Thursday, May 25, 2006
North Stonington Road Race
North Stonington, CT - a stone's throw from The Wonder of it All - Foxwood!
Very hard race. If this race continues, it will gain the reputation as one of the hardest race courses in New England. They could make it brutal by adding a few laps. If they made the masters race a 10 lapper (50+ miles) it would become a classic. If you haven't done the race it is a 5 mile loop that is never flat. The main climb is about 1K. The rest of the course rolls/grinds. With the exception of the main decent off the climb, you can do the rest of the loop in the little ring because it grinds a lot and the down hills aren't long enough to bother to use the 53. Arlen and I chose the little ring option and I saw Yabroudy did too. Think about that. A road race that you can race 95% in just the little ring. Also, both times I've done this race the wind was blowing. On the false flat after the finish line it is a tough cross wind as the course opens up into a large farm and there are no trees to bl0ck the wind.
I was happy with how I felt. I was dead two weeks ago. I rested and I have come back stronger. It was important to me to stay with the group because last year I got shelled at this race on lap 2.
I thought Ed's break would work. It had very good riders. I was thinking about making a bridge to it so we'd have an advantage but the chase never really let up so I didn't think bridging would be wise. After their initial 25-30 second gap, I could see them hanging there and then slowly coming back.
I blew on the final climb about 400 meters out. Part of it was mental. I suffered a lot 3 of the times up the climb (as did most of the pack!) so I think when we rounded the corner for the last time I was complacent. I had made it to the "finish" with main group, which by this time was down to about 28 guys (60 or more starters). I made a brief attack earlier in the last lap and maybe that took those last 400 meters out of my legs.
Ed did well to regroup after his break came back and got 10th.
Very hard race. If this race continues, it will gain the reputation as one of the hardest race courses in New England. They could make it brutal by adding a few laps. If they made the masters race a 10 lapper (50+ miles) it would become a classic. If you haven't done the race it is a 5 mile loop that is never flat. The main climb is about 1K. The rest of the course rolls/grinds. With the exception of the main decent off the climb, you can do the rest of the loop in the little ring because it grinds a lot and the down hills aren't long enough to bother to use the 53. Arlen and I chose the little ring option and I saw Yabroudy did too. Think about that. A road race that you can race 95% in just the little ring. Also, both times I've done this race the wind was blowing. On the false flat after the finish line it is a tough cross wind as the course opens up into a large farm and there are no trees to bl0ck the wind.
I was happy with how I felt. I was dead two weeks ago. I rested and I have come back stronger. It was important to me to stay with the group because last year I got shelled at this race on lap 2.
I thought Ed's break would work. It had very good riders. I was thinking about making a bridge to it so we'd have an advantage but the chase never really let up so I didn't think bridging would be wise. After their initial 25-30 second gap, I could see them hanging there and then slowly coming back.
I blew on the final climb about 400 meters out. Part of it was mental. I suffered a lot 3 of the times up the climb (as did most of the pack!) so I think when we rounded the corner for the last time I was complacent. I had made it to the "finish" with main group, which by this time was down to about 28 guys (60 or more starters). I made a brief attack earlier in the last lap and maybe that took those last 400 meters out of my legs.
Ed did well to regroup after his break came back and got 10th.
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