Bradshaw 7th in the Catskills Epic
Hunter & Windham, NY – After all the excitement of the Green Mountain Stage Race, Peter Bradshaw decided that he wasn’t ready to hang up the road season just yet! Peter effectively went straight from Vermont to Upstate New York, for the Tour of the Catskills and reports back:
Saturday, Stage 1.
Saturday started with a small field of 20 or so P/1/2 men. Target Training was well represented with 5 riders in the field. Other notable riders were Roger Aspholm from Westwood Velo and Dan Cassidy and Amos Brumble from CCB. The action started from the gun as Amos attacked out of the neutral start. Target Training responded and the first break of the day was established. We rolled mostly downhill on a major road for a few miles and then right onto a small side road. I was totally unprepared for what was next.. we hit a steep wall of a climb. I was practically at the limit for the whole thing. We crested onto a false flat only to come to the next climb, followed by another, and another and another. We were climbing and climbing with each steeper pitch prefaced with an attack by different Target Training riders. It was absolutely brutal. Good news, we did end up catching the break somewhere near the top and all rolled the downhill together. Bad news, our field got to do another lap of that climb and it had started pouring rain. Once again an attack went on the highway leading into the climb. Target Training made the move with Amos again and this time they were joined by Roger Aspholm. I new this was bad news but figured I’d stay with Cassidy and hopefully bridge to the lead after the climb. Once again we hit the climb and the attacks were unrelenting. Amos was dropped from the lead group and then dropped from our group. As we neared the top there were only 3 of us remaining. One Target, Cassidy and myself. I was really feeling the climb on the last steep grade and fell off the small group, but once over the crest I got a second wind and was able to chase back on. Cassidy and I traded pulls as we headed towards the final climb of the day with the Target rider sitting on. I knew I was going to be in trouble when we hit that last climb but pushed hard so that we weren’t joined by any other riders. We reached the last climb and Dan and the Target rider rode away. I settled into a gear and did what I could over the hill. It was a long fast blast to the finish from there. I stayed away from other riders, but could not close the gap back to Cassidy and Target, for a 5th place finish. Easily the hardest race I’ve done all year.
Sunday, Stage 2.
Legs aching, I was now prepared for another day of absolutely epic climbing. This time the weather was beautiful with blue just taking over the sky. Again, the first attacks of the day were right out of neutral. Roger Aspholm, the stage leader, was pretty much single-handedly keeping the break in check. We hit the first wall and I had a mechanical meltdown. I could not get my bike to shift into the small ring, so I stood and wrenched my bike over the first grade. I was still unable to get the chain to shift on the lull before the next pitch so I unclipped and whacked my heel against the derailleur and it shifted! Back in the game, I had lost about 20 seconds and was pretty winded from my efforts but I attempted to get back to the group. I picked up Gabe from Target and a rider from Princeton in the chase but was unable to get back on. We cleared the hill and had a problem… we were directed by a marshal to continue straight on the course when we should have been directed left to complete an inner loop and repeat the major climb. We ended up getting along the course before some of the marshals had made it to their posts so we rode about 50 minutes at top speed into nowhere. We turned around and rode, defeated, back to the start finish. Definitely a disappointing finish to an otherwise epic weekend of racing.
I was given a calculated time for Sunday’s ride and ended up 7th overall on GC. The race suffered from some marshaling problems, as we were not the only ones who had problems over the weekend. Was it “Worth the Trip”? If a course that shreds the field into pulp and laughs at the other hill climb races in the area is something you’re into, its definitely worth it. I know I’ll be looking forward to it next year.