Prepare yourself for the second ever installment of the ever popular KSR blog-o-rama. We have a big crew racing the Cat 3, including myself, Riegel the Beagle, Dave Mingori Dynasty, Scott "Don't call me Conch" Conchieri, Rich The Diesel Batten, John The Pirate Raguin, Jake the Snake Lipcon, and Ronaldinho Garon. Also don't forget Ken "Hanging" Chadwick in the Cat 4.
This is my 5th time doing this race. I've had high speed crashes, broken bikes, and a damaged ego. I've been dropped more times than the tomato on the shish kabob, Usually I say afterwards this is the last time I'm doing it. But I'm serious this time. I'm going for broke tomorrow and then shifting my focus to helping the team. Then its sayanora KSR.
In the meantime, hopefully we'll have some good stuff to post here over the next few days. Ken goes in the AM for a 36mi edition of the circuit race. I've done longer opener rides The rest of us get to slog through 72 miles in the 90 degrees heat, probably at an average speed of 24mph. Wish us luck.
First post... up early thinking about the race. I had dinner with Ken last night and didn't realize his race is only 36 miles plus he starts in the morning. Much cooler and then you get almost a full 24 hours to recover. 72 miles and our race is in the afternoon for a nice hot one and less recovery. As Jeremy says, it should be a fast one. Our field has about 100 guys... I haven't been in a field that big recently.
I think all of us have modest expectations overall in the races, but today is a day for a few of the guys to go for it. My plan just to sit in as much as humanly possible and get the same time as the winner. Because of a bit crazy downhill sprint (read high speed crash from Jeremy above), the race guide told us they apply the same time rule "very liberally" and if you are within shouting distance with 500 m to go you get the same time. Maybe I can win the award for rolling across the finish line the slowest!
jraguin wrote: the race guide told us they apply the same time rule "very liberally" and if you are within shouting distance with 500 m to go you get the same time. Maybe I can win the award for rolling across the finish line the slowest!
There's the in-race competition today - let's see who can finish the farthest back while still getting the same time as the winner
Quick note that we all finished today although not completely unscathed. Big crash with 1k to go in the Cat 3 race. Tyler couldn't avoid it and fell on top of already downed riders. He got up and rode to the finish. Not too many cuts. Everyone else got through unscathed. Jacob had bad luck again with flats. Really bad roads thus year. Lots of flats in the field. More later.
Ever ride a perfect race for 71.5 miles only to screw it up at the very last moment doing exactly what you said you wouldn't do? I rode at the front with John for almost the entire race, avoiding a few crashes and most of the potholes (although I did hit one and lost my Garmin, which Tyler found after he crashed. Oops, but thanks). It wasn't a hard race but still pretty uncomfortable as the heat was outrageous. Anyway, I'm 5th wheel with 1k to go in perfect position to wait for the very last moment. All of a sudden 2 big sprinter looking dudes attack ferociously from the left and before I knew I attacked and bridged across and was about to open my sprint with about 200 meters to go and about 20 guys wooshed by me and I basically sat up and coasted in. As Phil Mickelson famously said "I'm such an idiot". I'll never get those 3 hours back. And the worst part, I'm still cramping and I'm sure to get shelled tomorrow. Ugh
My new nickname is "U-turn". Other than that, it was uncomfortably hot today and tomorrow looks to be a repeat, but will 3x more climbing. I can't wait!
So Day 1 was 4 laps of an 18 mile circuit. A gradual climb up on one side to the KOM and a gradual descent down on another side with some flats in between. No real defining climbs so hard for anyone to get away. My goal was to do as little work as possible while finishing with the main pack.
All but Ken were in the Cat 3 race. As Jeremy said, most of the time I stayed close to the front. A ton of young kids in the race from Canada and other places. They were a little jumpy so I learned to stick on a few good wheels and stay out of trouble. A few notes:
* Mission accomplished for me. I did absolutely no work the whole race.
* Due to the heat (90 degrees) and long race, it was like a moving smorgasboard with it seemingly like everyone was drinking and eating all the time. Thanks to Ken and Glenn (Jeremy's dad) for handing up to us at the feed zone.
* It was the first time I have ever seen anyone pull down their shorts and pee during the race. His teammate was pushing him while he peed so he could stay with the group. The problem was kid did it near the front of the race instead of going to the back so it was dangerous.
* I was almost fined by the moto for throwing a water bottle not in the feed zone. She was yelling at me as she thought it was me because I only had 1 bottle. But I had thrown mine off in the feed zone. The "discussion" went on for a few minutes and it was almost dangerous as she kept coming close to me.
* Rich went in a pretty good break on the last lap but got caught just before the KOM. Although bad for Rich, Jeremy and I was happy about it because the pace went really easy for a while after that.
* There was a big crash about 700 m from the finish, some Canadian kid when across the yellow line. The moto yelled at him, and he went right back across the yellow line straight into a bunch of riders. Carnage ensued. Probably 15 guys hit the deck. Tyler thinks there were 5-7 guys in the initial crash and then another 8-10 who couldn't avoid it (including him).
* It will interesting what happens today in terms of the field size. We had 96 pre-registered riders, the results list 90 that raced, with 16 DNFs and 15 another who lost time on the main pack. Then within the 59 given the same time, probably 13-14 were given the same time although they were in the crash.
Last edited by jraguin on Mon May 30, 2016 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
First race for me as a 3. Fun times.
The heat affected me on the last lap but otherwise expended virtually no energy and felt great on the KOM climbs. Hit a bad patch at the start of the final KOM climb but overcame it and held in but decided that I wouldn't be able to try to move to the front to help Jeremy for the finish. Felt slightly nauseous and had a spell of bad lightheadedness after the finish but that all passed with no issues.
I did find that I actually have some pretty good bike-handling skills. Still have no idea how I avoided the 700'sh to go pileup. Like John, I was on the right side of the road but more towards the rear of the main field. I saw the kids going left of yellow too early (we had the full road starting at 500 to go) and saw the moto ride up alongside them. Then chaos ensued. Bodies and bikes sliding and tumbling right and I was going to get blocked, so braked hard and surfed left. Braced myself for what inevitably seemed at best a ride over someone's rear wheel when I managed to lock my rear wheel and power slide around this guy and his bike by inches, and at same time avoid the bunch going by me on my left.
Let the adrenaline subside and sat up to soft pedal across the finish.
Oh, and Rich's final lap attack was a thing of beauty. I was at best mid pack on a flat/slightly downhill stretch of Rt.4 when I see Rich motoring by on the right in a clear breakdown lane. Next thing I see is he's just ridden right off the front, caught one guy and motoring up towards the next. All in maybe a mile or so. Good stuff!
Last edited by djming on Sun May 29, 2016 7:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
-rode for 71 miles, doing no work, just chilling towards the middle/back of the peloton
-fell of the front of the peloton on the last lap, definitely was not going on that attack, let myself get reabsorbed.
-coming into 2k to go, I hopped on the back of the GLV train, figured I could get a free ride to front and hopefully stay out of trouble (spoiler alert, that did not happen)
-600 meters to go, all of the sudden there were bodies sliding in front of me, locked up the back wheel, dumped maybe 5mph (Garmin says 46mph, right before it dropped to zero). Mostly landed on top of the GLV guys as we slid across the ground, but did manage to knock my head against the ground and crack my helmet. Bruised hip/ankle, road rash on hip and shoulder, and head is sore to touch at the point where it bounced on the ground. Think I escaped the concussion issue, but just keeping an eye on it. Escaped better than some, couple guys had not much kit left, there was carbon bits everywhere, at least two bike completed destroyed.
-I am pretty sure I won the "competition" to see how far back someone could finish and still get the same time. I mean, I was laying on the ground for about 10min after everyone else finished
-Found Jeremy's Garmin
Unfortunately this is where my first KSR ends. not going to continue, cannot really put any power through the left leg right now, and just being cautious with the head situation. Going to rest up, but will be back ASAP.
What there anything between 700 and 500 meters to go (like 2 way traffic) that made it unsafe to cross the yellow line? These motos confound me as they always seem to cause more harm than good. Not in a European "run you over" kind of way but in a New England "no clue how bike racing works" kind of way.
Anyway well done all, and heal up Tyler. I was looking forward to your report from the climbing stage.
Day 2 - 61 mile road race with the uphill finish.
Started out with a bit of a very nervous moment when right at the base of the initial climb only a few miles into the race I dropped my chain and was off the back. Thankfully nobody pushing the pace and after a few seconds of tinkering I threw in a good hard short effort and was back on. Actually was going good so just kept on going up through the pack.
After that, did exactly what I wanted pretty much throughout, it just didn't pan out at the finish.
Ater the sprint at mile 24.5 I moved up, to be in a decent position as we hit the "wall" to start the North Rd climb. Felt good and went hard up the wall. I pushed it to maintain contact with the lead group of 20-25 at the top of the KOM. We ended up being caught by the chase group to more than double the size (no real organization to push the pace), but that was my objective as had I backed off and that group stayed away I'd have been kicking myself. Used the now very large field to recover and actually went to the front as we approached the Skyeship to start the final climb. The pure climbers were quickly away and I was initially going to ride a steady pace but decided to push a bit harder to try to stick with a couple guys I recognized and see what happens. Hit the KOM feeling tired but like I still had a (little) bit more. Swapped with one guy thru the dips and rolls leading to the golf course when the insides of both hammies said "no mas" and the power was dropping. The Pirate came by in a nice group of 5 or 6 and figured cool, just get on the back of this. Oh well, so much for that. Then Rich comes trucking by and hung on his wheel as long as I could but at that point I was really in shut down mode.
Overall felt SO much better than last year. Looking forward to the TT tomorrow
My goal was to get to the bottom of E. Mtn Road with the group which I've never done. Got dropped as usual on the first major climb but a group of strong "nonclimbers" got together and chased for an hour. It was painful but we actually made it back. Sat in to E. Mtn road with a big group but was summarily ejected at the start. I still went up faster than I ever have in this race, which resulted in not-so-gratifying 55th place. I'm good with it, set a bunch or PRs, including a new 5min power PR. Too bad none of the climbs are 5 minutes. I lost 10minutes in the last 5 miles, these guys can climb off the charts. Good times all around though. Back at it tomorrow for the TT and then the Long Trail Brewery, if anyone wants to join me
My story is one of staying within my zone on the climbs, getting dropped by all these young climbing dudes, regrouping, and catching back on.
Starting at the North Rd climb at ~25 miles, those guys really flew up the hill. I knew it was a 6 min effort up the first wall, and knew I could not go at their pace. Got through the first wall and accelerated to get in a group with a few other stragglers. Rich joined our group to make it maybe 6-7 guys and we kept a good pace going with the lead group of 20+ guys (including Dave) not far in front, maybe 200 m. I really thought we would close on them fast but this North Road climb is the bad gift that keeps on giving. After the initial wall it rolls upward for another 3 miles. Ugh. We were working but didn't seem to be closing the gap much. We finally got over the top and really accelerated but it still took a while. I think we caught them at mile 33 (so about 9.5 miles after the initial wall where we were gapped). I knew that was a big match burnt there.
Then we are heading up the feed zone. Some guys in our field decide to drill it. I really needed water so I decided to risk it and get a bottle. Well, I missed the bottle and with the guys drilling it, all of a sudden a big gap is there. I am now chasing again with a small group of guys who also screwed up in the feed zone. But here it was a long descent and the lead pack wasn't going very fast so we caught on pretty rapidly. Still, I knew a second chase like that was not going to help me on that finishing climb.
Thankfully, no one seemed to want to push the pace for most of the rest of the way to the Long Trail brewery. We had some surges including a slight one on the dirt road climb (I didn't even know there was a dirt road). When we got at the brewery about 4-5 miles before Skyeship / the base of the East Mountain Road climb, two things happened:
* I heard Jeremy's voice in back of me talking to Dave about how he was shocked that he was able to get back on. Great to hear teammates and gives you motivation.
* The pace picked up, which in my view was an odd place for guys to drill it.
We were going fast but I felt fine and we rolled in pretty quickly to Skyeship / East Mountain Road.
That is when the real climbers really separated from the faux climbers (like me). Remember the first part of this climb is 2.2 miles at an average grade of 9%, with pitches at 15%, after 56 miles of racing. I knew I had to get in my zone and watts. I just couldn't imagine what watts the guys were throwing down in front of me. I kept telling myself to stay steady, ride in saddle for a while and then out, and save something because it is a long way to the finish. Because after the 2.2 miles, you have another 2.2 miles of rolling, ending with 0.6 miles at 9% (again). I saw Jeremy's family and told them to start yelling Pirate (which helped), rode a bit with Rich, slowly picked off some guys, passed Dave and tried to mumble words of encouragement, and then went up the final 0.6 with what my legs had left.
In the end, I finished 34th on the stage which is a lot better than I thought I would do and my climb time was a lot faster than I thought I would. It shows you can't give up on catching back on, something I have learned from past PJ reports!
Last edited by jraguin on Tue May 31, 2016 10:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
I did finish stage 1. It's just that, by the time I finished, they had already put away the finish line camera and had driven away. If you are skeptical, watch the Strava flyby. While you watch, put on some sad violin music to set the mood.
Glad my "getting dropped with dignity" routine stuck with ya John, way to hang in! Great reports guys, you're making me both envious and thankful for not being involved. Rest up, Tyler, you'll have plenty of time to break out this summer. Chris is right - motos are seriously scary. Do they help or hinder?
To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
-Shakespeare
The good thing about a TT is there's no Moto! Everything else pretty much sucks. MRC put in a solid performance today with all the Cat3s finishing within 45 secs of each other. I wasn't psyched about my performance but it was still a PR so whatever. But the crew got together one last time for some Long Trail Ales afterwards. It was really fun hanging with the team through the suffering. MRC was consistent but we need some mountain goats to compete here. Tyler was our only chance!!!!! Anyway I'm glad I did it one last time. See you in Hahvahd!!!!
OK, Day 3, not much to report in a TT. This is an uphill TT (400+ feet) with the first 5 miles being gradual uphill then pretty flat until a bump about 1.2 miles from the finish, then slightly rolling to the finish. 10.6 miles. A few notes:
* Rich convinced me to do a good warm-up which I did. It didn't feel great to do it, but I do think it helped in the end.
* It was very pro there with fencing, people holding you up at the start, timer counting down with beeps, etc. Riders went off 30 seconds apart.
* Road pavement overall was pretty good besides a few longitudinal cracks.
* I had Smudger's TT bike which is an awesome bike. However, I didn't have power measurement. Given that I knew I was tired, I tried to take it easier early judging more on feel and speed and hoping I would not blow up later. I am not really sure how it worked as I really never felt that great.
* I didn't get passed and I passed one guy, probably my 1 minute man. But he wasn't on a TT bike so I didn't interpret it.
* When I finished, I honestly thought I didn't do very well as I started my Garmin late so I had no idea what my time was. Now that I see it, I am pretty happy with it all things considered.
* The beer and lunch at the Long Trail afterward was awesome. It felt so good.
All and all, a fantastic weekend. Thanks so much to Jeremy for getting us to do this race. It really is an experience and you really feel like you accomplished something to finish. I am a competitive guy who would love to finish better, but in this case I was just really happy to finish well. For Jeremy, if it really is his last time (which I believe it is), I am really happy I did it with him this last time.
The goal was to take MRC leaderboard today overall on the Strava KSR Time Trial segment and potentially top 10 on the day. Slept like crap and the boys were up at 5:20, so I didn't recover well. I left the gate hard and monitored avg speed but was unable to maintane desired pace or HR. Adjusted expectations about mile 5 and passed 4 before turning onto River Rd and gave it my all to the end.
Upon review just now I'm not the leader and Rich has not posted yet but Dave M has a faster segment time but lesser official time. Miller and Coleman are club leaders. Details aside I'm planning on a repeat next year. Great job everyone for finishing the race.
Its too bad that two of our boys were struck with bad luck. Oh, and the officials put Jacob's name on sign-in sheet defying his prior expectations so he could have raced instead of gone tubing in the river! Heal up quick Tyler.
Last edited by scottc on Tue May 31, 2016 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Per results, Rich more than lived up to his "Diesel" nickname leading all MRC by over 20 seconds completely non-aero (well except for the aero-shell)!
Overall my TT was average. Almost started disastrously - clock ticking down and just before the beep I think the woman holding my seat let go a bit early (maybe, either that or just complete driver error which honestly is more likely..) and oh sh*t, I'm leaning right. Beep and oh sh*t, I'm leaning more right and in too big a gear, OH SH*T, I'm heading right for the timing clock, DAMN, I think I'm gonna crash. Pull it out, barely swerving around the clock and on my way.
Had to continually play mental games as the legs were definitely feeling the previous 2 days and was struggling to hold my target cadence and therefore my power was too erratic. As it turns out, my 1st half split was actually 16sec slower than what I did it in yesterday during the road race when we covered the same stretch from mile 50-55.
Twice I was ready to mail it in and just "enjoy" a high endurance level ride. Then my 30sec guy catches me, which snapped me out of it. Did manage to slightly increase power over the 2nd half, but overall still off power-wise what I should have been able to do by a good 5%.
Ended up 3rd MRC on GC behind The Diesel and The Pirate in 32nd. Hey, road results had me ranked 70th of 96 going in so that's something! No regrets and I put my efforts in and stuck my nose out where I wanted to on stage 2 and, in my first race as a 3, refused to be intimidated.
Lunch at Long Trail with great food, beer and banter was perfect way to finish it off. Although for the 2nd time of the weekend I left the same MRC water bottle behind (dropped yesterday in the feedzone, had it returned only to become a nice souvenir for an unsuspecting patron of the Pub today). Guess I really didn't want it after all.
Last edited by djming on Mon May 30, 2016 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'll give a short summary of my races in the 4 33+.
Day 1 was the 36ish mile circuit race with a 2 KOMs and a sprint. Climb was long but not steep at all. I rode 5-15 through the first lap to the KOM. Then a steep descent where I was cautious the first time and had to stomp n it to attach back to the leaders. I watched the sprinters from about 10 back. Second lap the same, stayed in the top ten wheels all throughout, went to the front a couple times. With 5 km to go I was on the front (nobody wanted it and I didn't care so much about the sprint), so I hammered for ~1KM. recover then found myself 2nd wheel going really fast as you have heard about this course. BAck and forth across the road. I wasn't going to the front then, but the guy was fading.I jumped on the first wheel by at 500m on the right. He died at about 200, and a train was coming on the left. I went for it a 200m, was 4 or 5 at 50m to go, then hit a wall. Got swamped and ended up 12th.
Day 2 Road race. tried to stay near the front again. First climb at 3-5 miles, no problem, Then cruised for a awhile, was only on the front when I descended faster. At the sprint, I watched five guys sprint for it from 6th. At the major middle climb I was right in the first few, I hung on for about .5 miles then started fading, way back like 25th. HAd to wait for some friends along the rest of the climb, which was not too step, then formed up and started to chase. 5 of us dragged another 6 back to the lead group after about an hour. I was toasted, worked really hard. I ended up losing about 9 minutes on the mountain climb. I was satisfied though. Made it to the final climb with the front and competed hard.
Day 3;
First time trial ever. DMING let me borrow some clip-ons. Never rode with them before. I don't have power and went by heart rate. Finished in the middle on my road bike. I rode pretty hard and was happy with the effort.
Ended up 28 in the GC about 12 minutes back.
First stage race, first TT. Loving it....I'm very pleased...can't wait until next time.
Final post for me with a few highlights and lowlights:
* Being so nervous the entire evening and morning before Stage 1.
* Experiencing the entire stage race with a bunch of MRC teammates.
* Finding out on the Day 1 72 mile 90 degree stage that it wasn't that hard to stay with the pace by staying near the front and just moving up when a good wheel passed me.
* The moto official driving next to me multiple times and insisting she was going to fine me for throwing a bottle out of the feed zone just because I only had one bottle left.
* Finding out that Tyler was caught up in the crash on Day 1, but feeling a lot better when he eventually rolled up and only had a few scrapes and bike was OK.
* Seeing how excited Scott's kids were about staying in hotels and visiting other people on one of their first big trips.
* Scott telling the story of how guys were psyched about him "leading them out" on Day 1 for something like 65th place.
* Getting about 5 miles before the start of the final climb with the lead pack on Day 2 and realizing that my objective was going to be achieved and anything I did on the final climb was gravy on top!
* Watching the 125-140 lb climbers just fly up the final climb on Day 2 and realizing I will never be able to climb like they can.
* Hearing the yells of torture as Rich went into the ice bath in our bathroom that we each did (separately thankfully) after Stage 1 and Stage 2.
* All agreeing to have a beer on Sunday night at Charity's and it tasting very good.
* Rich pounding all of us on the TT despite him not being on a TT bike!
* The beer at the Long Trail brewery after the Day 3 TT felt so good.
Last edited by jraguin on Tue May 31, 2016 8:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The rest of us get to slog through 72 miles in the 90 degrees heat, probably at an average speed of 24mph. Wish us luck.
