Battenkill 101

I suppose there are racers with enough talent and fitness to wake up one morning and drive to the Battenkill and place well in the Masters field.

I am not one of those.

Some of you guys are a lot more experienced than I am so I apologize in advance for repeating what you already know, but here are the lessons that I should have known better:

Lesson 1:  Do the homework.  If you want to do well at Battenkill - more than any other race I have been to - it requires more investigation than looking at a course map and profile.  You need to pre-ride or drive this course at a minimum.  The dirt sections add another dimension and opportunity for separation of the pack.  This is a hungry group of racers.  It was not an A race for me, but it sure was an A race for a lot of really good riders - and that can make for a humbling day in the saddle.  In my race Keltic had a strong team and those guys knew this course.  Verge did as well.  They knew where to punch it and what kind of effort they needed to sustain before they would get an opportunity to recover.  They knew when they could slip into the pack for some rest and when they needed to be back at the front.  They were tenderizing us with a pretty hot pace right from the start.  A strong team presence is a big advantage here.

Lesson 2:  Be attentive.  (But you have to do the homework first.)  I thought I was paying attention and doing pretty well at staying to the front, but I somehow found myself in the middle of the peloton when the first big separation occurred.  A couple guys got tangled up in front of me - they did not go down but managed to stay up and pull out - clanking and swearing.  I lost momentum and POP the field is split in half and I am on the wrong side.  Bottom line, if I would have prepared better, I would have been alert to the upcoming terrain.  And been where I needed to be.  But my race was essentially over less than 15 miles in.  The lesson here is that 130+ experienced racers also know they need to be at the front to make the break.  And that dynamic can cause you to find yourself where you do not want to be very quickly if you are unprepared.

I chased on for as long as I could but I could not close the gap.  Eventually we got a chase group formed but it was a poorly organized and selfish group and we enjoyed about 20 miles of a lovely Saturday ride in the sun (which devastated our time and let the lead group ride into the sunset) until 4 of us broke out.  We passed quite a few shattered riders from our group from there on in.  This required a big effort and I could not get out of the saddle for the last couple hills as my quads cramped bad.  I popped again on the final climb and limped in alone.  Oh yeah, that brings me to Lesson 3:  Get in Shape!  And when you think you ARE in shape, get in better shape!

I ended up close behind Dan Fitch and Rich Karaz.  They are pretty solid riders so I was happy with that.  But overall, I can't help but think how differently this race might have been.  

This race lives up to its reputation - it is a tough race.  I can't even imagine how it would be with rain or snow!  Oh baby.  That would hurt.

Great experience.  Glad I did it.  Good to get the hard lessons in early in the season.