were several attacks, but none with enough horsepower and a requisite Siggis rider to stay away. A Velorigins guy (Svenn) stayed away from what seemed like 10 minutes solo but given that this was midway through the race he was left to dangle and reeled back in. The field split on several occasions – on the stair step climbs and on a short but steep S-turn decent that was just challenging enough on wet rims to cause some panic in the field.

In the end a group of about 30 of the original 70 contested the finishing sprint. With 400 meters to go two guys slammed into each other but stayed upright causing me to scrub speed. A few moments later they went down and I heard the crashing of bikes and someone's tubular pop like a gun shot. A Houlihan guy went into a telephone pole but thankfully was okay. Two Rocky Point Cycles guys that I hadn't seen all race came across the yellow line and drilled it to the end. A group of about 20 sprinted to the end. My legs felt like lead and I managed to get 12th."

On a personal note, I like these out of town races where I don't get shelled by climbers who are 30 lbs lighter than I am. I was able to manage the crunch times well enough. While the field tended to regroup after the hard efforts, the accumulated fatigue from the efforts over 80 miles in the rain made this a challenging race and not simply a long park race. One more note. I wore a rain cape for the first lap and decided to take it off so that the camera could read my number at the finish. I was impressed by my ability to take off the jacket mid-pack without crashing out the field. Cool.

PatrickG  &co,
nice job...tough/cool conditions...i actually like rain races(like playing football in the mud/pre-artroTurf days),
truly too bad about Alyosha's flat, 12th soundz like a strong finish congrats!
-h

12th is indeed impressive on such an epic day out of town. Congrats.

Nicely done!  Sucks to hear about the final crash; these seem to be more frequent this year, eh?  Great job on the result, especially considering the near miss at the end.

Not a great day for me. Flatted about 20 miles in; very soon realized that I was in the middle of nowhere with no phone and no repair kit (and no wheels in the SAG car -- more on that in a min). Luckily, I was outside a house and its owner saw me and took pity, giving me a lift back to the start. Super nice guy, was Charlie, though he definitely had a gun and could just have easily murdered me. 

Rough day on the saddle,

I think we were all psychologically ready for dreadful conditions and we weren't disappointed at all. I made dumb nutrition choices before the start by first guzzling too much coconut water and not enough solid food. This winning combination gave me stomach discomfort and not enough energy for pedaling. I was dropped after the first 25 miles from the front group and I was then bridged by 2 other guys with whom I Ifinished the entire race. My time was not great ( 3:51), I expected better but what the heck! You live and learn... It was great to meet the other guys ( Alyosha, Floris, Patrick and Adam) and I felt truly sorry for Mark who could not finish the race. The course was a lot tougher than I expected, I'll definitely return during the fall.

Hunter is on again July 27th, the registration opens this Friday. I'll be there.

Theirry,
I want to do this race...can i snag a ride with you!?!!! day of race ride up&back.
-harry;-)

hbolick@gmail

...anyone else interested in this onday race? 11am start 75miles

https://www.bikereg.com/net/19558/HUNTER-MOUNTAIN-SUMMER-CLASSIC

I'd be keen if I can split rental/fuel/toll costs etc.

Adam,
i am good for half expenses...lets do it&check w/others to see if anyone else is in for up&back.
-h

i really dislike this race but have fun, i'll be riding in the real catskills.