Report
Friday evening/night:
As the weekend approached some packing, conveniently taking the PJ-BP Ferry and driving up very relaxed on route 8 to Colebrook. As there were not really many options and staying near by at the promoted YMCA Camp Jewell for just 25 bucks a night in some hopefully not so crowded cabin with team mates and other cyclists sounded about right. And it was about fair and nothing to complain. Could almost think of "Team Cabin #7". Friday night he was planning one going out for dinner, did not really found the right place in time to go in this very remote area and ended up with a non ideal improvised dinner -- getting some milk, cheese and orange juice at the next gas station for his worse case survival pack he took along, "Muesli", Bananas and his home made sour dough rye bread. Back at the cabin one of his team and a few other cyclists were arrived. Basically busy sorting out things and setting up bikes for the next day. And hoping for the best possible weather -- a lot of thunder and rain was on the forecast for the whole weekend.
Saturday: ITT
Colebrook.The ITT (Individual Time Trial) Saturday morning of an classic 8 mile out and back on Colebrook Road with an basically up-down-up one way profile was a tough one. Not yet really Py's specialty at all -- many more things to be figured out and optimized, in particular a decent warm-up, just riding there from the Cabin at Camp Jewell (about 10 minutes easy), and hanging out at the start obviously did not really do the Trick, 2:26 back on stage one.
Stage 1 - ITT: http://connect.garmin.com/
Karl from team GAB at the ITT start.A little recovering after that effort for the following Circuit Race -- Stage 2:
a few views from/at Camp Jewell.
Stage 2 - CR: http://connect.garmin.com/
... hoping for some pictures from some one else soon ... here are George and Karl retuning from there CAT 3 CR. The race itself was 3.5 mile loop, 8 laps to go for CAT 4. It was packed with action, a KOH (no, not Potassium Hydroxide -- but King Of Hill) and a sprint for points thrown in at several bell laps! It was getting a bit tough about half way, but Py made it back on. From then on from about lap 4 it got a bit more relaxed. On the last lap at the hill up to Colebrook Py jumped ahead playing a bit and was able to hold this just around the turn into town when the big field started sprinting and he finished with the main field, -9s field time.
Finally a good dinner at Winsted with team mates -- very nice, very good :-)
Sunday: 91 mile Road Race
Plenty of time, great breakfast again in Winsted with team. Py did not started before 12:45 (CAT 4).
He had a great time and race, well almost: From the beginning the field was moving at a good, but comfortable and fairly steady pace, not much happening. They started out with little sun, on a partly wet road, but not long -- just about at the end of the ITT turn around point where the road got a bit bumpy -- it started raining a little, wet from then on with varying intensity of rain. It actually was not too bad, even felt good and was some what appreciated! As it still was kind of an humid warm day -- conserving valuable water now. Two riders tried to get off early, some where around mile 6 or so -- but no one really cared. Around mile 25 Py moved to the front for quite a bit, just checking it out, not overdoing anything. At about that time also the two break away guys (we got told they had about 2 minutes on as previously) slowly came back into sight with the leading pace car and they got rolled in. Py was still in front for a little longer until he decided to sit in at some top 10 spot. As they got to route 8 -- "you" remember these "cliffs" on your right and the wider bigger road -- it started heavily poring down, felt like it was even a bit hail in between. You could about drink out of the air... Until this point a good number of riders suffered flats already. The downhills on virtually flooded roads were a bit scary/sketchy as he did not really liked the delay to get the water off the carbon rims until the brakes were gripping little abruptly -- this was kind of new to Py (on Aluminum rims this is not as extreme), but with a little extra caution/room, never was any problem and he got used to it and to handle it. Very positive surprised he was about his still quite new glasses (prescription, AR coating, polarized and automatic darkening...) -- as they made any water just fly off and he had a basically perfect vision all time -- very nice!
All the short climbs did not provided any trouble or need to catch up again, just stayed about at his position in the field in front section or even moved up at times. This one bumpy downhill road was not so bad at all and they flew down with some crazy speed... good was, it stopped raining about there. Little more of an surprise was that huge hole little later for some riders (was this the one they announced at the start?? But who watches the mile counter, remembers all the millages of hazards at all times???) coming up to Py's right -- he was lucky and far away from trouble. But nothing really happened. Not sure if that was related, shortly after was a slight left turn and one rider (in blue) more or less -- this was down hill and fast -- rode strait off the road into some bushes/tall grass and came to save stop -- he made it actually back and caught up to the field! Then this wicked rusty grated bridge was coming up and they all got told to be prepared for a neutralized dismount and walk over. It must have caused a major accident within the previous CAT1-2 (10..20 rider down and need for ambulance they got told -- all Py knows). So they all walked over and decided to take the chance for a group rest stop.... Very good and very appreciated by about every one after all that rain and lot's of drinking. He also safely swapped his 3rd bottle he still had in his back pocket with an empty one. And Py really felt great that time -- still not exhausted at all and was looking for a smooth finish of the ride as all "bad/bumpy/sketchy" sections were done at this point. The field reassembled and stared moving again in normal race mode. They were a few miles before re-entering route 8 (crossing over via route 57 this time) the for the 2nd time for the finish -- but just a few miles after this bridge, his rear tire went slowly soft and flat....., at mile 67 of 92 and forced Py to stop -- and stupidly he was too lazy (or just counting on some luck) to mark my other wheels and put them in the wheel car -- and this now is a big down side of the Campy 11, they would have gotten him a neutral wheel with some 10 speed, but he doubt that this would have done any good with this super narrow chain... That's about it -- finishing in the car behind all. One more heavy shower passed by.
Back at the start/finish the sun was coming out again! Had a look the results: 34 finishes out of 70 starters. Guess Py was one of the DNFs :-(
However, a great new experience over all and regardless the out come he liked it a lot and yes, he will take care of his wheels next time -- even not so positive if this would help more then just finishing in many cases.
And finally, big thanks to the great Jim and organizer and all the so welcoming volunteers and locals! Also thx to George for the TT suit. And all the other racers making the trip up there to race. And the great "Team Cabin #7" -- was fun.
Stage 3 - RR (as far as Py got): http://connect.garmin.com/
[This would have been the full course... Road Race, 91.2 Miles, 8,450ft of climbing ]
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