Battenkill Cat 3 Race Report, Scott Brooks, April 15
Race Results
Scott “Way-way back” Brooks 34th
Dave “Just as far back” Chiu 38th
60 starters
This was the second annual Battenkill-Roubaix, the self proclaimed “Hell of the North” located in Salem, NY. I’ve raced in Vermont several times and loved it there, so I figured this too would be fun. Being just far enough away, it would require a hotel room Friday night, and a chance to make a weekend out of it. With some talking up, I recruited several other riders to join me as we registered for the cat 3/4 field. Very quickly the field filled up, allowing the promoter to split the fields into two and take more registrations.
Gone were most of the recruitments, leaving Dave and I to race together. No worries. Two weeks before the race, the promoter sent out a .jpeg with the elevatation gain listed and a computrainer file. I checked out the .jpeg but figured those can often appear distorted, so I didn’t give it too much thought. That night, while “riding” the Battenkill course on the computrainer, I began to realize my underestimation of this race.
The course was to be two circular routes that crossed over each other once. The first loop was about 9 miles and the second loop was about 46, total race distance was 55 miles. The pace started relatively hot. Knowing that the road turned to packed dirt at about mile three, I moved to the front and hit the dirt section as the second wheel. The road rolled along for about a mile, with a small kick-up (8% for .4 miles) before returning to asphalt. Once back onto the black-top, I slid back a little to recover, to see Dave Chiu taking an admirable pull at the front. Back through town, then out to the big loop. The pace slacked a little bit as we took a left hand turn and headed up a pretty steep paved road. It should be noted that the pace slacked at the left hand turn, not the steep road. In fact, on the ascent, the pace took off. A group of about 15 riders attacked hard, splitting the riders in front of me into two groups. I was in the chase group at mile 10. Once over the top of the asphalt ascent, we turned onto a dirt ascent. My chase group dropped me on this climb, leaving me all alone at mile 12. Over the dirt climb (these climbs averaged 3/4 mile
and 12-15% pitches) I made the turn and could see the back of my chase group. Unfortunately a strong headwind prevented me from closing it, and I was reduced to watch the group slowly pull away.
At this point for me the race turned into a ‘Not strong enough to climb with them, but too stupid to quit’ endurance event. The course was absolutely beautiful, painful, breathtaking, lonely, spectacular event. Late in the race, just for fun, the promoter included a final three pitch dirt climb. This was just uncalled for abuse on the riders. It would have been outrageous, if not for the spectators on the sides of the roads cheering you over the top. Real late in the race, the course went through a small town. Off the back by over 10 minutes, not a soul in sight, the police stopped traffic as if I was part of the break, and the spectators cheered the same. They could have been mocking me, but I heard cheering just the same.
With 2km to go, I caught onto the back of six riders from the 1/2/3 field that had started in front of me, and happy to be around other riders, I pedaled in with them. This race was fantastic. I am so very pleased that I did it, the area was great, the food great, and the teammates that I got to spend time with was what bike racing is all about. As for next year, I am begging someone to put on a crit closer to home so I don’t convince myself that I need redemption on those hills. Barring that though, I will be back, mentally ready, and prepared to go. Oh, and the Hollis hill rides apparently need to start in January to be ready for hill races in April!!!