Killington Stage Race Cat. 4

As soon as I heard that another stage race was coming to our area I knew that I had to sign up for it and partake in the inevitable suffering. Apparently this race was run for long time and for some reason disappeared in 2000 only to reemerge in 2010. The format was pretty standard, stage 1 consisted of a 53 mile circuit race, stage 2 was an 11 mile time trial and stage 3 was a 61 mile road race.

Stage 1 – 53 mile circuit race [75th out of 95 finishers]

The first day my goal was simply to stay with the pack and get the same time as the main peloton. The course was an 18 mile loop that we did three times. The race profile on all three days as shown in the race guide didn’t really do justice to what we would be facing. The loop was pretty flat at times, some decent long drags upward, punctuated with a long drag in the middle of the loop finished off with short little riser to the top of the KOM line, along with a few VERY fast downhills, one with terrible road conditions that ended with a sharp right at a stop sign. I stayed pretty much in the back the whole day, at times I found myself in the middle of the peloton but on the inside so no front riding for me today. The roads were especially narrow at times so moving up was impossible and one stretch had awful road conditions. I’m not quite sure why they couldn’t avoid this area but several flats happened, including our own Steven Senne unfortunately. I struggled each time on the long drag up to the KOM but managed to catch back on with the fast downhill right after the line and I felt myself worrying that I might get dropped on this section during the second or third laps because after the fast downhill there was a sharp right hand turn and another long drag up that people were flying up. Luckily I stayed with the pack on each lap and I found myself coasting with the peloton toward the extremely fast downhill to the finish line, I was in the back sitting up going 40mph so I can only imagine what the finishers in the front were doing. I sat up going into the finish just waiting for a massive crash that seems to be the inevitable conclusion to all Cat. 4 races these days. Thankfully no such crash occurred today. I finished with the pack and was the last rider to cross the line and be given the same time as the peloton. I had planned to ride a little more with my travel companion but the weather turned to rain so I shut it down and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Conclusion of the day, I need to work on staying on wheels more to save energy, even if I’m off the back for most of the day.

Stage 2 – 11 mile time trial [77th out of 95 finishers]

The course was part of what we rode for the circuit race which meant some flat land with a long drag in the middle, all topped with a sharp rise near the end, a hard right turn and a slight uphill false flat to the finish line. Needless to say I was dead tired, and seeing as how I don’t have any time trial equipment I was not expecting much. I rode out to the start line from my hotel, which was a good nearly 12 mile warm up a nice clip with an even nicer tailwind. I started the time trial thinking it would be a nice ride, but very quickly it turned into a disaster. I was so tired and my legs were not working properly. It was cool at the start so I had my vest on, bad idea because that was slowing me down considerably. The middle 4 to 5 miles of the ride was on an open straight road with no trees and a nice 20 to 25mph direct headwind slapping me in the face repeatedly. I saw my speed drop from 24 to 22 to 18mph rather quickly. At one point I was about to get off my bike and sit down I felt so tired but I just dropped into an easier gear and spun away knowing that I was losing time rapidly. Several riders behind me passed me, including my 30 second, 1 minute, and I think my 90 second and 2 minute man. All of them had on skinsuits with TT bikes and tear drop TT helmets so I chalked it up to equipment at that point. I felt horrible at the finish and put up a nearly 32 minute time, which was about 4 minutes behind our category’s winner. Pretty pathetic, but I just wanted to focus on day 3. I went out for a nice 20 mile spin after the TT and settled in for more rest. Conclusion of the day – TT equipment helps tremendously for a TT, go figure.

Stage 3 – 61 mile road race [34th out of 83 finishers]

Today was the obvious Queen stage. The race profile looked like a little rise at the beginning of the race, a significant climb in the middle of the stage all topped off with a massive climb at the end. The massive climb was not one of the proper “Gap” climbs in the Green Mountains but it was a straight 6k climb up East Mountain Road to Bear Mountain and beyond, followed by a sharp descent, rise, sharp descent and more climbing for another 5k to the finish line up Killington Road. My entire goal was to somehow make it to the base of the final climb with the main group. I figured that if I could do that I would be happy with my race and the entire weekend. The race started off smooth for the first 3.5 to 4 miles, at which point the little rise was up a 7% climb that nearly ripped my legs off. I only knew the gradient because of the road sign going down that climb indicating the gradient. I almost went into the red on that climb but I was mid pack starting it so at the end I was closer to the back. We then proceeded to roll along an extremely narrow and extremely messed up road for nearly 18 miles. It was very fast at times and most of the journey was spent yelling out HOLE LEFT, CRACKS RIGHT, RIDER FLAT LEFT, RIDER FLAT RIGHT, BOTTLES!!!!!! Again, I am not sure why they chose this stretch of road to ride on but it was made for a cyclocross or mountain bike, not a road bike, especially considering that we don’t get free equipment like professional riders. It was one of the worst stretches of road that I have ever been on and I thankfully made it through unscathed. The only potential mishap during this stretch was when the wheel van for our race decided to shoot from behind the peloton on the opposite side of the road while an 18 wheeler truck was barreling down the opposite lane. The wheel van only swerved over at the last possible second, and all of this to go drive behind a 3 man breakaway, leaving the entire 80 man field with no wheel support. I know that nothing should cease to amaze me at amateur races in New England, but this move was one of the stupidest ones I have ever seen. The wheel van could have killed himself, or swerved over to save his life and killed several riders, let alone the stupidity of taking ALL of the wheels to go support 3 riders.

We eventually reached the second big climb of the day and I for some reason thought that it started at mile 30, when in reality it slapped us in the face at mile 24 or so. It was a sharp climb that immediately broke up the peloton, I was quickly in my easiest gear, 39×25 just struggling to stay in contact with riders in front of me so that I would not get dropped. The climb was longer than I had thought and it definitely put me in the red at the top of it. The official crest of the climb was not the end of the suffering because you could see some rollers in the distance that would crush one’s legs if you were out of matches to burn. I looked around and noticed others with me, thankfully, because if I had been by myself my day would have been over. I hooked up with a group of riders, one of which I have done several racers and consider one of my Cannondale brothers in arms, Ben George. We started riding together and soon were joined by a handful of other riders. Eventually we were around 10 strong and working EXTREMELY hard to get back to the peloton who we could see but were not connected to yet. We formed a nice paceline, but were at times getting confused because of the rotation going clockwise instead of counterclockwise which I find more agreeable during racing situations. Eventually we caught the peloton and it was one of the most gratifying experiences I have had so far in races because I was so tired at this point in the race and because my entire goal of getting to the final climb with the main peloton was still within reach. The peloton seemed to coast for a little bit as the group I was reconnecting to the pack with congratulated one another a nice job to get back on. There was another small split before and during the feed zone and I felt myself slipping away again, only to work with Ben again to catch back on during a fast descent. We quickly hit the gravel road section, which including a steep riser that was short but very painful nearly 40 miles in. I got over the climb and found a rather precarious and fast descent on the other side, filled with the requisite large potholes on unpaved hard packed dirt roads. I was off the back of the main group and weaving through the holes when I found a row of three that I could not avoid. I hit them full on at around 35mph and I thought for a second I was going down but thankfully did not. I pushed on and reconnected with the back of the peloton. I quickly realized that my goal was well within reach as it was now mile 41 and I was with the main field for what was a flat to slightly uphill drag to the main climb. I settled in at the back of the peloton and spoke with a couple of riders about the impending suffering. We were rolling along at around 24mph or so with the group pretty strung out in the front in a long line as we rode mostly in the shoulder next to a metal guardrail. At around mile 51 or 52 I see a rider up ahead and on the inside start go down, followed by three or four other riders. It must have been a touch of wheel or something innocuous because no one was jostling for position at this point as we all knew what awaited us. As I rolled past the fallen riders one of them was sitting up and he said very loudly and matter of factly “oh my God I need to go the hospital like right now.” I didn’t really see anything on the ground but a rider behind me came up and after I asked what happned he said that that rider must have cut an artery, I’m presuming because he saw blood. I found out later that he cut his arm on the guardrail and was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Needless to say I was freaked out by this and I literally started praying for him and for the rest of our ride to be safe. I then rode all the way to the front and stayed there for a mile or so in case anything else bad happened. As the road and the paced started to rise I found myself start to suffer a bit too much so I dropped back about mid-pack as we made the turn onto East Mountain Road. The next 5 or 6k was simply brutal to say the least. I started off in nearly my easiest gear and then was riding 39×25 rather quickly was once the road gradient picked up in the neighborhood of 15%. My arm warmers had been down so now I was unzipping most of my jersey and vest. The heat did not help but I stayed focus on pounding out a somewhat smooth rhythm on the pedals. I was suffering, but so was everyone else. I passed several riders in this section and only got passed by two riders. I don’t remember much else at this point except the pain and the desire to get off my bike, especially when I saw one rider had simply stopped at the side of the road. After more than 5k I saw the KOM line and a race official yelled out that we had another 5k to the finish line. There were two nice little descents that let my legs calm down but they were followed by sharp rises again, the last one leading to a long slow drag that evened out only to go up again after we turned onto Killington Road toward the finish. I was past the red at this point and I just stamped away to the finish, passing one rider before the finish line and unfortunately letting a Threshold rider nip me on the line. Strangely they got his position correctly even though he passed me on the left and the camera was on the right, even though Sunapee still hasn’t gotten my results in despite the same thing happening. In the end I was 34th on the day and 4:21 back of the stage winner, although I noticed in the results this morning that I had been assessed a 30 second time penalty on the stage for no apparent reason. I didn’t bother to look for results at the finish area because I was too busy not passing out and drinking water and I did not think they would have them up but if they did, or if I knew that they did I would have protested this penalty. I never littered and I never once crossed the yellow line and no race official ever warned me or said anything to me in the race as I spent almost the entire ride hugging the far shoulder line. I chalk this up to another inevitable mistake on the part of USA Cycling officials and race organizers in New England who seem to never get results right or assign penalties aribitrarily and with no warning. I didn’t even get to protest the penalty because I had no clue I had received one. This left me at 44th overall in the GC out of 83 finishers with the time penalty affecting me by two positions. I have written to the race organizers and to one of the USAC officials to find out what happened but no word yet and I don’t expect one to come back to me.

Conclusion of the day, working with a group to catch on to a driving peloton is far more enjoyable then doing so yourself. Also, avoid guardrails from now on, no more vests even if its cool at the start and don’t let anyone nip you on the line ever, it feels horrible even if you have ridden well the whole day.

Conclusion of the race – despite the mishaps, terrible road conditions, spotty USA Cycling officiating and insane wheel support van driving this was a nice addition to the race calendar and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get a taste of stage racing in a beautiful part of the country.