Purgatory 2019

by Thomas Kespert

The 10th annual Purgatory Road Race Is held in beautiful Sutton Massachusetts, just outside of not-so-beautiful Worcester. It's an 11 mile course with about 900 ft of vertical gain per lap. I did the cat 4/5 masters division with about 25 other riders.

The first few miles were mostly a fast and bumpy descent with a few lumps. There is a nice, steady climb just after the midway point and then another shaded downhill section that leads into a long flat recovery. In the last mile there is a right-hand turn that immediately goes up a three tiered 1km climb that shatters the field.

I made my predictable mistake of putting in way too much work throughout the race and couldn't maintain my sol breakaway in the final 300m and settled for 3rd.