GMSR

 

I had been looking forward to this week for a while and my training had been pretty good.  We had John D., Derek, Justin, Mike M, Kenny, Shawn and myself at the line.  Bill opted to battle the cat 3’s, so we had no real GC threat and would hope to make some noise by attacking.

 

Prologue:

Some dude gets away early and Ramon Benetiz says to me, he’s the national TT champ.  He’d stay away for the entire race and Ramon got second.  Kenny, Mike and I were pretty close at the Mad River Parking lot.  I gather that Justin and Shawn were as well (I didn’t look back).  I began to falter as the road steepened and they went away from me.  Shawn passed me and forced me to pick it up a little.  I’d crack at about 500m to go and he went by me as snot was coming out my nose.  No one really impressed .

 

Stage 1:

This stage was friggin’ fast.  Strung out forever.  Believe it or not, Ramon and Donny Mills got away on the first KOM and stayed away for like 50 miles as we chased at 30mph.  John got popped the first time up the KOM and DNF’d.   I tried to lead Shawn out for the first sprint, but we came up empty.  First lap averaged over 27mph.

Justin cramped on the second KOM at the bottom.  I cramped and seized at 500m to go as I watched Der and Shawn ride away from me.  Then Shawn screamed in agony and was cramping as well.  Der made it, and Shawn and I rode the last 20 miles together we got separated as the 40+ crew came by with about a kilometer left.  I was totally bummed.  I felt ok until the cramping.  Not sure what caused it.  Mike experienced cramping issues as well.  Maybe it was bad food or something???  Anyhow, we were non-factors in the final sprint.

 

Stage 2:

Our field was flying with some big guns up the road, we caught the cat 3’s and the 40+ field as we all started Middlebury together.  Bill was tailgunning the three field and would go by on the climb.  It was a complete cluster as the three field were all over the road.  I cracked with about a kilometer to go and had to chase.  Slowly our group grew from four to about 40 by the bottom of Middlebury.  Shawn and Justin joined me in the chase.  The group wouldn’t really work together as guys simply don’t know how to get a rolling paceline going.  We got to the bottom and saw another group of 40 and a few of us worked to get them in.  We were only 2 minutes back of the leaders, but guys didn’t want to work.  Kenny was in the next group on the road and riding well, but a group of 15 were up the road from him and he’d end up in about 25^th.

Justin fell off at the bottom of baby gap and shawn soon afterwards.  Mike would bridge to a group off the front and stayed away from us.  I fell apart about ½ way up App Gap.  Barely turning the pedals, I wanted to curl up on the side of the road and cry, but that would have made the suffering last longer.  The final pitch seemed forever, but I made it up and almost passed out before joining Mike, Ken and Bill for the ride down back to the car.  My legs were dead.  HR never got above 155 on the final climb.  Nothing in the tank this weekend.  I wanted to go home, but Kenny wouldn’t let me.  I was shamed into starting the next day.

 

Stage 3:

Not even wanting to race, I reluctantly showed up.  I had a good spot at the start line, right behind the leader’s jersey.  I was worse than a cat 5 at the start and it didn’t get any better after that.  I totally missed my pedal and came to a complete stop which pissed off Shawn.  After that, I got in and the pace was high, but nothing was in the legs.  HR was topping out at 155 again and it would be tough.  I began to drift backwards.  Der came by and gave some encouragement, but I couldn’t hang with him.  I checked my brakes and to my despair, they were not rubbing.  Soon, Mike passed me and the guy in front of him let a gap go on the downhill.  I waited for mike to close it, but alas, he was happy to end the misery.  I was happy that my day would end soon enough and within laps, we were pulled.

Amazingly, Ramon got off the front early and put a half lap on the field to solo to victory.

Kenny was our only finisher and looked like he was working at his limit the entire way never able to move up.

Next year, we will field a competitive 40+ squad since most of the team members were over 40 anyhow and we left a few at home.  Unless I lose some weight to actually make it over these climbs, I’ll work the feed.