Green Mountain Stage Race: Stage 1 - Circuit Race
Hinesburg, VT – The first stage of the 2008 Green Mountain Stage Race was a new course: 5 miles from the parking area out to a 30 mile loop that climbs Baby Gap in reverse, then descends for a flat finish; all the fields did two laps for 65 total miles, with two KOM climbs, one intermediate sprint, and the finishing sprint.
The Cat 3s had a pretty quiet day with a scattering of unfortunate luck. Scott Brooks tried to lead out Mark Theeman for the KOM, but Theeman’s front wheel was a bit squishy making it difficult to hold Brooks’ wheel. The plan then switched to trying to lead out the team’s highest placed GC rider, John Broussard, for the intermediate sprint for a GC time bonus; unfortunately a crowded field and relatively flat run in to the sprint created enough congestion to prevent the setup. On the second lap the team’s Australian contingent, Greg Brown, was forced to drop out due to several fractured ribs from crashing at a Mountain Bike Race the week before, the force of climbing at race pace proved to painful. Part way through the second lap Theeman dropped back to take a neutral wheel and Justin Howe dropped back to pace Mark back, the two would come in just a few minutes off the back of the main field. Brooks and Broussard rolled in with the front half of the main field to hold their position in GC.
With a relatively flat stage profile, this stage could have been a nice and easy sprint prelude to Sunday’s queen stage that ends atop App Gap like the Cat 3s; instead, the Men’s P/1/2 field put the pedal to metal for an aggressive contest that averaged over 27mph and saw 37 of the 130 riders finish off the back due to the speed or the numerous crashes.
Roy Van Cleef convinced Peter Bradshaw and Todd Rowell that going for KOM points would be reasonable as there were only two KOM sprints Saturday and only one Sunday. This would let the team be somewhat aggressive while not putting us on the hook for repeated hard lead outs.
As the race started, Roy quickly moved to the front and began mixing things up; Peter rode up to join him as the race neared the KOM. Peter actually soloed away 2km before the KOM and was only caught in the final 250m; call him the Prince of the Mountain. Roy tried to go with the group that passed Peter but his earlier efforts were too much and he was popped off the back of the field over the top of the climb and would ultimately finish over 20min down, but still within the time cut.
Peter and Todd survived the remaining lap and a half to the finish but weren’t able to do much in the sprint; Peter was able to move up to 46th and Todd sat in for 83rd, both same time as the field, 3 seconds behind the winner. Many riders lost time on the stage, moving Todd up to a middle of the pack 64th on G.C.; Peter and many other riders were penalized for yellow line violations near the finish, demoting him to 83rd and earning him a wag of the finger. Roy dropped to 120th but as usual is raring to go on tomorrow’s hilly stage.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Martin