Race 7: Bear Mountain Spring Classic

I haven't been in Bear Mountain State Park since July 4th 1997 when Erik and I came through on the AT wondering how on earth we were going find Chris in that mob scene. Chris, who had not suffered the inevitable dumbing down, picked the perfect spot to 1) make sure he found us, and 2) make us go through the maximum angst - where the trail exits the park.

Anyway, it was much easier to find hiking than driving. I drove down with a local rider Vanessa. We left bright and early Sunday morning, arriving at the venue at 11:45 for a 1PM start.

The race was tough due both to the course and the field. We raced on an L shaped course. We started in the middle of one arm of the L, went to the corner of the two arms and back up tot the start. We then did the whole L twice. On the whole L, one turnaround was on a traffic circle – off a rolling section, we were cruising but the circle wasn’t too bad. The other turnaround was tear drop shaped, coming off a steep hill into the tear drop and then climbing out of it. That one felt super sketchy to me. There were 49 of us at the start. 43 finished (those that did not finish either had mechanical issues with the bikes or got dropped and did not want to race alone for miles and miles).

We were all together on the short out back to the middle of the L and things started to string out on the first time down the descent to the tear drop. I was near the back when we started down and I completely surprised myself by passing several women on the steep part (just before the turn). I caught and passed more women on the climb out of there forming small groups and then leaving them. I was alone at the top and feeling sluggish. A group of 5 caught me and we pulled together on a false flat down into the wind and caught another group, I was still feeling a bit sluggish here and having trouble holding on, but once the group got a little bigger I had an easier time. We then caught a couple other small groups as we headed out the other arm of the L. By the traffic circle turnaround we were a group of 18 and there were two small groups ahead of us and a couple small groups behind us along with some lone stagglers. My group of 18 was trying to catch the group in front and there was a lot of surging and rotating through but we all stayed together the second time down the steep descent. We spread out again on the climb, but I managed to stick with the main group. Despite spreading out on the climb, we re-assembled on the false flat and did the rest of the race as a group. Going back out to the traffic circle turnaround and back up a gentle hill to the start. I was expecting an attack on the climb but none came. The finish was actually on a flat to slight down so given the lack of attack on the climb, I figured the sprint for the finish would come a little early given the slight downhill. Despite expecting an early sprint, I failed to move up enough leading up to the sprint. Despite starting the sprint on the back, I did manage to pass a few ladies in the sprint. Unfortunately I was still ramping up speed as we crossed the line. If only the line was another 50 meters out….

I am happy with getting over some of my fear on the steep descent (didn’t get dropped :-D ) and how I climbed that 2 mile slog out of it both times. I am pleased that I was not DFL in my group on the sprint, but disappointed that I did not position myself better. I wasn’t on the front when the sprint started this time (which is good), but being too far back meant I had to negotiate around a lot of people. I utterly failed to drink enough during the race. I ended up 31 overall. Not great, but I am not disappointed with it. I got what I went for, a chance to race in a large pack of experienced women who had team mates and were using team tactics, and I was with a group for much of the race.

Results were posted by Monday on BikeReg.com.