The Catskills Epic Road Race:
Took a while to clear the lungs Saturday morning, but they felt many time better than the night before. A quiet night's sleep also made Saturday a rosier day that I might have guessed it would be given how I felt Friday night. The day got better at sign in when I saw the results for the first time: my painful, lung busting 9:02 minute effort was good for 23/52 starters and 51 finishers.
The course: Start at the Windham Mountain Ski Lodge and neutral down off the mountain and through the town of Windham. Then it was gently climbing (a few small dips along the way) for 6 or so miles before the first big descent. Driving the course, this descent made me whimper - long, sort of steep in sections, a few curves, variable pavement, and a hard left at the bottom. After that it was rolling for several miles until the climb up to KOM1. That climb went on for a while and then it was down and rolling into the feed zone and rolling and up into KOM2. From KOM2 it was a screaming (ok whimpering for me) downhill with a sharp S curve at the top down to Rt 23. The last 10 miles on Rt 23 were flattish to false flat rolling into a bit of a headwind for what looked to be the potential for a super fast sprint finish. I knew my first key spot would be not to get dropped on that first long downhill. Having been dropped on hills like that before, I was a little concerned. Knowing some of the ladies in the field, I also knew that between 5 and 3 km to go to the first KOM there would likely be an attack and I made sure I knew the landmarks leading up to that spot.
I contrived to hang on on that first long downhill. We did drop a couple of women there, and I was dangling on the back with one to two bike lengths of open road between me and the person in front of me. Not great, but that is a gap I am fairly certain I can close if I need to (provided I am paying enough attention to know it needs to be closed at a given time). I hung with pretty easily after that – drifting to the back of the pack on the downhills and moving back up towards mid-pack on any climb. The first big climb was several miles long with varying pitches, but steepest right off the bat and then again near the top. I focused on keeping a steady pace and a smooth cadence and stayed with the field as the riders started dropping. There was a surge at 5km to KOM and I hung with. At 3km to KOM the expected major attack came and I was dangling and then off. It was curvy in there and by the time I came over KOM 1 I couldn’t see the two women who came off just before I did. Looking back there was no one in sight. Mile 27 out of 52 and alone in no man's land. Crap. There is nothing quite like the sinking feeling you get a you watch the gap grow to the point where the race caravan pulls around you and leaves you 'unprotected'. Don't get a flat now! I found out later that 20 women had been shelled before I got dropped, but I just knew that there was a large pack ahead and some off the back behind.
At least I got to take the short steep down hills at a comfortable pace to me and I didn't have to worry about drifting into somone's line or someone drifting into mine. I pushed KOM 2 just because I didn’t want to lose too much time in teh GC - not that I was in contention for anything, but it is the priciple of the matter and the fact that if you finished too far back on stage 1, you would not be allowed to start stage 2. I do have to admit though that there were times in there where my thoughts went towards "if I got dropped this early today, tomorrow is going to be an even longer TT so maybe it would be a good thing to be time cut". At the top of KOM 2 there were a couple guys on facny motor cycles (tricycles where the two wheels were in the front and only one in the back) and I did offer to trade with them. They just laughed at me and told me to keep it going. As soon as I hit 23 I put it into time trial mode and hammered the final 10 mils wondering if I would be outside the time cut to start on Sunday since apart from a sturggling junion I had seen no one on a bike for 15 miles. The false flat rollers felt completely un-flat and the wind felt pretty strong, but I just put my head down, cranked up to cadence in a big gear and powered it home. I started passing single riders and pairs of riders from the masters field at this point. Having those riders in front of me as rabbits was a huge help. I was hoping to catch one of the other women who had fallen off, so I would have someone to work with, but they were all guys, so as per USAC rules I had to pass them in a reasonable distance and keep on keeping on alone. The field must have slowed down along that stretch because I managed to almost bridge on those 10 miles. I finished in sight of the peloton 37 seconds back. I was shocked by that and by the group of 6 or 7 women who finished together about a minute behind me. There is no way riding alone into a headwind I should have been able to stay away from a group of 6 had they been working together. I managed 31st out of 51. Not great but at least I didn't lose gobs of time and I didn't have to find the snap for a sprint at the finish. I was a little concerned that I had burned up too many matches in my 25 miles of solo riding, but I have noticed that I recover fairly well and hoped that this would not be an exception.
After the race it was time to eat and then I toured the key part of Sunday's race (Platte Cove Rd - the famed and much hyped Devil's Kitchen climb) with several members of the Ommegang Team. The cars were not happy climbing that road, and the nerves for Sunday began to tingle. Once we got back to Hunter from that I went to soak in the river with Dave - the cold water felt really good on the legs and at ESGs I credit soaking after the ITT and the RR with how good the legs felt there. We sat in the river for near an hour - until we got cold. Then Dave went off to a team mates house and I went back to Windham for some supper (greek salad followed by steak and potatos and broccoli) before heading back to my hotel. At the hotel I changed my cassetter from the 12/25 that was on there to the 12/27 I had brought specifically for this race. I took the bike around the parking lot a few times to make sure she was shifting OK and then turned out the light for some much needed sleep.
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