Tour of the Battenkill

So we headed down to Cambridge NY, for what was going to be the first real challenge of the season, and a test for the preparation we have set forth.

Natasha raced on Saturday and after a tumultuous week of trying to find both her position on the bike and confidence, she found both and put in a good ride on Saturday and her and her team mate finished 4th and 2nd respectively in the women's 100 km race. I think they had some communication issues near the end, but once they spend some time training together and a few more races and I think her team is gonna lay down some serious smack. She said they made just a very simple error, before the race, since it was different from last year and not a circuit race, they should of at least road the last 5 - 10 km of the finish. The km's were a bit off of what the race was advertised as and the finish was fast off of one final corner only 500 metres from the line.

Although I have to say the choice of restaurants pre race was interesting. Let me just say I have never been in a place quite like this, had a very heavy hippy vibe, a server with dirty finger nails, a dirty floor, and an open mike night that featured a comedian, 7 year old pianist and Johnny Cash look like a like...he walked the line for sure.

We had to attend the meet the pro's event and press conference pre race, it was a little intimidating sitting beside the fresh off the plane from Belgium BMC squad, but hey after having chatting with Erwin and sharing a plane with NYS in Italy, I didn't feel totally out of place.

We were put up at Hyatt in Malta, and let me say it was without a doubt the most luxurious hotel we have ever stayed, ever. Man I didn't really want to leave.
The rest of the crew was arriving Saturday pm, so I headed out to do ride Saturday solo. I tried to do a loop through the hills. Well my 90 minute ride, well it was more like three hours, after completely going the wrong way when I was about 3 km from the hotel, no kidding the scenery looked familiar, I passed it on the way out.

We had a rough idea of what our plan was going into race, barring catastrophe, the guys would help support me into a good placing. It took alot of help from G Reain going back to the car getting bottles and feeds and super director Kevin Field doing his thing from race radio. Thomas Devischer was guest riding for us and put in a good ride but fell just a little bit short later during the second loop of the 200 km parcours.

I was able to stay out of the wind for the most part, I tagged a couple of moves that looked like they had all the right players, but to no avail. I played my cards with about 40 km to go hitting it hard to join a group of 5 that had the top teams represented and that didn't work either but it was still a good effort since we were racing for 3rd or 4th at this point. We got caught and pace was from fast to ballistic to dead slow painful hard up the some of the 19% gravel climbs accentuating the relentlessness of the course near the end.

I may have dug a little bit of a hole trying to get into the move cause all of a sudden I was unable to match the pace and found myself towards the back of the 25 guys or so that were still left in the mix out the 170 ish starters of the race. At the most inopportune time, a huge rock, or let me classify it better, bolder flew up off a back wheel during a high speed gravel descent and somehow hit me right in the knee, I yelled out in pain as it felt like being hit by hammer, just as I yelled, another rock, although smaller, hit my in mouth on my front teeth and sent vibrations though my head like the noise a tuning fork makes when you hit it. Then one more rock hit me straight in the glasses, thank god for eye protection....

Well this was the real crunch time for me, I had trouble keeping my focus and gave in a little bit to the pain. I found myself in the caravan having to use the convey to get back on, I actually went across, then fell short just 50 meters short of the group and then made one final all out effort a few minutes later to join the group. But the pain was not over and slugged it through from the back of the group for the last few km's. I tired to match some accelerations near end going with Tim Johnson, but no one wanted to let him go, a couple of guys rolled away and the rest of the bunch was happy to sprint it out. Well I let up a few meters from the line a crossed the line near the back of the group.

It's kind of one of those races, where your like yah I was 22nd, and had I tried harder near the end I could have had a top ten, but after 5hours and 20 minutes...it's just not that easy. I did however get a lot of positives out of the race and it was a goood effort this early in the season. Realistically we don't have that many races here in North America like that. Sure MTL Quebec is 250, but it's not at all the same, there is not 50 km of gravel and I think there is only about 5 turns in that whole race, so it's not really comparable. THe guys that were in it for the win were coming off of some serious racing in the last few weeks and months so it's important to compare apples to apples.

I was really happy with the way the RWR team worked. We rode strong, 3 of us in the front group for 95 % of the race, looking organized, being organized and fitting into mix just as well as any other team out there. SO I think it was good for the guys to see and experience this and I'm glad we took the invite to go.

I'm happy with my preparation to this point and think it has been more race specific to this point. I did lack that Mortal Combat "Finish Him" in the last few minutes, but hey 15th or 22nd, seriously those are not the numbers I care about as much as 1,2,3...those performances are the ones I want and need and the foundation is obviously there this year that nail it when the time is mine.

Derrick