2012 New England Regional Cyclocross Championships

Josh, Stan and I headed out to Fitchburg to squeeze in the last race of the season — the New England Regional Championships.  They combined the 35+ and 45+ fields, but told us the results would be separated.  Now If I could just figure out who the old guys were that I needed to hunt down…

Josh lined up in the 2nd row, I lined up in the 5th row.  Temps were in the mid 20s and the ground was hard, frost-covered and anything but smooth.  Since this was the last race, I gassed it hard from the start and was psyched to find myself in the lead group.  

I moved up from the 40s to 26th, then 20th, then was running 5th in the 45+ crowd.  With 1.5 laps to go, I was finally having a great race and could almost envision standing on the podium in front of the massive crowd of at least 20 people there to spectate.  

Then disaster struck.  On the backside of the course, a stick got caught in my brakes and mangled the brake arm, twisting it right into my spokes.  The rear wheel wouldn't budge and I couldn't free it.  

My first thought was to DNF, but I was surrounded by high orange mesh ski fencing and couldn't get off the course if I wanted to, so I shouldered bike and started running.  I ran a half lap to the pits (my back is now killing me).  No neutral bikes were available (note to self, that second bike in the pits idea is a "really a necessity honey").  I got some help freeing my  brake and zip tying it to the frame -- no rear brakes, but at least I can finish.  

By now, most of the race had passed me by.  Ticked, flew out of the pits in a rage and found out this anger motivation thing is actually a pretty powerful race tool.   I managed to actually catch most of the guys who passed me and finished 12th in the 45+.  Psyched — but, oh, what could have been…

Josh had a recovery Belgium Ale ready at the finish.  Who knew that stuff was full of iron, manganese and protein?  I had a second.  

Josh finished 7th in the 35+ and when I left for a basketball tourney, Stan was running in the top 20 in the 55+.    Highlight video here:  https://vimeo.com/55715166

This was a great season.  To the band of brothers that formed to practice cross and bring horrified looks to the faces of  early morning dog walkers in Weston, Wellesley and Auburndale — I can't wait to do this again with you all next year.  

Mt. Baldy!

Mt. Baldy Road to the Ski Lifts!

I had an afternoon to sneak in a ride and Mt. Baldy is on my bucket list.  This giant features in the Tour of California and ranks as the 4^th hardest climb in the western US. 

As I stood on the edge of the Pomona campus gearing up, thoughts of “how hard can this be?” started to creep in.  Starting in a manicured residential neighborhood, it’s hard to believe that a huge climb lies just up the road.   

All the write-ups talk about how hard this climb is.  Many compare it to Alpe d’Huez.  First, a few stats (Alpe d’Huez in parens):

·  Total Ride: 12.6 miles at 8.8% with 4,700 feet of elevation gain (ADH=8.2 miles, 3,500 feet of ascent)

·  2 separate 2 mile long sections at greater than 9% grade

·  Multiple 15% ramps

·  8.1% average grade for the 7.2 mile long section above the tunnels

·  8.8% average grade for the final 4 miles above the village (almost 1900 feet in elevation gain)

·  9.2% average grade for the 2 mile Hogsback section (last tunnel to just before Mt. Baldy Village)

·  10.0% average grade for the 1.9 mile section from Icehouse Canyon through the switchbacks to Manker Flats (1000 feet in <2 miles="miles" o:p="o:p">

·  15% average grade for the final .5 mile section to the ski lifts (230 feet elevation gain)

Here's the summary with special thanks to the ToughAscent blog for pics and commentary.

I started the ride from the intersection of Mt. Baldy Rd and Mills Ave (the most common starting point). After turning onto Mt. Baldy Rd, the first part of the climb is easy as you pass through the last of Claremont’s residential neighborhoods:

Some of the peaks you see as you go up hit 10,000 feet in elevation.  This section is 9% forever:

You soon hit the first of two tunnels. Getting through these without getting hit by a car is a trick.  Goes from very bright to very dark.  A few feet inside the tunnel a bike is invisible to cars:

And the second, shorter tunnel:

The 2 miles following the tunnels is brutal. Averaging 9.2%, these 2 grueling miles known as the Hogsback made me wish for more than the 25 cogs I have. The next 7.2 mile stretch from here to the ski lifts averages 8.1%. So, no relief for the next one hour plus.  Knowing this DID NOT help the motivation.

Looking back down Hogsback from the top of this section:

The lead-in to the village of Mt. Baldy – when the grade eases to 7%, it almost feels flat here!

Buckhorn Lodge on the outskirts of the village – immediately the grade goes back to 9%-10% and the suffering begins in earnest again:

These last 4 miles to the ski lifts will give you almost 1900 feet in elevation gain – an average of 8.8%! 8.8% for 4 miles. Seriously. This is the part that really tests you. The fact that you have already climbed a few thousand feet and you are getting to elevations where there is less oxygen makes it all that much harder.

Still, 88 degrees up here in November beats the heck out of riding the flats back home in 40 degree weather.

This is where the real punishment starts. The next 1.9 miles average about 10.0% grade (ouch!). Yes, 1,000 feet in elevation gain in less than 2 miles. This is the crazy switchback section of the climb. There are 8 distinct, tight and steep switchbacks in this section. The corners are 18% grade!

One of those tight switchbacks:

One of the insane switchbacks:

At this point, I’m beginning to wonder what I was thinking in Pomona.   This climb is WAY harder than Alpe d’Huez.

Looking down from the switchback:

A look down the valley:

OK, here’s where it gets to 15% sustained.  At this point the choice is to either fall over (I’m going so slow) or do the “newspaper boy” and tack back and forth.  This was the SLOWEST ½ mile I’ve ever done on two wheels.  Brutal. 

The last little bit of riding is through the multiple levels of parking for the ski area. This section climbs gently and gives you a last few dozen feet of gain to the chair lifts.

And, finally, the top of the climb – looking up the lift:

6500 feet in elevation!

After taking a rest at the top, with a very cold can of Coke, it was time to descend and the descent from the ski lifts to the village is pretty technical. The road surface is not great, the grade is very steep and the curves are tight. Sections of it are definitely fun, but speed builds extremely quickly and some of that speed had to be quickly scrubbed for the switchbacks. Rock debris from some of the crumbling hillsides kept things interesting.

Once you hit the village, the technical section of the descent is done and the rest of the ride is a blast – a very fast descent. Hogsback section that was such a pain to climb? Easy 40+ mph on the descent (with the possibility of hitting 50mph if you pedal). The curves are gentle too, allowing you to sweep through them at that same 40+ mph.

Glad I did this?  Yes.  Do it again?  Yes.   Glad it’s over?  Yes.  Double-Double with a Strawberry shake at In-N-Out?  You better believe it!

Weston to Williamstown Epic

It sounded good at the time.  After 8 or 10 B2B's each June, we decided to mix it up this year and come up with a new epic.  

How about a 160 mile ride from Weston to Williamstown, MA.  160 miles, 13,300 feet of climbing.  It sounded good a month ago.  

As the date drew close this week, I started to get nervous.  Really nervous.  What was I thinking?  I've never ridden that many miles in a day.  Much less with that much climbing.  I started to wonder if I could even make it.  

We met at 515a yesterday.  Seven of us -- a mix of Posse, Macs and Brueggers riders -- Lebo, Mike Moran, Alan McEwen, Grahame Wells, Guiseppe and Eric Cohen.  That's a strong group.  

The Route - thanks to Bruce Cohen and Jeff Packman, we stitched together a route across the entire state, finishing with Mt. Greylock.  Not a beast in itself, but one tough climb with 145 miles in your legs.  What stands out in the profile is that 75% of the climbing comes in the last 60 miles:

OK, back to our story.  We meet up at 515a.

Sun's up and Eric's circling...

All here -- where's Grahame??

There's no such thing as an epic without a Sprinter Van...

Then we hit the road and hammered, not stopping for the next 60 miles.  Then we met Karen Wells (Grahame's wife), our awesome one-woman support for the day at 78 miles in lovely Belchertown, MA.

The next 40 miles were beautiful -- Bruce's portion of the route put us on beautiful roads through central Mass.

Lunch stop in Northampton at mile 95 was a longer break.  Peace march.  Farmers market.  Great, funky town.

At this point, we'd climbed 5,500 feet and still averaged 19mph.

From here on out, it was climbing city.  And it was 85 degrees.  I started to cramp right on the first big climb out of Northampton (that first big bulge on the profile above).   Guiseppe was awesome -- he dropped back and said, "hey, this is a social ride, not a race.  I can't have you spend 60 miles by yourself!"

I haven't fought cramps off for that distance before, but between Guiseppe's encouragement, Lebo dropping back every once in awhile and fistfuls of endurolytes, I made it mostly with the group to Pittsfield and mile 135.

Karen followed us at this point to the base of Greylock 10 miles up the road.  We filled our water bottles for the 8.5 mile trip up to the top.

A mile later at the visitor center, a Berkshire cycling club guy shouted, "you've got a big group.  Where are you guys from?"

"Just outside of Boston, MA."

"So, where'd you park the car?"

"We didn't, we rode out here."

"You What!?!"

Greylock starts with 10-12% grades and it's a heartbreaker.  At this point, I'm wondering if I'm getting to the top by sundown.  It's slow going.  And its Hot.

Thankfully, the climb mellows out and even has a few flats mixed in.

But, at 3 miles from the top, the switchbacks kick in.  They kicked me, then Mike, then Eric.  Everybody suffered up.  But,

we made it.

Eric Cohen flys by the camera...

We were spent.  Wiped.  153 miles and I was wondering if I had the gas to make it down (yes, down).  Here, Guiseppe and Grahame collapse at the top.  

The lantern rouge makes it up!

We flew down the hill to Williamstown and ate just about everything in site.  

Final tally:  160 miles. 13,300 feet of climbing.  7,000 calories.  

A B2B alternative is born?

NYC Gran Fondo

We completely underestimated this event.   At last year's Maratona Gran Fondo in the Dolomites, we came across a small booth in the expo area for the NYC Gran Fondo.  Anxious for other english-speakers to talk to, we struck up a conversation and eventually signed up.

How hard could 110 miles in and around New York City be?

We were about to find out.

Fred started with the warnings a few weeks ago -- "Guys, have you noticed there's over 8,000 feet of climbing in this thing?"

"There's got to be some bad math in that profile - no way that's right," we said.

We said wrong.  There was every bit of 8500 feet of climbing.  In fact, over 9,000 feet and 122 miles when you add in the ride to and from the hotel.

And we forgot to check the calendar -- it's only May and we've only been on the bikes a little over a month.

Now with sandbags fully filled, I'll tell you we had a blast.  We rode together the whole way.  We somehow came up with 7 hours of banter to keep things interesting.  It was a great 24 hours in New York.

Here's how it went down.  First, to registration, then Tom Snow found Cannibal, a Belgium pub themed after Eddy Merckx.  We imbibed one and I tripped across the Sean Kelly door (Irish winner of Paris Roubaix).

There's a group picture hiding out somewhere, but I couldn't find it.  Fred made a great pick for a pasta feed, Coppola's on 29th.  We combined efforts with the Needham/Wellesley guys:  Tom Snow, Guiseppe, Thom Cranley, Chip and John.  About 20,000 calories got consumed in an hour.  

Up at 430a to get cracking towards the start.  Trick was we're on the New Jersey side and we had to be on the lower deck of the GW at 615a or miss the start.  None of us knew where we were going.  It turned out to be a Rube Goldberg -- take this ramp to this path to GW upper deck, across to Harlem, down to 165th, back up to 176th...my head was exploding.  Some great pics on the ride over though...

The Big Apple at Dawn:

Bill and Fred at the upper deck entrance:

Sun's coming up and Schlags is psyched:

Finally to the lower deck and heading to the starting grid -- we've got low numbers - yeah baby!

Jeff & Fred all smiles

Bill in amazement at Eric's ability to chat up any female rider within 25 yards

A Jersey barrier can make a pretty comfortable seat for 45 minutes...

5000 riders ready to start...

The first 10 miles we cranked in a Posse paceline (ah, the alliteration).  

Unfortunately, those were the only flat 10 miles on the day.  It started to become clear that the 8500 feet of climbing was going to come 85 feet at a time x 100 hills.  At 14%.  Climbs were punchy and given the testosterone, we weren't exactly easing our way up them.  The profile showed the big climbs, but left all the smaller climbs to self-discovery ;)

The Posse lumbers up climb #37:

Most of the day, I tried to pin myself to Bill's wheel.   Mostly to no avail as he can drop me like a bad habit on most climbs and descents.  This one I miraculously (thanks to Eric's EPO) managed to stay with him.  Thank God a photographer was there to catch the impossible:

 Mile 50 brings Bear Mountain.  About 4.5 miles at 7%.  The warning sign appears innocently enough...

Then the real fun begins as it kicks up.  There are five timed climbs with a new Pinnarello at stake for each age group champion.  Its at this point that the men get separated from the boys and Mike and Bill blow us right off of their wheels as they bee-line it for the summit.  

The top of Bear Mountain is a bit like a moonscape.  Even though we've been slowed by a flat tire and a couple of stops, we're still there relatively early and run into the second biggest personality in elite amateur cycling (after Eric):  Peter Loeb.   Pete rode the Etape du Tour with us in France a few years back.  Great guy.  Huge personality.  Bigger smile.  

Pete warns us of what's to come: 5 killer hills, the last is the worst -- a 15%, 1.5 mile climb through a neighborhood that's off the set of the Sopranos.  I've never seen so many concrete animal sculptures in one mile in my life.  Oh yeah, the climb was a killer.  We're now at mile 70 wondering how the heck we're going to finish this beast of a ride.  There are dozens of hills still left on the profile.  

Not happy...

Really not happy...

Finally to the top, Mikey and I hunt for prey on the descent...

Jeff was a diesel engine from here on.  Mr. Steady --  driving us up the climbs and keeping the group together.  The next 40 miles were a repeat of the outbound course, one more flat, longer grinding climbs, no more closed roads or police at intersections.  It was like the organizer ran out of budget.  Felt like we were now on a regular weekend ride dodging traffic and on our own as there were no more support stops either.

Finally onto the Hudson River bike path, then emerging onto the equivalent of Route 9 in Natick during the highest traffic hours of the weekend.  It was dangerous and an ugly way to end what had been a great ride.

With two miles to go, I couldn't wait to get this thing over with, so found a second wind and pushed the pace up to 25 mph.  Finally, the finish line appeared...

 Fred and Billy come across the line...

Once we crossed the line, Jeff asked if we'd do that ride again.  Here's how I'd rate the event:

Company:  A+.  Really great riding as a team together.  These guys are a blast to be around.

Course:  C-.  It's an out and back training ride for New Yorkers.  A little like Wachusett for us.  The road quality though was horrendous.  Makes our roads look brand new.  100s of really deep potholes.  Two of them got us for flats.  Had the ride ended 10 miles earlier, we'd have likely been back again next year.  The last 10 miles ruined it for us.  Too many near misses, a finishing straight with 180 degree turn onto gravel and then an ugly 7 miles uphill back to the hotel.

Event:  B.   Registration was great, expo great.  Support on the ride, not so much.   Only 6 buckets at each water stop led to lines 100s deep and long delays.  Easy to fix, but a pain in the neck.   The base of Bear Mountain has a water stop.  However, descending riders coming down have to use the same stop, so riders going up and down; crossing the road to get to water, not a great combo.  Dangerous.  The organizers could just copy the Etape/Gran Fondos in Europe (50 yards of tables in a line, mega fluids and easy in and out).   No support for last 30 miles and no police presence leave you largely on your own.  No stores to self-support.  

Definitely worth doing once, but already on the hunt for next year's big event.  Posse+Guisseppe+Tom's group+ Italy??