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Ack! why did I sign up?

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
I think I need to put the skis away and get some saddle time in :busted:


Salem, NY - The organizers of the 2008 Tour of the Battenkill Cycling Race announce that with more than 1200 current registrants, the race has surpassed Monterey California's prestigious Sea Otter Classic as the largest single-day road cycling race in the United States. 1600 racers from more than 25 States and Canada are expected to race on April 19. The event is hosted in cooperation with the Towns & Villages of the Battenkill Valley (www.visitbattenkillvalley.com). Proceeds will benefit Farm Team Cycling of Cambridge (farmteamcycling.org) - an area Junior-level cycling team, and the Public Libraries of Southern Washington County, NY. See www.tourofthebattenkill.com for race details, contact information, and the many sponsorship opportunities still available.

Starting & finishing in the rural Washington County New York village of Salem, the race features one of the most challenging and unique race courses on the North American calendar with a single 55 mile loop, rolling countryside, direct passes through small villages, covered bridges, and the un-paved roads that have become the race's trademark. Challenging sections of the course include Juniper Swamp Road in the Town of Salem - a 1/4 mile un-paved climb with a 15% grade, Meeting House and Becker Roads in Easton - 4 very difficult un-paved climbs that come late in the course, and the challenging climb up Willard Mountain at mile 30. The Elite and Professional Men will race on an extended 82 mile course that will feature the rarely-travelled McKie Hollow Road in the Town of White Creek - a 1/2 mile unpaved climb that averages 12-15% in grade, and a final 7 mile circuit in the Town of Salem. Along the way, racers will pass directly through the Villages of Cambridge and Greenwich giving spectators several opportunities to see the race.

There are 17 separate races from Junior to Professional Men's & Women's races. Among the Professional teams attending are the Advil/Chapstick Women's Professional Cycling Team, Kenda/Raleigh Men's Cycling Team, Calyon-Litespeed Professional Cycling of Montreal, Target Training Elite Development Team, Team RACE Professional Cycling of Ontario, Fitness Together / IF pb Lionette's Men's Elite Cycling, MetLife Pro-Am Cycling, and VW/Trek of Quebec.

The race also features a race expo organized by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce at the finish line on West Broadway in Salem featuring food, local crafts, cycling vendors, and live entertainment, as well as several viewing areas around the course.

Major 2008 Race Sponsors include Glens Falls Hospital (glensfallshospital.org), Trade Manage Capital (trademanagecapital.com), WestoodVelo (westwoodvelo.com), Glens Falls National Bank & Trust Company (gfnational.com), Reynolds Real Estate of Greenwich (lreynoldsrealestate.com), Cabot of Vermont (cabotcheese.com), Echappe Equipment (echappeonline.com), 53x11 Coffee (53x11coffee.com), Udderly Smooth Udder Cream (uddercream.com), Flex Power (flexpower.com), and Adidas Eyewear (adidas.com/eyewear).

Many volunteers are needed for the safe hosting of the race. Contact Volunteer Coordinator Christine Hoffer at volunteers@battenkillroubaix.com or 518-677-5741 for details
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
I am sure if you ask me after the race, I'll be saying you were the smart one!


ps: if you like pain/hills, you could always just come down my way someday for one of my rides.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
You should attack as hard as you can when you hit the unpaved sections, that could be the winning move :p Everyone slows down and you just go off the front!
 

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
0
Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
You should attack as hard as you can when you hit the unpaved sections, that could be the winning move :p Everyone slows down and you just go off the front!
Being a mountain biker that is exactly the strategy to employ. Most of the roadies will end up in heaps on the ground and you will be crushing their spirit with your superior skills.
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
ha, nice idea....


there is dirt section at mile 3 or 4 plus the 1st 7 miles is a loop back to the start/finish area, being I know sooner or later I will get dropped it might be worth blowing up to try & have the lead coming back thru town :beerjam:
 

McGRP01

beer and bikes
Feb 6, 2003
7,793
0
Portland, OR
:bonk:

I guess - I have been doing a bunch of hilly 50-60 mile rides.
In '06 I did it in 3:20, my goal for saturday is 3:00, I'll have to ride really hard to get that...the problem is last year my groups winning time was 2:45
That's cool. I'm sure you'll smoke the course! I can introduce you to a bunch of people that will be in your cat that you can ride with if you want. They're all pretty strong riders and should be able to hang with you until you decide to pull away. I think they're hoping to finish around the 3:15-30 mark...
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
intro's would be great! I'll be wearing a twin six jersey

I went up w/a freind & did a preride last week, I went pretty hard & it took me 3:30 (with no drafting)
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
thanks!
Vittoria Zaffiro 700x23c (they came on my bike)


Did I mention, this race is now the biggest single day road race in the USA! (Sea Otter was the old#1)
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
it was hot (85 in upstate NY in April=wtf?), I went hard, lost contact on big climb#1, was in chase group of 5, trying to catch a group of 6, felt like puking, couldn't drink, got dropped on a pretty flat section, no mans land, new group forms, catch some stragglers, eventually up to 12 now, 6 go hard, hang on for a little bit but get dropped again on a pretty flat section, no mans land, hope to stay close for last climb, its a dirt (loose & rocky) grinder, see a straggler, reel him in. he grabs my wheel, I think F you, head down & push it, look up & see 5 or 6 right up ahead, it gets steep, they all get off and walk!! its too lose to stand but I attack (attack people walking? wtf?) I get all of them and keep pushing, but pretty much blow myself up, still climbing but cant stand (cramps), a buddy of mine catches up & passes, we hit 48mph bombing down the hill, 4 miles of rollers left, I cant keep up, I see riders back but I have nothing, beep beep beep, its the 45+ car, I hear "wtf tequila Doug" (a friend who went on to win 45+),three 45+ go by, now more beeps, its the pro female car, 1 chick goes by, oh crap now its somebody in my group catching up, he attacks I have less then nothing, I bunny hop the finish line, landing puts my leg in a severe cramp. ouch :bonk:

results: not sure, I hope I made top 15, if not then I am sure top 20 (out of 50). I do know I beat my '06 time by 15 minutes :beerjam:

Highlight of the day: hanging out after the race with my Luna Chicks friends at their booth (in the shade!!)

Bonus: Luna chicks talking me into entering the saddle raffle, later when the race announcer picks/reads the winning ticket he says: "All he wrote down was Tequila Doug" ok, so now my girly parts will be protected! :clapping:
 

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
the chick that passed me:

By Anna Milkowski
Posted Apr. 19, 2008

Anna Milkowski is a member of Team Advil-Chapstick. This diary entry was completed a few hours after she won the 2008 Tour of the Battenkill Valley in New York — Editor

Redlands exists as a haze — a temporary exchange of lobster gloves and neoprene flippers for sunscreen and swimming pools — then a quick return to winter. The experience hinted I had survived this challenging winter of indoor riding and even a yard-sale crash on black ice, but the season began for real today with the Battenkill Roubaix in Salem, New York.

It's not quite Belgian cobbles and it's the cultural opposite of the Laguna Seca racetrack, but it’s fantastic. Battenkill Roubaix is one gorgeous loop through rural upstate New York, featuring tons of up and down, huge community support, equal prize money for men and women, a covered bridge, and several much-hyped steep dirt climbs and descents.

In just three years it has become what the promoter claims is the biggest single-day bike race in the country, drawing crowds from New York and Boston who make a weekend of hilly rural riding and promising the Canadian and Burlington racers their shortest drives of the season. It features a pasta dinner, pancake breakfast, and maybe even host housing in a mansion. The women's cat 3/4 field even filled up — more than two weeks before the race day!

Last year we had snow; this year it was close to 80 degrees. I was still optimistic we could make it epic. I was joined by my two of my Advil-Chapstick teammates in a tough regional field.
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The race started calmly, with riders catching up with friends after the long winter. I led the first dirt climb to pick my line and potentially wear out some legs … and because as a cyclocross racer I revel in the dirt.

After the hill, we noodled for a while. In regional racing, in addition to fighting off my general tendency toward impulsivity, I must also fight the urge to race to make the race interesting, to ensure the women’s race isn’t negative and slow, making us a big pain for promoters and officials.

But nobody lets me go in suicide breaks in regional races anymore, no matter how ill-advised, so I had to be patient. My teammate Elisa wisely reminded me “race hard when the race is hard.”

After a while there was some action spurred by my teammate Reem and others that resulted in Canadian cyclocrosser Natasha Elliot and Kenda’s Andrea Myers getting a solid gap on a windy flat section. Elisa and a rider from the other strong team in the race, the Northeast Bike Club, bridged up. With the teams represented and considerable horsepower, the break seemed like it would stick, but instead the field came back together. I was starting to get worried the race wouldn’t be hard enough to be selective and we would end up with a big field sprint. I put in a few attacks but they didn’t do much.

The opportunity lay in the big dirt hills starting around mile 30. I rode a hard tempo, trying to force a selection and also as a defensive strategy to ward off attacks from riders who actually enjoy pace changes on climbs. I was quite pleased with my 34-26 gearing that allowed me to spin comfortably up the rubble. (I highly recommend the 34-50 11-26 combination, especially for the standing-averse climber). When I looked around at the top, there were just three of us, Kathleen Billington, Anna McLoon (a newcomer to bike racing with an enormous engine from cross-country ski racing), and me.

We got a quick rotation going to establish the gap as we passed through a wide-open valley of farmland. We were going at a comfortable pace and at this point the race was about working hard but not harder than anyone else, eating and drinking, and trying to figure out how I could win. I didn’t especially want to sprint against either of these women — last year’s sprint defeat still a sore spot! In the second feed zone I got something dark. I was disappointed given my minimal enthusiasm for artificial grape soda, only to learn it was ice-cold Coke!

I drove it into the final dirt section with 10 miles to go, visibility limited by the plumes of dust from the pace car. We navigated past a bucking horse. The section was long with some large rocks and a definite best line of hard-pack dirt, sand and rocks on either side. I think this is where Anna flatted.

The road quality seemed to be getting worse and worse and we were now riding into the dropped stragglers from one of the men’s fields. To pass a few men, I steered into a section that turned out to be a sand trap, and almost had to join some of the riders walking up the hill. The sand caused Kathleen to bobble and I had a gap — just like how things play out in cyclocross. This was the race, now or never! I went as fast as I could up that hill, knowing that if I made it to the top with a gap I could probably keep it on the flats into the finish. I descended fast and then it was just a game of intermediate markers, this many mph to this sign, etc.

I won a stuffed cow and a cowbell at a fantastic grass-roots race with teammates and among friends near my hometown. My priorities lie elsewhere and the stars are competing today in California and Europe, but this is a great way to kick off the East Coast season. And just imagine how truly epic this Battenkill Roubaix could be with a top-notch national level field. Other races might have more Cs and Is attached to their names, but pencil in the Battenkill Roubaix for 2009!