| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
3.48 miles
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Altitude Gain:
196 ft
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Avg Speed:
14.05 mph
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Route:
MIlton
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 70 F |
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Distance:
28.02 miles
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Altitude Gain:
1,955 ft
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Avg Speed:
22.39 mph
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Route:
MIlton
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 72 F |
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Drove down to Milton PA for Harvest Festival Road Race with Iron Doug and Mighty Young Joe. Not sure how many years Milton has been putting this on but it must be nearing thirty. I've been doing the race since the the late eighties at least. There was some concern that the race would be cancelled due to the recent flooding but the race was a go although they did cancel the street festival that is usually held on the same day. Great deal for the race as it is $15 dollars to pre-register and comes with some food and a quality T-shirt. Wore my shirt from 92 as good luck but alas it didn't work too well. It is a fairly short course with two fair climbs that break things up but are not steep enough to favor the pure climbers. It is one of the faster road courses and usually comes down to a field sprint. Felt nervous at the start as this is one of my focus races that I actually have a shot, though small, as opposed to most of the races I enter where I am on my best day pack fodder. The course is flat for five miles then has a mile long climb that starts out steep but flattens out for the second half of it. The hill is followed by five or six miles of rollers to the bottom of the second hill. This hill is a highway climb a couple of miles long at a fairly moderate grade. The second half of the race returns to town through a series of rollers. The race finishes with a short steep climb then a series of turns through the backstreets of the town to a long flat finish. There were 160+ riders at the start which could have gotten kind of hairy but didn't. I was fortunate enough to line up toward the front of the pack with my two teammates. Race started out fairly fast on the flat part out of town and nothing significant happened at the front. I did fairly well on the start of the first climb, coming out of the saddle and staying with the leaders. Things started to go bad when a rider ahead of me ran out of leg and turned perpendicular to the pack and forced us to go around him. Sometimes a move like that causes a crash but most of the riders got by without incident. It did cause a gap in the pack though and as I went over the top the lead group was 10 to 15 seconds up on my group. One of my teammates was in the front group and the other was in mine. We worked together and caught back up in a mile or so and joined the front group. Still didn't feel good but there wasn't much action until the second climb and I sat safely in the pack. Pace picked up on the hill and the pack split again. Two groups were ahead of me going over the top both of about fifteen riders each. I had failed again to keep up and lingered off the back of the second group alone. I chased down the back side of the climb but couldn't make up any time. I hung even for two or three mile then started to slide back. I looked back and saw a group a few seconds behind me so I pretty much gave up the chase and the day and soft pedalled up one of the rollers until I got caught. One of my teamates was in the group that caught me along with a dozen or so other riders. MYJ and I worked with two or three other riders and towed the group back into town. We kept a good pace for most of the way until a couple of miles out as things slowed down as everyone rested their legs for the final short climb and sprint. I led out the pack on the short climb but cracked near the top and was caught and passed by two riders. They seemed to crack near the top as they didn't carry their speed over it and I was able to coast back up to them on the backside. Turned out to be a good spot for me though as now I was in the third position in line going back through town and into the sprint. Things went bad though as the turn marshall had stopped a car in the final turn then as we started to go around the car he motioned it through the intersection. Pretty much caused us to all have to nearly stop and the group that was strung out was now all bunched up again. Once the car got out of the way we started back up again and I was almost immediately bumped from behind by another rider. The guy kept bumping me as he tried to force himself between me and another rider and though I considered backhanding him in the face I saw reason and just let him go by. He repaid the favor by hooking me as he passed by, cutting into my carbon forks with the spokes of his back wheel and stripping off my decal. I came very close to crashing but was able to keep his quick release out of my spokes. I yelled an expletive at him and prayed to the road gods to punish him for his act of wrecklessness and coasted in for 34th place. Not sure why the clown was in such a hurry as he had not had any pulls on the way back into town and just wheelsucked. Not sure why someone acts like that in a field sprint for the third pack. I guess he may have been going for a certificate for his age group which is the only prize possible as they only give out a trophy for first place. Except for the final 'sprint' I enjoyed the ride though I was very disappointed in my performance. Had good speed and actually had some good climbing sections but not good enough. Team ended up with 6th, 34th, and 37th overall with IronDoug winning his age group and getting one of the coveted certificates. The third pack finished about two and a half minutes behind the winner, a Cat I rider from PA.
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