There were four components to my Battenkill race plan:
- Be in the first 10 riders into the turn to the covered bridge leading to the first dirt section.
- Be at the front and follow the moves but don’t make any for the first 2/3 of the race.
- Set a hard tempo at the front for each and every climb (especially the longer ones).
- Wait for the final climb and have a go.
Doing each of these things (and avoiding bad luck like crashes and punctures) would hopefully guarantee a top placing. Here’s how it went.
The first thing that was on my mind was having a decent position when we staged since there were 100+ riders in my field. I didn’t want to be at the back and have to spend the first 6 miles leading up to the left hand turn to the covered bridge worrying about moving up. I solved this problem by getting to staging about 20 minutes before our race went off and tacking onto the back of the Cat 3 field set to go off right before us. I was in the first line when our field went off and had no problems protecting my spot at the front up to said turn, which I had positioned myself perfectly for in about 5th or 6th wheel. Seems as though others had seen the course beforehand and had the same idea since once we were through the bridge and took the right-hander the pace really picked up onto the dirt. First goal accomplished.
Next on my to-do list was to hit the left-hand turn onto the dirt of Juniper Swamp first since this was where the first crucial climb (a steep, steep ~400m wall) resided. Again, mission accomplished. And I was first over the Juniper Swamp climb. At this point, the race started to split up and I got an idea of who was going to be around for a while. I recognized a few guys from Fawn Grove 2 weeks ago—Jeff from CRCA/Sanchez and Mattio (a.k.a. “The Purple Bike Guy”) from Kissena—and made some new friends—Mike from Boston and William from Kissena. Jeff in particular had a huge engine, which unfortunately I think he used (in frustration) way too much during the race. But still, some serious power there. By the next long climb (can’t remember the name of the road) a selection was made and the field was down to about 20 riders.
I’ll fast forward to the lead up to the final climb at mile 56 since nothing of consequence happened for about 30 miles. With about 2 miles to go to the base of the final long dirt climb up Stage Road, people started hammering. It wasn’t all out but it was enough to get me thinking about how I was going to approach the moment. I talked to a couple guys who I thought were strong and basically said come with me if you want/can. Okay, here goes, covered bridge on the right, left turn onto Stage Road. Because of the pace up to the climb, I decided that instead of attacking right away that I’d set a hard tempo for the first 3/5 and then ratchet it up for the last 2/5. And that’s what I did.
With my 20/20 hindsight, I messed up on the last climb. I was hesitant to hit it at the bottom because I didn’t want to blow up. And even though I ramped it up for the last 1/3 of the climb and ended up having a 5 second gap with one other guy who bridged all too effortlessly up to me (the eventual winner) by waiting to apply a little more pressure, I let the 10 guys left in the field settle into a rhythm. I should have punched it at the bottom and held 400-450 watts for 2-minutes and then assessed the situation. Oh well, you learn something in every race.
Anyhow, descending into Cambridge we had a group of 13. And everyone was saving it. The pace got ridiculously slow. Knowing that I probably wasn’t going to win a straight-up sprint, I decided that I’d attack 100 meters into the last corner and try to hold the gap for the last 250m which followed that corner to the line. Unfortunately, my plan was foiled by Jeff and William who decided to take the bull by the horns (and burn themselves up) 200m before the last corner. I still had good position out of the corner and held on for a 5th place (though the photo looked like I had 4th, but who’s splitting hairs?). I had an awesome ride and it was a great course. I want to go back next year.
