I got owned by this one… Clifford Park could be the most technical course on the EFTA circuit and I simply didn’t have enough miles on the mountain bike to hold my own. I think I was also still recovering from the B2B, 7+ hours in the saddle really takes a toll on you.
If this had just been a 3 lap race I probably would have been alright, but about half way through that third lap things started to get sloppy. My upper body was tired right from the get-go, but my legs held out until mid way through the third lap. The fourth lap I was just in survival mode, trying to hold my place and not crash.
This is a really fun course, and one that on a good day would probably suite me pretty well. It doesn’t have any long climbs, but it does have a handful of short burst climbing sections and a little bit of fire-road (about 20%). Last year I flatted out when I ran too little air in the tires; hopefully next year I can give this course a real try.
Results were not available right away…
UPDATE:
Time 2:10.09
4th Place of 5 Senior I's
18th of 27 Experts
37 Riders DNF'd
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
B2B
This past weekend was the Harpoon B2B, according to my computer it’s a 148.48 mile ride from the Boston Brewery to the Windsor VT Brewery. Until now the longest day in the saddle for me had been just over 100 miles. This was a tough ride, and would have been challenging at just a century.
Getting out of Boston was easy as it was flat, but it was chaotic. To simplify things the organizers staged riders in groups of 25 and spaced them out in 5-minute gaps. Our group must have gotten off to a good start because somewhere in Cambridge or so we caught up to the group in front of us. This made things interesting, as we now were now trying to navigate the burbs with a peloton of 50 riders or so.
The first 50 miles really flew by since we had such a huge group and it was mostly flat. Just after the 50 mile water stop we hit our first hill, I took a good pull here, but I didn’t want to take on too much as it was still early in the ride. This proved to be a smart call as the hills rolled on until mile 90. From there we hit the major climb of the ride, it was roughly 6 miles long, and pretty steep. This was a new section to the ride and clearly caught a lot of people off guard. I have never seen so many riders stop to take a breather or actually walk their bikes.
On top of a challenging hill 90 miles into the ride, the organizers also underestimated the mileage of the second stop. This was frustrating, as I had gauged my food, water and energy based on a water stop at 101 miles and it wasn’t until 109.
After a long stop for lunch, I got back on the road to finish the final 30 miles or so with a good group of riders from the North Shore. The last 30 miles started pretty flat and we pulled a solid 21-22 mph. As we came into the last 15 miles we hit some rolling hills, I tried to take a pull but as soon as I jumped to the front of the group they fell off, and I wasn’t trying to drop anyone. So at this point it was me and this guy Tom, we rode in the last few miles together. He also said that anytime he tried to take a pull these guys would just drop off… maybe they didn’t want someone not in their club pulling, road-snobs.
My final ride time was 7:43.29
Including rests it took 8:36.55
My average speed was 19.2
Max speed was 46.2
Total distance was 148.48
Getting out of Boston was easy as it was flat, but it was chaotic. To simplify things the organizers staged riders in groups of 25 and spaced them out in 5-minute gaps. Our group must have gotten off to a good start because somewhere in Cambridge or so we caught up to the group in front of us. This made things interesting, as we now were now trying to navigate the burbs with a peloton of 50 riders or so.
The first 50 miles really flew by since we had such a huge group and it was mostly flat. Just after the 50 mile water stop we hit our first hill, I took a good pull here, but I didn’t want to take on too much as it was still early in the ride. This proved to be a smart call as the hills rolled on until mile 90. From there we hit the major climb of the ride, it was roughly 6 miles long, and pretty steep. This was a new section to the ride and clearly caught a lot of people off guard. I have never seen so many riders stop to take a breather or actually walk their bikes.
On top of a challenging hill 90 miles into the ride, the organizers also underestimated the mileage of the second stop. This was frustrating, as I had gauged my food, water and energy based on a water stop at 101 miles and it wasn’t until 109.
After a long stop for lunch, I got back on the road to finish the final 30 miles or so with a good group of riders from the North Shore. The last 30 miles started pretty flat and we pulled a solid 21-22 mph. As we came into the last 15 miles we hit some rolling hills, I tried to take a pull but as soon as I jumped to the front of the group they fell off, and I wasn’t trying to drop anyone. So at this point it was me and this guy Tom, we rode in the last few miles together. He also said that anytime he tried to take a pull these guys would just drop off… maybe they didn’t want someone not in their club pulling, road-snobs.
My final ride time was 7:43.29
Including rests it took 8:36.55
My average speed was 19.2
Max speed was 46.2
Total distance was 148.48
Monday, June 9, 2008
Week 3 of the Rayburn TNT
So it’s been a while since I posted an update, but two weeks ago there was a thunder and lightning storm the night of the TNT race and then that Thursday we went to Jersey for a wedding so I didn’t do much riding that week.
Last week I did make it to the TNT race, but I didn’t check my tires before racing. About a quarter of the way in my tires burped out enough air that I finally had to stop to top them off, but being that it was a race I just topped off the rear and figured I could finish with a low front tire. In retrospect this was probably a bad decision. With less than ¾ of the race to go, I thought it would be fun to hit this big rock as a jump. But, what I failed to consider was that the landing happens to be in the middle of a turn, this is not good when your tires have no air. As I landed the front tire blew out almost all the remaining air and folded over sending me to the ground. I don’t bruise easily, but within just a few minutes I had a HUGE bruise on my quad. I then nursed my self and the bike with a completely flat front tire to the finish line. Unfortunately with the flat tire issues and a crash the best I could do was sixth, ending my wining streak in the TNT.
1. Rick 5:41 5:57:55 (16:55) 6:11:09 (13:14) 30:09
#2. Pat 6:03 6:20:04 (17:04) 6:33:12 (13:08) 30:12
#3. Bryan 6:08 6:24:10 (17:10) 6:37:21 (13:11) 30:21
#4. Doug 6:38 6:38:21 (17:21) 6:51:54 (13:33) 30:54
#5. Scott 6:10 6:27:50 (17:50) 6:41:05 (13:15) 31:05
#6. Adam 5:26 5:43:50 (17:50) 5:57:55 (14:05) 31:55
#7. Russ 5:05 5:23:20 (18:20) 5:37:28 (14:08) 32:28
#8. Mary 6:00 6:19:04 (19:04) 6:32:59 (13:55) 32:59
#9. Paul L 6:08 6:26:54 (18:54) 6:41:06 (14:12) 33:06
10. Mike T6:15 6:34:10 (19:10) 6:49:16 (15:06) 34:16
11. Tim 5:55 6:14:50 (19:50) 6:29:38 (14:48) 34:38
12. Laura 5:19 5:38:24 (19:24) 5:53:59 (15:35) 34:59
13.Nate 5:22 5:42:12 (20:12) 5:57:42 (15:30) 35:42
14.Mike L 5:27 5:47:16 (20:16) 6:03:04 (15:48) 36:04
15.Chris 6:05 6:24:47 (19:47) 6:42:15 (18:32) 37:15
16.Dave S 5:57 6:17:46 (20:46) 6:34:24 (16:38) 37:24
17.Liana 6:01 6:23:25 (22:25) 6:42:20 (18:45) 41:20
Last week I did make it to the TNT race, but I didn’t check my tires before racing. About a quarter of the way in my tires burped out enough air that I finally had to stop to top them off, but being that it was a race I just topped off the rear and figured I could finish with a low front tire. In retrospect this was probably a bad decision. With less than ¾ of the race to go, I thought it would be fun to hit this big rock as a jump. But, what I failed to consider was that the landing happens to be in the middle of a turn, this is not good when your tires have no air. As I landed the front tire blew out almost all the remaining air and folded over sending me to the ground. I don’t bruise easily, but within just a few minutes I had a HUGE bruise on my quad. I then nursed my self and the bike with a completely flat front tire to the finish line. Unfortunately with the flat tire issues and a crash the best I could do was sixth, ending my wining streak in the TNT.
1. Rick 5:41 5:57:55 (16:55) 6:11:09 (13:14) 30:09
#2. Pat 6:03 6:20:04 (17:04) 6:33:12 (13:08) 30:12
#3. Bryan 6:08 6:24:10 (17:10) 6:37:21 (13:11) 30:21
#4. Doug 6:38 6:38:21 (17:21) 6:51:54 (13:33) 30:54
#5. Scott 6:10 6:27:50 (17:50) 6:41:05 (13:15) 31:05
#6. Adam 5:26 5:43:50 (17:50) 5:57:55 (14:05) 31:55
#7. Russ 5:05 5:23:20 (18:20) 5:37:28 (14:08) 32:28
#8. Mary 6:00 6:19:04 (19:04) 6:32:59 (13:55) 32:59
#9. Paul L 6:08 6:26:54 (18:54) 6:41:06 (14:12) 33:06
10. Mike T6:15 6:34:10 (19:10) 6:49:16 (15:06) 34:16
11. Tim 5:55 6:14:50 (19:50) 6:29:38 (14:48) 34:38
12. Laura 5:19 5:38:24 (19:24) 5:53:59 (15:35) 34:59
13.Nate 5:22 5:42:12 (20:12) 5:57:42 (15:30) 35:42
14.Mike L 5:27 5:47:16 (20:16) 6:03:04 (15:48) 36:04
15.Chris 6:05 6:24:47 (19:47) 6:42:15 (18:32) 37:15
16.Dave S 5:57 6:17:46 (20:46) 6:34:24 (16:38) 37:24
17.Liana 6:01 6:23:25 (22:25) 6:42:20 (18:45) 41:20
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