Tour of the Hilltowns, Cat 4 Men - 7-28-08
Race: Tour of the Hilltowns
Course: ~56 miles with two significant climbs
Conditions: Sunny, Humid ~80 degrees
Club Riders
8 Colby Ricker
25 Ian Whittle
27 Ed Ting
61 Geoff Martin
67 Paul Jobin
88 Joshua Preneta
The team assembled at the line and everyone seemed fairly relaxed as the official did the pre-race song and dace, which included a warning about sand and cracked pavement on the first decent (awesome) and oil and loose stone on the first climb (awesomer).
Josh had been gearing up for the event for a while, Geoff was planning an early attack to get away from the pack during the decent, and give himself an advantage starting the first climb, and I was as spaced-out as always, so as a group we were feeling pretty aggressive.
The race started calmly enough, but shortly after we made the first turn the opportunity to attack presented itself, Geoff went off. Unfortunately, it never really stuck due to a weak combination of riders and almost constant bridging attempts from the field. In the end he attacked twice and countered twice before the pack finally reeled everyone firmly back after only 4 miles – some lucky bugger countered at this point and I had nothing to go with him. He solo’d to the hill (stealing my plan) before he was caught by the pack.
In the pack, the decent was sketchy, with people swerving left and right in a narrow lane to avoid sand, bad pavement, oncoming traffic or some combination of the three. During the decent both Josh and I made an effort to work my way towards the front, as we wanted to be in the top ten at the base of the first climb.
When we hit the climb, Geoff had been reeled back in, Josh was sitting around 20th and I was right around 10th.
The climb was, in a word, carnage. The freshly chip-sealed road made for treacherous conditions—Josh got caught in some deep gravel and had to unclip. At the front, the pace was kept surprisingly high, by a surprisingly large rider, who I later learned is none other than former NHL All-Star Eric Weinrich (no lie). The high pace took it’s toll and the field shattered with three main groups forming. The first was about 10 riders (including Mr. Weinrich). I was in the second group of about 8, and Josh was shortly behind in the third group of roughly 7.
Over the top the chase groups settled into various forms of pacelines. The group I was in was able to reel in the lead group with about 25 miles to go. When we caught the lead group, the paceline started to breakdown, and I did what I could to stay out of the wind. With about 15 miles to go, we got word that the main field was only 30 seconds behind, so we picked up the pace again, but people were being very cagey, trying to save as much as they could for the final climb.
Back in the pack, Josh had a string of bad luck, running over someone’s thigh and ending up on the pavement. He recovered, (and made sure the other guys on the ground were okay), and started hammering on his own
He waited for a large group behind me, joined up, and started motoring towards the finishing climb. On the last hill with about 2 miles to go he had the pleasure of a flat, waited for a tube, changed the flat, got back on and 1 mile later had another flat (ouch).
Geoff was largely in survival mode, working a little with Paul Jobin at the top of the climb (and later), suffering some severe but mercifully short stomach cramps) and then banging away in a chase group toward the finish.
He was able to work through an end-game plan of attacking with 1.5 miles to go and escaped the group he was with and managed to reel in the next guy/group by the finish line.
At the front, as the lead group hit roughly mid-way everybody’s favorite pro-hockey player went off again. I saw the move coming, but was starting to get a pretty ugly dehydration headache, so really questioned my chances of holding pace for another two miles of climbing. Two other riders went off, at which point the paceline completely broke down, as everyone started skipping pulls and following wheels to save their matches for the finish.
With about two miles to go, a ridge made a bridge attempt. I tried to get his wheel but the guy in front of me started to go, then popped, so the bridge went solo, and that was essentially how everything stayed until the finish: Three up the road, one in the middle, then a group of six chasing.
Again, the six of us chasing, were engaged in completely counter-productive in-fighting. I tried a few times to bridge to the middle-man, but didn’t have enough in the tank to gap the group.
When we turned the corner with 200m to go, I was second wheel (in the group of six), but when I stood to sprint, I didn’t have the match, so I struggled as best I could to hold on for eighth.