Tour of the Battenkill – Day 2

Report by Frank Pipp:

Day 2 of Battenkill. The big one. Yesterday was the “warm up” and Zirbel did his part for the BISSELL team. The rest of us weren’t much help sitting in the bunch about 20 minutes back! Today we hoped to stack the odds a little more in our favor.

Race started out with plenty of attacking and eventually a little move went clear with 2 riders. No problem, not a chance a little duo was going to stay away on this course. This course being 2 laps of 100 km. Each lap containing about 4500 feet of elevation gain and 25 km of gravel roads. A total of 9000 feet of climbing and 50 km of gravel. Good times!

Back to the race... First lap after the 2 riders departed from the peloton the rest of us got to know the course a little better (we did one lap of it yesterday.) There was some splitting up but most everyone regrouped after the more difficult sections. Unfortunately on one of those rough sections, first Sheldon and then Zirb’s flatted. Sheldon got a wheel change and was able to get back on but Tom was left standing on the side of the road with wheel in hand. Apparently a spectator was kind enough to give him a tube so that he could ride back to the hotel. Hitting the showers early!

Second lap the pace heated up with one of the teams sending all of their riders to the front. Eventually they must have decided this course was too much for a chase because they started launching their riders off the front one by one. Eventually one did get clear and that was the end of the chase. The pace slowed way down and I began to wonder if we were now racing for 4th place. Others must have been asking that same question because soon enough the attacks started again and a group of 3 got away. And that was when the bunch decided enough was enough- the pace became steady as a chase began. We sent first Omer, then Sheldon, to take part. The boys did well and brought this group back and that’s when the real fireworks started.

30 km to race, and not an easy 30 km! Of the 8 dirt sections, 4 of them were left with plenty of climbing in each one. And at 170 km in, every time the road turned upwards or the tires slipped on the gravel you felt it! With Sheldon and Omer having done their work, Graham and I took turns covering attacks. The group rapidly trimmed down and soon there were only a handful of us in the front with dozens of others always trying to catch up from behind. With about 20 km left to race, we caught one of the original 2 that had gone away early in the race. Only 2 up the road now, both solo, one somewhat fresh and one that had been away all day. Back in the dwindling group the bombs never stopped. Everyone was taking their turn. Soon Graham was playing the catch up game. 2 gravel sections left and my legs were feeling every pedal stroke. Knowing the suffering everyone was going through I attempted a couple of digs, but nothing happening. Then it was my turn to be calling wait up! Coming from behind is never the way to race and after several efforts doing this the legs were no longer there. Before entering the last dirt section I could only watch as some of the favorites rode away from our group. One of those ended up catching the 2nd place rider on the road, but no one ever saw the one sole leader- out front all day, much of that solo. Impressive. I finished in a group of 15 or so, what was left of the “peloton.” Good for a mediocre 13th place on the day. Graham ended up 32nd. Omer and Sheldon finished the day together in a group further back. Not quite what the Bissell team was hoping for but I think this race turned out more difficult than most of us planned! Of the 160 starters there were 62 finishers. We are already looking forward to some redemption next year!

More photos here.

Tour of the Battenkill

From Tom Zirbel:

A small contingent of racers were sent out to NY to race the Tour of Battenkill this past weekend. It was just Graham and the CO boys: Omer, Sheldon, Pipp, and myself. We're talking old school style here - no massages, cleaning and maintaining our own bikes, hauling ourselves around, etc. The kind of stuff that Glen and Eric did back in the day when they would carry extra inflated tubes around their shoulders and have to flip their wheel around if they wanted to use the other gear. Anyhow, racing unsupported is a good way to help us spoiled pros realize how good we've got it for the majority of races. Plus, we did have an arrangement with the Empire Cycling Team so they would hand us bottles in the feed zone - that was crucial for those long brutal courses. So being as Sun. was the premier event, the plan for Saturday's race was to be represented in all breaks, get a good look at the course (same as Sun.) and try to conserve energy if possible for the 200km throw down the next day. 2 out of 3 isn't bad, is it? Unexpectedly, the 2nd attack of the day stayed away to the finish and I was the lucky winner from the Bissell team to be represented in it. There were 13 of us at first and I was a little outnumbered with 5 different teams having more than one rider in the break, so I had a good excuse to just sit on for the first 40 min. or so. Then BMC started to get wise to the situation and sent Jon Garcia up the road solo. Though only halfway through the race, people were already starting to get tired so I started pulling through to keep his lead in check. The course started to take its toll on the riders little by little be it the long gravel sections, the steep climbs, or just flat tires and soon the break was whittled down to less than 10. With less than 20 miles to go, I took a long, slightly uphill gravel section to do some "visualization" where I pretended that I was Boonen turning the screws on the lead group at Roubaix. It was about a 3 min. effort and when I looked back everyone was still there and I had a "Well, I'm not quite a Boonen just yet" thought. But on the next riser, I attacked again and it was quickly down to 5 guys, so I'd like to think that my visualization did some damage. :) Beyer from BMC and I took turns attacking after that and it came down to Josh Dillon, Beyer and myself with 4k of flat to go. Unfortunately, Dillon flatted out so it was left to Beyer and me, and Beyer played the team card saying that his teammate (Garcia) was chasing so he couldn't pull through. Garcia was sitting on a group of 3 coming back to us fast so instead of trying the sprint in a group of 5, I took the initiative to make it a 2 man sprint and after pulling the last 1500m, Beyer came around me in the end to take the win. I was bummed not to take the victory, but I knew that I would have to come to the line solo if I wanted a sure win and Beyer showed his strength by not getting dropped during my attacks and fighting to the finish. A podium is always nice though and the quart of local chocolate milk that they gave each of us on the podium was so creamy and delicious that it helped wash away that bitter taste in my mouth from getting 2nd.

Tom