Tour of Battenkill 2010- Dirt Roads, Killer Climbs and Tons of Wind.

Tour of Battenkill 2010- Dirt Roads, Killer Climbs and Tons of Wind.

On Sat April 10^th the team headed out to race the Tour of Battenkill.  The race is a spring classic in the Northeast attracting racers from all over the US & Canada.  The race has a bad reputation for its killer climbs and rough dirt roads.  Although the sun was out, there were persistent winds that slammed the racers making for a tough day of racing.  Despite these conditions the NE Team had two Top 10 Finishes. 

Making his Colavita NE début Jake Bobrow (Cat 2) finished 8^th in the men's Cat 2 field.    Derek Harnden (Cat 2)  suffered a crash during the race.  Both Jake and Derek race for UVM during the collegiate season.  We are very happy to have them racing for the Colavita NE Team!!! You can look for great things to come from these guys.

Eliot McLellan (Cat 3)  Had an outstanding race in the Men's 3 field.  Eliot finished strong placing 10^th.  Eliot is a very strong racer who knows how to tough it out and get great results at races.  You can be sure to see more great finishes from Eliot this season.     

A special congratulations goes out to Seth Haskell (Cat 3).  Following the Tour of Battenkill Seth will be getting married to his longtime girlfriend Sarah.  We wish Seth and Sarah all the best in their new lives together. 

The day began cool and bright with a brisk wind.
 
I was determined to give a full effort for the whole race, so I zoomed
to the front in the first few miles and hoped to keep a top speed. At
the first dirt section I rode over a succession of horrible pot holes,
first I lost a water bottle, then my chain popped off. I remounted the
chain and excruciatingly sprinted to catch up to the peloton. After
that I was certain to give myself a visual buffer zone on the dirt
sections, and keep my chain on the largest rings! I was not nervous
about being in back at this point because the wind could dismantle any
break and the peloton appeared cohesive.
 
Eventually, without any of my own effort, I filtered toward the front.
With the initiative of staying competitive and riding a strong race, I
speedily took off up a hill and soon discovered I was on a one man
break, that I sustained for several miles. Though I knew the break was
probably doomed! This break occurred somewhere around the halfway
point, and over the longest climb on the course, and across a flat.
 
The frequent steep hills were a surprise and I figure those hills
tired much of the racers.

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Race report Provided by: Glen Gollrad (Cat 3)

Launching out of Cambridge, NY with 95 of my closest CAT3 'Black Group' road racing buddies - the sound of tires on pavement, the buzz of 8 dozen freewheels, and the bright sun were all welcome sounds and sights. This race is nuts as it covers a lot of ground on dirt roads - making it very similar to traditional European "Spring Classics". Thank god it was not cold or rainy - but cool and sunny. Great start to the 2010 season. The first 10 miles were typically twitchy in the pack - but not too demanding. When we veered off to the left, away from the safety of the first big smooth highway stretch - down a narrow country road to dive bomb an even narrower covered bridge, all hell broke loose.

As we funneled through the dark bumpy bridge, it was like a rifle shot coming out the other side - except we had to make a hard right turn. Accelerations abounded - but still no definitive attacks. We were on dirt soon, and it got a little more wily at that point. The challenge was always in the transitions; turns, dirt-to-pavement, pavement-to-dirt, pavement-to-dirt-on-screaming-descent-to-hard-left, and so on. After 45-50 minutes of twitchy mid-pack braking, stuttering, accelerating, braking - I got tired of it and wove my way over to the right side of the road - aka "the gutter" - along a mild dirt road climb, and started accelerating towards the front. As we took a sharp right turn down this same dirt road (where a dog chased me a few weeks ago!), I was in good position as a powerful surge started building at the front. Good timing for me!

BAM!!!

I hit one of the thousands of dirt road potholes that are part of the race, but hit it really hard. Everything seemed fine - water bottles in place, helmet still on - albeit down on my head a little lower, stem not snapped off... so I started pushing the pace. Being closer to the front of such a huge field is intimidating on the one hand, but thrilling and energizing on the other. As we hit the next stretch of stair stepping paved hills - I settled into a good groove and felt strong. The main peloton started re-forming but was now much less twitchy.

Shortly thereafter, I felt like I was slowing down... and sure enough my rear tire was slowly deflating. Ugh. So did my morale!

Gently weaving my way to the right shoulder and to the back, ALL the way to the back, I waited for the wheel car to roll up. After an agonizing minute or two - I was back on the road but could not even see the back of our field! Not panicking - and realizing I may be doing a 2 hour time trial to finish the nearly 50 miles to go - I started riding as hard as I could without totally blowing up. Digging, digging, digging - hoping to see SOMEONE to work with, I realized I was burning through all my matches awfully quick. I eased up a bit - but then caught a glimpse of a guy in orange with the same bib number series I had - so he was also a CAT3 chump off the back and out in no mans land too! I turned up the gas a bit - but every time the road went up, I ceased closing the gap and was over-revving trying to make contact.

This went on until I caught him - but I was now cooked. Fried. Well-done. Tenderized. Oh! Just in time for the 40+ Masters Peloton to start creeping up on us... their lead car came up and said they were on our tails - and I noted I'd be sure to let them pass cleanly and not interfere (hoping to tag onto the back of THEIR group!) with them.

And so it went - riding at the back of this group - then losing contact, then picking up the odd assortment of blown racers like myself; the co-flatters and otherwise despondent and thrashed peers. Eventually I found 2-3 guys Colavita Compatriots to rejoin, and we rode together for a while... Laurent had serious calf cramping issues, Todd (aka the Jackal) was hanging tough - and I tried to help his skinny ass out in the long rolling open highway sections that had a relentless cross/head wind. When the hills kicked up again, Todd pedaled away and Laurent seemed to explode - leaving part of his right leg on the road with its red bootie still attached.

After some screaming descents and more climbs - and a cheering family section - the mother of all ass-kicker climbs was all that was left. Stage Hill Road is a mean old gal - but was at least smooth this day. A few weeks ago they had just re-graded it and there was loose gravel everywhere. Now it was just long and steep and cruel - but not so hard to not fall over on, or spin out.

Made it up to the top with just enough gas in the tank to pedal the last 6-7 km to the finish. As I was spinning these last km's - the CAT4 lead group of 10 guys or so went by and made me feel like I was going backwards. By the time I finished the race I had the full on cold clammy shakes and my stomach was queasy. I was more wrecked than I'd been in a long, long time. All that wasted effort at the beginning, after flatting - punished me in that awful, lovely way road racing / riding can.

It took longer to "race" the course this past weekend than it did to "ride" the course a few weeks ago... which means there is only one way to go - to the bar! Or, while on the bike and racing - up! I look forward to more events to work with you guys - and congrats to my fellow survivors - both groups - those that fared MUCH better than I, and those who suffered as I did - or worse.

That which does not kill you...