Greylock TT well attended by CCRT

By Karen Franzen:
My season's goal was to be a BUMPS Ironman, completing all 9 races in the series. Still having a bit of a competitive nature left in these old bones, I sometimes forgot my goal and found myself dwelling on slower times and finishes that weren't what I had hoped for. An older gentleman, one who has received numerous BUMPS Ironman plaques, made a comment to me early in the season along the lines of "there's a reason not too many do all of them...." I'm starting to learn why. Although they are short, they do take a toll and I am now only one more race away from getting that goal. Soooooo God willing and the creeks in VT don't rise anymore, I hope to tackle App Gap in October and then hit my "playtime"....

Okay-back to the races. Burke Mountain is considered by many the toughest in the series, average of 14% with a "wall" of about 1/4 mile or so that is between 20-22%. I did it last year and learned a lot about the climb & the area and couldn't wait to get back. Only this year, I stayed the whole weekend and brought my mt. bike as well because there are over 100 miles of trails there in the Northeast Kingdom trail system and a lot of dirt roads so I spent the day after the race be-bopping all over the place. I will have that one on my calendar next year as well and plan to do the same thing by staying the weekend. Love the area and am getting to know more of the back roads and such.... also found a great B&B so all's good. As far as the race, I bettered my time by about 1 1/2 minutes and did make the podium for my division with 3rd place. Was happy with that weekend and loved taking the time away.

Greylock was this past weekend, only a week between races. I didn't THINK it would have made too much of a difference but in hindsight, I guess it did. Felt good, had a blast staying at Bascomb Lodge with team mates and new & not-so-new friends. Went into the warm up feeling good, plenty of time even though I did have to change a flat & rim tape but no problems. Got to the line, had a nice surprise that one of the women I was concerned about, who was supposed to start right after me, didn't show..... hmmmmmmm..... my little competitive gears start to turn.... get into the race and am staying in the ranges as much as I can.

The first part of this one is pretty tough and did go WAY above on my wattage but that's to be expected with how steep it is on that part. Settled in and decided to check out what my HR was doing on my PowerTap.... stupid, stupid, stupid. I've done this before and should've have known NOT to do this in a race situation.... my finger slipped and I ended starting a new interval and lost my current data. It's still there, and all I have to do is merge it when I down load it but during the race, I had no idea what my time was now or accurate distance, nadda! SOOOOO settle in and try to do the best I can to keep in in the ranges and guess at my time.

I ended up over a full minute slower from last year and didn't make the podium like I did last year BUT that's okay now. Having a chance to go out on the Airline Trail for 3 hours on this glorious afternoon put everything into perspective for me, so here goes:

I was blessed with 2 wonderful racing & riding weekends in a row. How cool is that? I got to know a bunch of people a whole lot better after spending some great time together this past weekend. I was inspired by my friends as the challenged themselves and overcame their own personal struggles and doubts, kicking it up a notch when they thought they couldn't & finishing when they thought they couldn't. That was an amazing thing to be part of and is what I feel sets this team apart from many of the others. We all go out there and give it our all and for me, it was wonderful to have been able to be a part of it.... and oh, yeah.... the food was pretty darn good, too! # KF

Results:
http://www.nohobikeclub.org/nccwp/?general=greylock-hillclimb-results-2011

Lynn Cochrane wins Silver at NE Regional Crit Championship

Podium smiles: Lynn Cochrane & Denise Mitchell-Dignum

By Lynn Cochrane:

The dead flat track at Ninigret Park, RI, where this race takes place was a welcome antidote to the vertiginous heights of the Mt. Greylock TT. Racing Saturday's TT with (or, more precisely, behind) many others from our team may not be the best prep for a crit, but with winter ahead, packing in as much racing as possible is imperative.

Sunday's women's crit race comprised ages 30-54. Unsurpisingly, the pack split in half before the end of the first lap, and never regouped. I raced with about 5-7 other women close to my own age, including three from Mystic Velo who are great women, and great competitors. The younger bunch were off having their own race. Those of us in the slower group averaged about 20 miles per hour, not too bad for such a windy place. In fact, it seemed at times that the wind was blowing strongly from both the East and the West.

For almost the entire race, our group of 6-7 racers were in a long pace line which sometimes bunched up at corners. I tried, not always successfully, to huddle in the middle to stay away from the wind. Although my legs were feeling pretty normal, I wasn't sure how long they would last after Saturday's hill climb.

The three MVC women consistently stuck with a strategy of dominating the three front spots of the paceline. Every lap or so, the third MVC racer in the line would surge ahead and take over for the first MVC racer, allowing the tired person to drop back just one or two spots. Consequently, I and the other two women were usually at the rear, and MVC ended up doing the vast majority of the pulling. We three non-MVC racers did pull for a lap or two, but not nearly as much as the others. Is that fair? Should I and the others have tried harder to take the front for more laps to share the workload or should I have allowed MVC to wear themselves out if they wanted to dominate the front three spots of the line? Had there been more CCRT racers, I know I would have pulled more, but I was a loner. (I can hear some of you out there saying, "Let other teams knock themselves out if they want to.") Anyway, I would be very interested to hear some feedback from wiser and more experienced racers.

This pattern played itself out for about 11 of the 15 laps or so of the race - at one point, the three leading racers lapped us, and we pushed harder to keep up with them for about three laps, but it was tough. There were no mid-race breakaways, we were all pretty evenly matched, and the three MVC women had raced the New England TT yesterday in RI, so maybe they weren't feeling that springy themselves.

You could sense things heating up during the last lap and I wondered what MVC planned to do- meanwhile, I was planning my own positioning, edging to the right of the now bunched up paceline, waiting until we all pulled through the last left hand corner to stomp on the pedals and make a beeline down the last straightaway to the finish. I felt like I was ahead, and could not see or hear anyone behind me, until I was about 30 feet from the line and heard a moan of exertion behind me, so I just stepped on it as hard as I could. My wheel crossed the white line mere millimeters ahead of the other racer - I won 3rd place by 5 100ths of a second. Due to the 1st place racer, who was with the faster group, being from New York, we New Englanders were bumped up a notch, and I was given the silver medal for the 50+, and 8th overall. Denise Mitchell-Dignum of MVC took the bronze. The rest of our group came in after, but very close.

Afterwards, I joined two MVC racers for a bit while they talked about the pulling issue. They were not of one mind about whether they caused the problem by dominating the front of the line or whether I and the other racers should have, in the cause of good sportsmanship, unilaterally stepped up our efforts to take more pulls. I promised them I'd help out more at the Jamestown Classic on 10/10. Anyone care to join me there? #