Green Mountain Stage Race - Cat 3 Men, 9-3, Gary Douville
Team: Captain Scott Brooks, Lead-out-master Dave Chiu, Justin Mr Reliable Howe, Roy “The Attack” Van Cleef, Gary “DQ” Douville
Team Results: 6th overall GC, 2nd sprint competition (1st not counting unfortunate loss of points after intermediate sprint in road race)
Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Scott and Mary Lou for doing a phenomenal job with the organization and logistics for the weekend. I can’t say enough about the huge effort that they put into this for which I am personally very grateful. Thanks a ton. Thanks also to the other racers and loved ones that shared the weekend with us and, well, put up with our lackadaisical tendencies when we were not riding our bikes. After the races the riders would be either 1) passed out, 2) eating or 3) talking bike stuff. Thanks to the cooks, the cleaners, the spectators, the fetchers, etc.. Although all of the aforementioned support is much appreciated and necessary, there is nothing better than racing with dozens of NEBC spectators cheering you on. We got huge support at all of the races and especially on top of the App Gap which saw monsoon-like weather for our race on Sunday.
Friday 9/1 – Prologue – 8.2 miles – a suffer-fest to kick it off:
This one hurt. It is a mass start race with a neutral start and a few steady miles of gradual uphill before the going gets tough. I won’t get over analytical here. It was hard. I was with the top 20 at the big parking lot with ~3k to go. I was with the top 10 with 1k to go and then the pace accelerated. I maintained the faster pace only for moments and mini-cracked. I limped up the last 750-1000 meters, lost some ground and finished in 17th.
Saturday 9/2 – Circuit Race – 72 miles with 3 intermediate sprints (one per lap):
We decided about a week before the race that we were going to contest the sprinters competition and that I would sprint, Dave and Scott would make up the lead out train and Roy and Justin would help me after the sprint if I was struggling. Everyone had a role, one that we executed with near perfection. Dave and Scott provided text book lead outs for the first two sprints that were the envy of the entire group. Dave would take over with about 1k to go (or 3k as it were on the first lead out) and then Scott would pull me into the final couple hundred meters and then I would go. This was successful the first time around as I took the first sprint and UVM guy got second. The lead out was just as great the second time around but the UVM guy got onto Scott’s wheel and there was nothing I could do but try to go around him. He got first and I got second. At this point we were tied. The points on the third lap were consumed by a breakaway. A guy went off solo to be followed by another racer who was followed by Scott Brooks. Scott went to keep those guys in check but also figured he would take the points off the table which he did successfully. We quickly reeled the 3 in as we approached the KOM for the final time before the finishing section. At this point I was only thinking about a good finish to make up some ground on GC. I don’t remember exactly what happened but a good size break of roughly a handful of riders got away with only ~5 miles to go in the race. The GC guys starting working and we reeled the breakaway in with just a few hundred meters to go. I was not in a great position and had to sprint like mad to make some passes and finished in 7th. This brought us into 13th overall on GC and tied for the sprinters jersey.
Sunday 9/3 – Road Race – 65 miles with 1 intermediate sprint:
At this point the focus was on the sprinters jersey. The intermediate sprint was 20 miles in. It was raining and very cold at the start but fortunately the rain stopped after the first half an hour or so and the roads stayed reasonably dry for the remainder of the race. Our plan did not change. Dave would take it from 1k, Scott from 500m and me from ~250m. We took over the lead of the peloton with about 3k to go (to the sprint) and Dave kicked in into a high but sustainable pace which was good enough to avoid surges. Scott had Dave’s wheel, I had Scott’s wheel and UVM guy had my wheel. Yes, he was taking advantage of and greatly enjoying the lead out train I am sure. Dave got out of the saddle and kicked it into high gear with 1k to go. The pace was fast and Scott was yelling at Dave to “go go”. It was a hell of a rush. Dave pulled off and Scott took over. I went around Scott a little early and had ~400m of road between me and the finish. I was in my 53-11 already and went for it. I also took a line roughly from the right hand side of the road to the yellow line over a distance of roughly 400 m (think of a long diagonal). In doing this, I allegedly blocked or cut off UVM guy resulting in his finishing 3rd. I got first and another guy who was in the points got second. My move was not abrupt and I made no contact but yet UVM guy protested and got me relegated to zero points. I went from a 4 point sprints jersey lead to being down by 3 points. I didn’t know this until the afternoon of the criterium so I was on a high that lasted the remainder of the race. Dave and Scott did their huge effort and fell off the back of the pack followed by the Dave Chiu descending drama that I will let Dave talk about over beers from now until the end of day. I should also note that both Justin and Roy were in our lead out train on this day but got stuck behind the UVM guy so we have something like 5 out of the 7 front racers in NEBC jerseys which is very cool. The race was on to the finish with 2.5 monsters between us and warm clothes. Roy and I climbed Middlebury gap together. Actually, I was on his wheel and passed him on the top suggesting that we descend together and catch the front group of 20 or so that had put a small but managable gap into us. He came back with the infamous Roy smile and said “we’ll ride together if you can catch me” and took off. I didn’t see him for another hour. I descended with caution but caught onto the front group with ease after a few miles of chasing with some other stragglers. At the bottom we had a group of roughly 50 so the peloton was split in half. At this point I was conserving energy and thinking about saving my legs for sprinting in the crit. My plan at that point was to climb within myself, ride with the front group as long as I felt comfortable and ride at my own pace. The reason I didn’t see Roy in the group of 50 when we came together was because he attacked the group and was 30+ seconds ahead. Not sure what he was doing, but you can ask him. I think he was chilling with the birds or the moose or something. We brought him in after about 15 minutes. I felt good on the short and steep climbs that sandwich a long dirt section in the middle of the course and had good legs. When we hit Baby Gap, riders were dropping off in the handfulls. I found myself riding 15th wheel or so all the way up Baby Gap and again felt pretty good. I estimated that we had 30 at the top of Baby Gap. It got interesting on the short descent between Baby Gap and App Gap as high winds starting kicking in with leaves and branches flying all around. We hit App Gap and within the first kilometer we were down to 10. I was comfortable and was sitting 8th or 9th wheel and let Colin Murphy (overall winner) and Cory Mason (10th GC) do all the work which they were happy to do. They fought the wind which at this point was BRUTAL. I sat in, spun and stayed protected from the wind all the while thinking that I just had to save legs for the criterium. Cory and Colin did most of the work up the kilometers leading to the final 500m wall. There were a few attempted attacks that didn’t last and we hit 500m to go with a group of 10. Steve Gatzos stood up and rode away from us with 400 or 500 meters to go. I found myself quickly in 6th or 7th place and then overtook the polka dot jersey and Colin Murphy near the top to take 4th. The NEBC spectators had written our names and NEBC all along the steep 20% section and were cheering like mad which made a huge difference. This brought us from 13th to 6th overall in GC. The day was hard but most importantly my legs felt good enough to defend the green jersey…..
Monday 9/4 – Criterium – 18 miles with 2 intermediate sprints and the finale:
.....but the green jersey was never realized. Scott and I discovered at the criterium that the UVM guy had in fact protested and that they pulled our points from the road race effort. UVM guy was in the jersey for the criterium and we were down 3 points. The strategy was the same nevertheless. Win the sprints. Strategy was great, execution was not so great. The pace was maddening. The first 5 laps leading up to the first intermediate sprint were an all out sprint. I stayed in the top 5-10 for the first laps and moved up into the top 3 leading around the final corners and found myself up front on the final climb before the 2 descents leading up to the final 250m uphill sprint. Scott told me to be second wheel and in hindsight I wish I had found someone’s wheel. UVM guy was on my wheel and outsprinted me for 1st and I took second. I was down 5 points and decided that I was going to ride like hell, take the next sprint and try for the finale as well which was giving sprint points as well as GC bonus points. The pace never subsided as one guy took off on a solo break. The GC sprint at the half way point resulted in an awesome move by Colin Murphy as he took second and some additional GC points and initiated a 4 man breakaway that I didn’t get into because I was saving my matches on the GC sprint for the upcoming intermediate sprint. We never saw Colin again as he and his breakaway companions caught the solo break and worked together, shelling two guys back to the main group. The 3 lead men ended up taking the sprint points which disappeared along with any hopes of regaining the sprinters jersey. The pace stayed high and I ended up sprinting for 3rd in the bunch sprint and 6th overall. This retained our 6th place GC position.
My apologies to the team for not pulling off the sprint competition, but I hope that the teamwork, the comradarie and the fun we had makes up for losing out on the jersey. What a great race and a great team effort. Gotta go clean the cobwebs off the cross bike.
Thanks for reading.
Gary