|
|
Balloon Festival Classic |
|
|
Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
|
|
Written by Sean McCarthy
|
|
Sunday, 17 June 2007 |
Balloon Festival Classic & Battenkill Valley LAJORS Grand Prix
Presented by Farm Team Cycling and Cambridge Valley Cycling
Cambridge, NY
June 09, 2007
 | | click to enlarge |
Well I just got back from one of the most punishing races of the year. The punishment was a 63 mile road race which was broken down into three 21 mile loops around the town of Cambridge. Normally, I would not go out of my way to do a road race but my 17 year old cousin has been killing it in the Cat 3 road races and was looking for one more top three finish to get his Cat 2 upgrade. So I thought it would be cool to travel to the race with him and find out where my legs take me among the world of roadies.
 | | click to enlarge |
The first lap went pretty well. I stuck to my strategy and sat at the back. The course was rolling with really good pavement. Half way through there was a dirt road around a half mile long with a small climb and a really fast downhill. As much fun as this was, the real racing was at the 15 mile mark where there was a relatively hard climb. This climb was a real grind to start with a false flat in the middle followed by another grind to the top. The first time up I saw the departure of about 30 of the 80 plus guys who started the race. After the climb there was a real long downhill that my computer clocked a max speed of 51.9mph. This was followed by a 4 mile flat run back into the start/finish village.
 | | click to enlarge |
Lap two was going pretty good and I found a nice little spot sitting in the back keeping my nose clean. We hit the big climb for the second time and for some reason there was an uphill crash right in front of me. Yes, that’s right, I said a crash going uphill at 10 mph. This left me and few others gapped from the main field fighting to get back on. I guess this is the price you pay for hiding in the back. Five of us ended up chasing for the better part of 8 miles before making contact with the field. I haven’t felt so cooked all year.
The final lap was going painfully well until the last climb. The chase had killed me and I had no juice to keep up. This climb was extremely fast because there were a couple of attacks trying to go clear. One guy made it stick and ended up winning by over a minute ahead of the 24 guys that made up the rest of the field. I made it back to the finish 3 minutes behind the field in 31st place. My cousin finished 8th in the field sprint, unhappy that he had wasted his legs in an attack that didn’t stick. All in all I was semi-happy with my result. I wish I had been there for the sprint but I just couldn’t hold on. My Salsa Campeon took on some hard miles and the follow car sure felt the presence of Bikeman.com since I was doing some good bill boarding at the back of the pack. Thank you to all the volunteers that made this race happen, I would like to do this race again.
Sean |
|
|
|
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
