The GMSR is just about the toughest stage race in the Northeast, due to the level of competition. There are other events which have more difficult terrain (Catskills) but this one is considered a "top prize" and hence brings out the best competitors in every field.
The men's 40+ was no exception this year. The field was far more stacked than it was last year, with 65 riders in total and quite a few of them were cat 1s. I was wondering if we would see a reprise of the Verge vs. Finkraft battle that we saw at Catskills, but this time only Roger Aspholm's Finkraft team brought a full squad. I figured they would have the best shot at winning this one.
Stage one is a short time trial that begins with a rather difficult climb. They disallow aerobars, so you have to race your road bike, although you can use disc wheels and trispokes and funny helmets and all that stuff. I, of course, used every bit of aero gear I had, since once you crest the top of the hill, you still have about half of the remaining time to spend going super-fast on the slight downhill and flat to the finish. This made the bike a few pounds heavier but I felt it was going to be faster overall.
My climbing rate was good, and it looked like I might catch my :30 man on the hill (my 1:00 man wasn't that far ahead either!) but once we crested the top, he proved very difficult to reel in. I chased him literally until about 800m to go. Catching him just before the short kicker to the finish gave him an extra motivation to catch me back, and we crossed the line pretty much at the same time. I never saw Mr. 1:00 again. I assume that he gained back the time I got on him on the flat.
My time was about 30 seconds faster than the previous year, but it still only got me 48th place out of 64. It would have been pretty close to the top in the cat 4 race, better than midpack in the cat 3, but the 40+ had a huge list of riders who were sub 15:00 on this course. I was clocked at 15:54 (although that was a bit long, my own timing was a few seconds faster, as was Strava)
Hopefully everyone had the same offset.
Stage 2 was the one that worried me the most. I felt that if I could get through stage 2 at this event, I would be OK for the rest of it, since I have traditionally had the most difficulty with the large circuit races where the speeds are fast and the fields are large and aggressive. Form has been pretty good recently though, and I made sure to stay alert at all times to keep from being caught in the back when an attack came. We caught all of the breakaways that spent most of the race off the front, save a two-man final effort that took off about 4 miles from the finish and stayed away for 1-2.
The remaining field set up just about the biggest and craziest field sprint I have been a part of in a long time. I was careful not to mix it up, stayed seated, and rolled in right behind Roger Aspholm for a 52nd place finish (doing 35mph without even sprinting!)
So, with that out of the way, I was a bit more relaxed for stage three. In fact, I was never really in trouble for the first 60 miles of that race, even taking the reins myself for a bit to assist in chasing down one of the many breaks that went. At the intermediate KOM, we crushed it with such a speed that my Strava segment place on that one is still on page one, and I was in the back!
Lots of fast surges made for a tough day in the saddle. I only brought two bottles with me, counting on the neutral feed near the end of the race. What I did not count on was the attack that came directly at the feedzone. I had to forget the feed, move back over, and then chase with all I had all the way to the top of Baby Gap (the first of two major climbs) in order to catch the field.
Once I caught back on, they had slowed up in anticipation of the final climb. Nobody was off the front, and the big mountain was going to determine the winner. I had burnt my last match in my chase though, and was dehydrated and angry that I had to give up on the bottle just to stay in the race.
I gave it my best shot, but it wasn't going to happen. As hard as I could pedal turned out to be tempo power at best, and I made it to the top, losing over 5 minutes to the winner. Pretty astonishing how much time you can lose like that.
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| The scene at the top of App Gap. |
I did not let it bother me though. With as many problems as I had been having with my C7 nerve pinch and back/shoulder/neck/arm issues related to it, I have to be happy just to finish races. To finish them under these circumstances is even better and I was happy. I filled my bottles, drank a lot, and then bombed the descent of App Gap back to the start area so fast that I passed every car on the way!
The final day is a crit in downtown Burlington. I figured it was going to be tough for me, since with a course that is this technical, you cannot be stuck behind other riders who open up gaps. That means being very aggressive early and getting in front of them before they can drag you down to Davy Jones' Locker.
It didn't work. These are some of the finest crit guys in the Northeast, and they set a pace that was faster than every single race of the day, with the only exceptions being the P1 race and the juniors. 26.6mph average. When the split happened about 5 riders in front of me, I gave it all I had, but the field was already out of reach.
I lasted just about half of the race until they pulled me. I was not happy to get pulled, but very thankful that the officials were generous about awarding people GC places even if they didn't quite make it to the halfway point.
final tally: 43rd on GC of 52 finishers, of 64 starters. 9:39 down on Roger Aspholm, the multi-year winner of this event.
Perhaps next year I can finish the crit. I know I have the strength to do it. I just need to stay away from the wrong end of the splits. I think I'll pack a third bottle in the jersey next year and chuck it away at the feedzone instead of trying to feed on stage 3.