Jun 22, 2012 at 01:54 PM
i'll pick that up from you tonight
Giro Del Cielo
Jun 23, 2012 at 08:26 PM
Quick update from the road:
I took 5th in the tt, joe took 11th, mike in the 20s, Vlad a bit below that.
The crit was fun and fast. Mike was off the frog for a while, I was in a break for a bit, Eric was up front the whole time. Finish was kind of a fuck up. I was a bit cross eyed and sprinted for what I thought was the finish but was really 1 to go. :face palm:
Eric somewhere in the top 10. Not our best showing in that crit, but a really fun race.
I'm prob out of the GC hunt now, but well hit it hard either way tomorrow.
Condon and whitey will have to give their own reports; not sure how they did.
I took 5th in the tt, joe took 11th, mike in the 20s, Vlad a bit below that.
The crit was fun and fast. Mike was off the frog for a while, I was in a break for a bit, Eric was up front the whole time. Finish was kind of a fuck up. I was a bit cross eyed and sprinted for what I thought was the finish but was really 1 to go. :face palm:
Eric somewhere in the top 10. Not our best showing in that crit, but a really fun race.
I'm prob out of the GC hunt now, but well hit it hard either way tomorrow.
Condon and whitey will have to give their own reports; not sure how they did.
Jun 23, 2012 at 08:42 PM
Riding the Frog is always hard. Tough to stay on him with all that jumping and whatnot.
Nice work lads!
Jun 23, 2012 at 10:21 PM
Really great corse today, both the tt and the crit.
Jun 23, 2012 at 10:24 PM
So, let's settle this once and for all.
Is it uphill or not??
Jun 23, 2012 at 10:26 PM
Yes. up hill. no real serious climbs until the end but the bigger guys just cant swing the gradient. I think WDC caught 6 people I caught 4. But they got their revenge at the crit.
Jun 23, 2012 at 10:36 PM
I can!!! Fatty > you
Jun 24, 2012 at 03:01 AM
Jun 24, 2012 at 06:53 PM
Mini report. I got 4th in today's circuit race in a sprint finish. The finish was a bit of a disaster with 3 cars basically parked at the line including a cop who had it in for us throughout the last couple of laps, the pace car (god knows why he just stopped) an a passenger car. I think people behind me sat up to avoid cars but the five guys in the front sprinted through.
I got 15th in yesterday's crit and totally sucked in the TT. Not sure where I ended up on overall GC yet but I suspect top 20.
The race overall had some good courses, but I felt it could have been run a bit better.
I got 15th in yesterday's crit and totally sucked in the TT. Not sure where I ended up on overall GC yet but I suspect top 20.
The race overall had some good courses, but I felt it could have been run a bit better.
Jun 24, 2012 at 06:58 PM
2.6% grade . . .You make the call - http://tpks.ws/NLZiIs it uphill or not??
(Yes)
Jun 24, 2012 at 07:26 PM
Impressive work Jeff!
Jun 24, 2012 at 08:12 PM
Fair enough, but looks lamer that it was. Perhaps because it's a TT and not a strudel run. Perhaps because I eat too much strudel.
2.6% grade . . .
Either way, it hurt and it was uphill. No bs.
Jun 24, 2012 at 08:28 PM
It was uphill.
For today:
William put in a really solid move with about 1/2 a lap to go. He got caught about 15 meters from the finish but hung on for around 10th. Nothing short of epic. Mad props. Don't worry guys, he was in his drops.
I screwed up the finale. I should have been in front of Ragot but couldn't get further up than top 30. The sprint was wide open and I had a ton left...finished in the teens right next to Eric. If we combine those efforts we have a top 5 easily.
I am satisfied in that I did a lot more bumping and fighting to maintain position. It just seemed like on the last lap all the lanes I had been using on particular parts of the course every other lap were getting closed out and other lanes were opening that were not open before. So I got swarmed a few times and lost huge chunks of position to racers advancing. Live and learn.
It was a really fun weekend and a really fun race. I'd do it again for sure. Would be sweet to rent a cabin
Maybe get on that earlier next year.
For today:
William put in a really solid move with about 1/2 a lap to go. He got caught about 15 meters from the finish but hung on for around 10th. Nothing short of epic. Mad props. Don't worry guys, he was in his drops.
I screwed up the finale. I should have been in front of Ragot but couldn't get further up than top 30. The sprint was wide open and I had a ton left...finished in the teens right next to Eric. If we combine those efforts we have a top 5 easily.
I am satisfied in that I did a lot more bumping and fighting to maintain position. It just seemed like on the last lap all the lanes I had been using on particular parts of the course every other lap were getting closed out and other lanes were opening that were not open before. So I got swarmed a few times and lost huge chunks of position to racers advancing. Live and learn.
It was a really fun weekend and a really fun race. I'd do it again for sure. Would be sweet to rent a cabin
Maybe get on that earlier next year.
Jun 25, 2012 at 01:12 AM
Fun Fact: during the height of the road race, Eric Ragot gets stung in his ear by a bee and begins to scream in agony. Rene thinks to himself "oh come on, this hill isn't that hard."
p.s. bike throw videos please; sorry WGC.
p.s. bike throw videos please; sorry WGC.
Jun 25, 2012 at 01:59 AM
My comments - FWIW...
Crit - we must be at the front if its coming down to the sprint. We weren't, except for William winning the bell lap - I wondered why he was all at the front with two to go. I made my way through the field in time to take the turn into the hill at full speed. got a small gap, kept it punched. Eased up 150m to the line, saw a gap, got baack on the gas, but not enough to get it going again - 10th. Damn. Lesson learned - wait to open up the sprint, or keep going damn it!
Good things - at the prime sprint for GC points, I saw Joe near me coming out of the corner to head up the hill. So I made sure to get him on my wheel - WDC grabbed it too. So, I blew by two leadout trains as if they were standing still, and dropped the guys off for the sprint with 150m to go. Some other guys kicked harder to give Joe and WDC the 4th and 5th spots (points went 3 deep).
RR - rolling course with two nice fast downhills and two hills - the second harder than the first. But the first came after a tricky downhill right hand turn, so you had to accelerate more. I started at the front and stayed at the front for the race. Dan, Rene, Mike, Joe and WDC all came to the front and gave it a shot. I just followed. The climbs were quite manageable and I figured we had a shot at a field sprint as I've been riding fairly well. So, after nothing was getting away, Joe and WDC came to the front as we approached the bell lap and asked me what I wanted. I asked that they stay in front of me so that I can surf the field up to them if I need to.
After turn one onto the back stretch, we found ourselves going very slowly and taking up the width of the road. Joe was about third wheel, I was about 6th and we were on the right side. A second line kinda formed on the left side of the lane. It was nervous, nobody was willing to attack or commit to going harder. This was not what I needed as I needed the pure sprinters to suffer. So, I quitely told WDC "I need you to attack now." And he did. Somebody bridged to him. Perfect as it made other people chase and the speed picked up a bit. The front of the race became more dynamic and Joe and I could move around and surf / block better.
I made it over the two hills with WDC still away (he's going to make it!) and Joe protecting me by being in front of me for the first hill (there is a fast downhill after and Joe followed me and was unable to get back around). So, I slotted in 5th and let other people chase. WDC made it to the last corner still away, and I thought he still had a shot. And so did I (at least I thought so). I was 5th in line and then 4th as we rolled down and then up a hill (from the top of this hill to the finish was 50sec at race pace). Given yesterday's massive effort at the end, I thought it would work as sprinters would be waiting longer and I could use my 30-45 sec power to make it.
I went, I felt slow. I kept going and the line was coming. It was also coming for WDC and it looked as if he might just hand on. But I started to get swamped, and at some point when getting swamped, you ease up because it doesn't matter anymore. They had me at 16th, WDC at 10th. So close for him.
A great effort by WDC and kudos to him for the attack as it was perfect tactically. We failed to deliver on the back end though.
A couple of notes - with 2 to go, I got stung in the left ear by a bee. It was all I could do to just scream in pain. Thankfully the hills came soon and my legs hurt instead. With abotu 3 laps to go, I noticed my legs weren't really happy or snappy anymore on the hills - note for next time - don't do 1 hour rides consistently going into a 50 mile RR. You'll lack something at the end. - so my bad.
And, I screamed at the guys for messing up. Wait, no, that was my legs screaming at my ear. ;-)
Power analysis later.
We're getting better as a team.
Jun 25, 2012 at 02:44 AM
Bee sting in the ear - that's no joke.
Will, sounds like a heartbreaker!
Good read guys, sounds like a rocking time.
Will, sounds like a heartbreaker!
Good read guys, sounds like a rocking time.
Jun 25, 2012 at 01:16 PM
Watching from the finish line, it looked like William was in the top couple wheels in the field sprint and then inexplicably died 20 feet from the line and got passed by like eight guys. It did not occur to us spectators that he was away solo up until that point. WOW.
I had a very frustrating weekend. I had a minor mechanical riding up to the TT line and lost 10-15 seconds reseating my rear wheel. Of course the mental freak-out of this caused me to try to make it up in the first half and see where the cards fell. And they did fall.
The "crit" (it was a circuit race) was fine. Slow and sketchy with all the 5s and juniors doing crazy shit like riding off the road and taking inexplicable lines through easy corners. On the final lap with about a mile to go, a big-ish Siggi's guy was making pace on the front and then pulled off. This was just as I was coming over the shoulder of the pack for like the fourth time that lap because the pace kept getting slow and the front would start to get swarmed and I'd lose a bunch of position. So the Siggi's guy pulled off, and the guy behind him tried to pull off too, and the guy behind him just let up and started looking over his shoulder. I had all this momentum, and I didn't want to wait to get swarmed again, so I jumped away. It was earlier than I wanted to go (I wanted to attack <i>into</i> the final corner), but we were only going like 22 mph, so I knew I could get some separation basically for free. I did get a good gap, but it lasted only about 1:15 and I was caught in the last corner. Looking at the power I could only muster 435 watts for the move, which was just not going to cut it. The only reason I got the gap that I did was that the pack was sleeping when I jumped away.
Condon basically summed up the final day. I came into the uphill sprint probably 20th wheel (though it was spread out) right in the middle of the road. A bunch of people started sprinting <i>waaay</i> too early and I remained in the saddle and began going around all the guys burning out. Finally, when the real sprint started, I was still in the middle of the road and had my choice of either right or left when things started opening up. The left looked good, so I got out the saddle, and began to sprint up the left side with probably 125 meters to go. Moving my focus away from the dead weight I'm passing, I suddenly notice an Audi driving straight toward me. Me and the guy sprinting next to me have minor freak-outs simultaneously, but we managed to stay clear of each other. So yeah, I had to stop racing about 50 or 60 meters from the finish line. Glad I wasn't sprinting with my head down!
Jun 25, 2012 at 02:33 PM
better report later, but it was a great weekend with you all.
huge props to the cat 3 crew (especially diamond joe) for blocking like badasses while i was away on the last lap - i would never have gotten so close without you.
fyi: i was not solo the whole way - after i attacked, i was joined by 1 rider, who was quite a bit stronger than me. he did 60% of the work, but I rested up before the last turn and attacked/dropped him about 400 meters from the finish. the sprint . . . the whole thing felt slo-mo.
congrats to Condon on his NICE finish yesterday.
[refreshing GC page compulsively]
Jun 25, 2012 at 06:57 PM
Jun 26, 2012 at 02:44 AM
Fuck yeah. Made it into the GC. 1 point. 30th place. Ride of a lifetime.
But seriously, do you guys remember that time William almost rode in solo for the stage win at the final stage of the giro? The giro. Let's just call it that.
But seriously, do you guys remember that time William almost rode in solo for the stage win at the final stage of the giro? The giro. Let's just call it that.
Jun 27, 2012 at 01:10 AM
Interesting - my best 20m through 20sec power of the race came in the last 20 min and descended toward the finish in that aif you take the 5 min power - its the last 5 min of the race, etc... People had to go hard to catch WDC. Maybe my legs were a little toasty from that.
The only thing I blew was not being patient enough as my best 20 and 30 sec power ended just short of the finish as I died. Should have waited another 10-15 seconds!!! KAHN
Jun 27, 2012 at 03:49 AM
this was a great weekend; some really good racing, but more importantly, some excellent dude time with my KCC homies. Vlad hipped us to Quick Chek, a North Jersey alternative to WaWa that was superior in every way (it was even full of pretty girls!), Joe played me hella Hall & Oates in the car, and Michael enabled my chocolate pretzel habit.
this was the second stage race i'd done (after the 2010 tour of connecticut) and i really like them.
i had been pumped for a long time to try my hand at an UPHILL time trial that was more than a 5min Alpine blast. i haven't been this light since I was in high school, and lately, my climbing has been really good. I couldn't hang on with Chabanov, but I can regularly drop Al Barouh . . . good enough for me.
the time trial started with a decent warmup on Whitey's trainer. The lack of air flow and the brutal humidity on Saturday morning I had a hard time concentrating on my intervals, but i hit the line with a nice covering of sweat, and as I pushed off from the holder, my first thought was "ahh! breeze!" it was a nice way to start a painful effort. I took great care to not go too hard during my TT, constantly telling myself to chill, and waiting for each rise to gain time on the riders ahead of me. I ended up passing 6 riders, but the finish came up suddenly around a turn and I finished with a bunch in the tank. I ended up being a bit bummed about that, because the 15:08 I rode for 5th on the stage was only 7 seconds slower than 2nd place. The ride down the mountain was beautiful, and took almost as long as the ride up. I got to watch Joe, Mike and Vlad chug up the narrow mountain path as I doodled down; Mike's "game face" was terrifying . . . he probably swallowed a bug.
The aforementioned 3, Whitey, Jeff Condon and I adjourned to an excellent little diner after the TT and completely destroyed a large amount of scrapple 'n' fixins. True story: Mike had TWO breakfasts . . . belgian waffles, then eggs, homefries, toast. No wonder he's so fast.
The crit took place on the Sussex county fairgrounds. Ragot, Rene, Stokes and Dan Hubbard showed up to add meat/gristle/flava to our cat 3 crew. At this point, I was in 5th overall and Diamond Joe was in 11th. We tried to figure out a "best of both worlds" plan that would allow Ragot/Rene/Mike to crush the finish while still protecting Joe and me. This essentially involved riding Ragot's coattails in the event of a sprint, while looking for breaks in the first 3/4's. The race was actually going quite well until the very end, when I misread the lap card and, completely against plan, took a desperate, confused flyer with 1 to go, thinking it was the finish. I threw my bike across the line like an asshole only to hear a kissena yell "William! Get back on! What are you doing?!?"
Dan Hubbard was there to hear me vent my frustration as I was shat through the pack like so many legos through a toddler. Big ol' F-Bomb at that. The officials were laughing at me as I crossed the line 60 seconds back from the field sprint. Apparently, Whitey took a video of my boner move . . . ugh. I guess everyone gets to do that once in a racing career . . . hopefully not twice. I REALLY THOUGHT THAT LAP CARD SAID "1 TO GO"!!!
I thought I was out of the GC hunt, but I started the next morning in 9th place. I thought a lot about my role as a teammate that morning, precisely about what I could reasonably ask the other dudes for. Ragot is in great shape right now, and the course didn't have any big climbs on which I could naturally separate myself. The race was probably coming down to a field sprint, and I realized I couldn't "have it both ways", i.e. if I couldn't figure out how to dislodge myself from the pack by the end of 2-to-go, I needed to chill out and work for Eric, rather than go for stupid lone-shark efforts like I had in the crit.
I spent the first half of the race trying to conserve energy, which didn't always feel like it was working. The course had a fair share of leg-crunching rollers and plenty of 90deg+ turns that required hard sprints to exit and lots of position mix ups. With 4 to go, I bridged up to a move that Joe and another rider were in, and we were away for a few miles before being caught. With 3 to go, I started throwing spaghetti against the wall, attacking again and again hoping that one of them would break the pack's will to chase. Going into two to go, Mike and I actually got a gap and tried to bridge up to a leading pair, but everything we did was chased down.
After the Mike move, I officialy gave up hope of my own result and of a GC place and instead started buzzing around Eric, talking to him, asking for direction. We stayed up near the front, with Joe and Michael nearby. In the last last, the pace slowed to a crawl (GROUP MATCH SPRINT!), and with four miles to go, I was at the front in the middle of the road. I really wasnt sure what was going to happen, but I heard Ragot whisper "attack! now!" and I went. 800 meters later, I looked back to see a BIG gap, and a BIG rider bridging up to me. He and I worked well together, though he was defintiely stronger. We made the 2nd to last turn, a harsh dowhill 100deg bend, with the field out of sight. The next two miles was really bad - I spent most of it with my eyes locked on my breakmate's wheel (when in back) or on my own front hub (when pulling). Amazingly, we were maintaining a 200+ meter gap. It hurt so so bad and I was doing a prodigious amount of drooling, but going into the last turn, i told myself i needed to HTFU, stop begging for it to "all be over" and take advantage of this rare, rare opportunity.
On the last little rise, about 400meters form the finish, I attack my breakmate and drop him. I look behind and see the pack at 40 meters and closing, and I (miracle . . .) got OUT of the saddle and sprinted (I don't do this much). The line came so so close, but with about 15meters to go, the field sprint was passing and I was shutting down like T1000 in the metal press thing, my red eyes slowing fading, my CPU powering down, my urge to destroy Sarah Connor passing away.
I flopped over into the weeds at the bottom of the hill, totally out of it, but Michael turned around and helped me calm down and then pushed me back up the hill to the parking lot where he dumped water over my head. I felt SOOOO much better after that. Mucho thanks for the kind treatment there.
In the past few days, I've been thinking about the race constantly. I held on for 10th, which got me 10th in the GC (out of the money), but, as opposed to last year's fuck-up at Pawling, there really wasn't much I could have done differently about how this race turned out. In restrpospect, it felt great to throw down so hard, and I'm really happy that I didn't wuss out at the end.
Jun 27, 2012 at 03:49 AM
For the great majority of us, a win comes along so infrequently that the "what" of our bike racing hobby becomes much less important than the "how." I felt happy on Sunday because I raced exactly how i've always wanted to race. Given that, missing out on the win doesn't matter so much.
Huge props to my great teammates, especially to Mike, for taking care of me, Joe for blocking his ass off while I was away and allowing me to take a shot, and to Eric, for being bossy and ordering me into what proved to be the best moment of my season so far.
Jun 27, 2012 at 01:18 PM
Enjoyed reading William's report.
Sounds like the weekend didn't go quite the way ya'll hoped it would, but that if a couple of key moments had gone the other way it would have been a different story.
I also like this:
For the great majority of us, a win comes along so infrequently that the "what" of our bike racing hobby becomes much less important than the "how." I felt happy on Sunday because I raced exactly how i've always wanted to race. Given that, missing out on the win doesn't matter so much.
Jun 27, 2012 at 03:21 PM
Great report William.
Also I can totally understand the sentiment, the "How" of racing (which sounds a little like the Dao of racing), is more important. You raced for the W and were so close, and you did all you could. You didn't cross the line with something left in the tank saying, "boy I really could have gone harder and made that race"
That is really what racing is about.
Also I can totally understand the sentiment, the "How" of racing (which sounds a little like the Dao of racing), is more important. You raced for the W and were so close, and you did all you could. You didn't cross the line with something left in the tank saying, "boy I really could have gone harder and made that race"
That is really what racing is about.
Oct 07, 2012 at 05:58 PM
http://dmadson.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0HS2002K000129&po=127&pc=230
This photographer was at Town Hall Cross; looks like he got some fine KCC shots...
Jun 14, 2013 at 06:07 PM
I did this 3 years ago with Donovan. It was a super fun little race. Well run and not too far. Do it!
Jun 14, 2013 at 06:24 PM
Why don't you do it?Jeff Owens said:I did this 3 years ago with Donovan. It was a super fun little race. Well run and not too far. Do it!
Jun 14, 2013 at 06:56 PM
Reg'd.
Jun 14, 2013 at 07:06 PM
I did signed up for it but my wife is going to LA for business. I bummed out that I can't make it.