Housatonic Hills 6/18 Southbury, CT, Gary Douville
A day of suffering! The course was great and challenging with several hard climbs followed by an off course up hill finish of roughly 2 miles. I did 3 races the day before (cat 4/5, 4, 3/4) at the Cyclonauts Criterium and therefore had 60 miles of pretty hard racing into the legs that set the stage for a rough morning of racing. I stayed in the back of the pack for the first 10 miles or so through the flats and the nasty section of road where several riders flatted on the first lap. On the first climb I felt like dropping out because I had no legs and insufficient warm up and got dropped pretty bad since I was not climbing well and also there were a few crashes that slowed things down in the back. Towards the end of the big climb before the feed zone I decided to put in an effort and started to pass riders and caught up to Oscar and a small group approaching the feed zone. I went by and they jumped on and we caught the main peloton just over the top. Oscar and I talked about how we felt and decided that we would hang out in the front which is what we did. Going into the flats on the second lap where the roads were bad Oscar and I stayed 1 and 2 in the front to stay out of flat trouble and we remained with the front group of climbers throughout the last lap. At the top of the feed zone many of us were out of water and had to do some begging. Oscar got a bottle which he shared with me. At the same time, 3 guys attacked and put a good gap on what remained of the peloton. Oscar and I and one or two other riders put in some significant efforts for the remainder of the last lap and several times gained on the breakaway but organization was an issue and I believe that there was a good amount of blocking tactics in play. Oscar and I went into the last corner before the finishing climb about 10 wheels back and I would say 30 seconds off the top 3. I was concerned about the amount of pulling we had done in our failed attempts to catch the breakaway, but put my head down and did the best I could on the climb. I passed several riders throughout the climb but just barely lost the wheels of the top 5 guys who were just out climbing me. I experienced a mini-bonk about half way up and then recovered when the climb flattened and put in a painful effort towards the finish. I finished in 8th, 17 seconds off the leader. It was fun, hot, frustrating, painful, but ultimately a satisfying race. Do it next year if you want a great workout.
Thank you Oscar for the motivation, we road together a lot which helped.
Gary