| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
60.08 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,920 ft
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Avg Speed:
17.09 mph
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Route:
Picture Rocks
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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: Hills
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Bike: Litespeed Vortex Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 55 F N wind @ 6 mph |
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Got an E-mail from the promoter earlier in the week that 220 was open all the way to Picture Rocks, PA and that despite the recent flooding the race was still on. The festival normally held at the park was cancelled. The race starts at a reasonable time so we didn't have to get up much before sun up to do the two hour drive to the race. Wasn't looking forward to a race when the high for the day was forecast to be 54 F. Bundled up for the warm up ride but stripped most everything off at race time as it is a strenuous coarse and the cold would only be a problem if I stopped moving. Had fifty riders line up for the start which is pretty good for this race as it is held so late in the season. Normally the race starts on a killer climb at around 15% grade and two miles long but fortunately for us non climbers the hill had taken some damage and the first climb would now be three and a half miles long but with a much easier grade. First three miles is between 1-5% grade then a half mile of 9% to finish it off. This is the same hill that the race normally comes down on for a high speed finish. After the hill the course is two laps of a rectangular configuration. With the first short end of the box a mile long downhill. The first long side starts out with a short steep climb then five miles of fast downhill. The back short side is a slight up hill grade and the final side "Rabbit Run" is a grueling steady six mile climb capped by a series of short kickers. Felt confident I could hang with the climbers today at least until the kickers on Rabbit Run. Normally I and most of the riders get dropped on the first killer climb and then it is a thirty mile climbing time trial. Race started out at a reasonable pace but the tranquility didn't last long. Pack was ascending the climb along a creek with riders two or three abreast. I was sitting comfortably in the middle of the pack spinning easily and didn't figure I would need to do much work until mile three where the grade steepens. Didn't even make it two miles before a couple of riders moved up the left side of the pack then tried to get back in two or three rows up from me. Not sure what happened... someone probably got hooked... and I saw a rider jinx and take down another rider. Soon tires were exploding and the center of pack went down like dominos. The road ahead was filled with bodies and bicycles. I saw a hole rode into it and stopped as I didn't have enough speed to go over the bodies and frames and just stopped on top of one of the framesas both lanes were blocked. I could hear the the crash continued to propogate behind me and braced for an impact but it never came. When it was over there was probably ten or twelve riders down. One of the riders went over a guard rail and landed in the creek. Looked back down the road and saw a guy laying on the ground in a position that a body doesn't normally take and figured he was pretty messed up. Another rider was telling to lie still and not to move. Riders in front of me started getting up and those that had undamaged bodies and bicycles started back up the hill. I got back on my bike an attemped to join them and found my chain had jumped off, so I got off put it back on and started up the hill myself. The front of the pack had just kept going up the hill and I knew I could never make up the time I had lost. It was going to be a long day but my bike and I were both undamaged. Hammered as hard as I could up the hill and caught and passed the riders that had taken off while I was remounting my chain. One of them was a teenager that I told to try to get on my wheel but he couldn't stay on it. I was later to find out that he had taken a shot to the head and was blacking out as he continued to ride. Saw him after the ride as he was taken away in an ambulance. As I neared the top of the hill I saw a group of four or five riders about thirty seconds up the road from me. Thought I'd be alright if I could catch them on the next steep section and if I didn't they would rocket ahead of me on the long downhill and I would be spending the rest of the day time trialing the course. Went through an intersection and one of the turn marshalls yelled at me to find a partner. Sound advice. Gained a little on them and got set up to charge the steep section and of course dropped my chain again. Got off put it back on and started up the hill. Looked back and saw a rider in blue was now behind me but I had a good twenty seconds on him as I went over the top. The group ahead of me was now out of sight so I went into time trial mode and just tried to keep a strong steady pace. Kept going until the climb up Rabbit Run where I could see the group ahead of me was now 40 seconds up. Lost sight of them again as the climb continued on its twisting way. Everytime I looked back I noticed that the rider in blue was a little closer but didn't think he would catch me this time through. Came out of the woods near the top of the climb and saw that the group ahead had shattered and were climbing staggered. Got out of the saddle and picked the first two off fairly easily and they didn't respond when I rode by and figured they had cracked. The third rider had enough left to get on my wheel. I couldn't catch the last rider before the top and he started down one the short downhills. The rider I had caught said he didn't have much but was willing to work and we did and reeled the rider ahead of us in. When we caught him he latched on to us and we rode as a group. He said he didn't think there were anymore loose riders ahead and that all that was ahead was the lead pack. We kept good speed on the downhill section but didn't really hammer as we had the final long climb coming up and now the goal was not to catch but to not get caught. One of my companions said goodbye at the start of the climb as he couldn't keep the pace anymore. The last rider and I duelled it out on the final climb each trying to crack the other as we hit the kickers at the top of the climb. He couldn't drop me though and I was confident I could beat him in the downhill sprint so just rode his wheel as we went over the top. We basically coasted the last three miles of downhill although he charged ahead with over a mile to go. I just sat in his draft then went around him when I saw the finish. He didn't contest the sprint though and I won it easy. I asked him why he had charged earlier and he said he thought the finish was closer and made his move way to early. Ended up 10th overall which is good but eleven minutes down from the winner which is bad. The good news was that my teammate had rode away from the pack and soloed for the win. Bad news was that five riders were eliminated by the crash. One's Carbon Trek was demolished and another broke his arm. Four other riders abandoned at some point and one female rider got bruised up when she passed out and fell off the bike. I don't believe her issue was crash related. Got a trophy for second in my age group and won an Astana jersey as a door prize. Had a good time today despite the cold weather and the carnage of the crash.
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