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Vt50

douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
VT50

Reg'd Saturday, then dinner with pigboy & JBP & their relatives, & off to bed early.

Out of the Hotel at 4:45am, racer meeting at 5:30...and it was cold! (38). I went off in the 1st wave at 6:15, course was mix of dirt roads, single track & double track and a TON of climbing (8500ft), they had 9 rest stops stocked with anything from bacon to gummie bears to watermelon! (so I heard, I didnt stop at any).

I screwed up on one turn early, lost maybe 5 minutes, and never felt like I was riding strong but was only off my time goal by 12 minutes.

Besides all the food/drink stops, everyone got a finish medal, a tshirt and hat at Reg, plus a BBQ afterwards. I hung out after for several hours chatting with various friends, oh and there was a band too.

When I left at 4:30 I noticed people still fininshing.....thats a long time to be racing your mtn bike!

crazy, epic, tough, painful and amazingly well organized.

I'll be back next year.
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
details, eh?

the start was nuts - it was semi dark, I had no clue of the course...the 1st few miles were slightly downhill dirt roads, picture 150 plus mtn bikers bunched up doing 25-30mph and no one had a light!!!

Even thou it was a 50 mile loop there was almost always another rider around which is cool. Sometimes the climbs seemed to never stop. The course was pretty awesome, not very technical - and I cant really remember a flat section - you were either climbing or descending. The volunteers rocked! So many people out on the course cheering you on....I hope they know how appreciated that was. And all of the riders were cool, I had no passing or getting passed issues.

I was kind of bumming I was in suffer race mode being it was so scenic - it would be awesome if they also did this loop as a ride.
I know I did an extra .5 miles but according to my cyclometer I had 52 miles...when your spent and expecting it be done at 50.5, that extra 1.5 of climbing is Brutal !

Hmm, what else...Oh, a female freind won her age in expert/pro, and was 2nd female in behind Lea Davidson (pro trek rider) and my female Hardcore 24 teammate won her sport division - I know some fast chicks!
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
I Are Baboon said:
Good stuff, Doug! Man, that's an early start time.

How'd JBP, Pigboy and mogulskr do?
Click to expand...

Pigboy finished in under 7 hours and was 6th for his age group in Novice, JBP finished in under 8 hours - not sure on his cat position.

My time was 5:41 (or was it 5:44?) which put me in 53rd in expert/pro Vet - I just hope my cat had at least 54 people in it!! haha

I talked to Mogul Saturday but never saw him race day.
 
mogulskr

mogulskr

Monkey
Aug 28, 2002
642
1
NH
Doug pretty much summed up the course. The climbs never seemed to end. I some how tweeked my left knee around mile 12. Every crank was painful so it was slow going. I was actually thinking of quitting, but I found some advil at one of the aid stations and took 4 of them and was alright after that.

JPB passed me on a downhill somewhere and I yelled, but he was hauling. I never did catch him. My friend Bob rode with pigboy for a few miles. I think he finished just after him.

I finished just over 8 hours I think. Doug I tried to find you before the start, but at 6 it was pretty dark plus there was like 1100 people there.
 
johnbryanpeters

johnbryanpeters

Hero
Sep 27, 2001
36,069
16,494
Making moss sad in New Haven, Vermont
I think I took 7:50 or something like that - cold at the start, knees complained some, but not awful. The checkpoint at mile 30, about 11:00 AM for me, had scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, SCORE! I stopped at all nine checkpoints long enough to drink and eat something, ramen noodles at some point, didn't carry any food or water. The Heckler was a freight train - climbed well and rocketed downhill. At maybe 40 miles or so I switched off the SPV in front to get a little less brain rattle. The course was damp, wet roots were a hassle early on, a lot of people went down more or less violently. By mid-morning it was just right - good bite and no dust. But oh, god, the climbing - it never stops. The beer tent at the finish line was a good sight.

I collected $340- for Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, for which the race is a benefit.
 
johnbryanpeters

johnbryanpeters

Hero
Sep 27, 2001
36,069
16,494
Making moss sad in New Haven, Vermont
The registration was closed in >> 17 << minutes.

We have not told everyone about whorebaby motel...

Time Overall Place Class Place Name Bib Class Age
4:24:44.66 1 1/43 Letendre, Will 192 Expert/Senior II/Male 33
...

5:41:04.80 150 50/79 Southwick, Douglas 238 Expert/Veteran/Male 40 :clapping:
6:52:43.45 382 6/37 Pappas, Benjamin 893 Novice/Veteran/Male37
7:58:07.09 555 2/9 Peters, John 898 Novice/Master II/Male 62
...
Some have troubles with the registration process... :clapping:
0 0 DNS/0 Pappas, Ben 510 Sport/Veteran/Male 37
 
pigboy

pigboy

in a galaxy far, far away
Nov 19, 2003
713
167
freeriding the cracks of your cranium
6hrs 52 minutes for me. and yes I met Mogulskr's friend Bob out on the course (courtesy of him commenting on my ridemonkey shirt). Bob and I kept playing back and forth from around mile 15 and I did just manage to finish before him by a few minutes. Overall I was pleased as I improved from last year by abt 15-20 minutes and a few places in my class (novice 30ish-40ish year olds).

The course is very much about brutalizing your way up all the climbing. there some technical single track, but it's well below 40% of the course. Downhills are often on logging roads so that you have a chance to pass people if you're a no braking type of downhill rider, but woe betide you if you end up behind a slowpoke on the singletrack downhills later in the course. I actually ended up in this situation, but as I am always in exquisite pain from about mile 35 onward I took the opportunity to chill out for several miles and pray that I refreshed a bit before the brutal finish. mile 47-49.5 is the last of the climbing. Last year I bonked near the bottom of this leg. This year I was determined to come into the final push with some energy and somehow I did it. The last several hundred yards of climbing I was able to push pretty hard and in the last mile I managed to pass about eight people. So that felt pretty awesome compared to last year's race where I let at least 20-30 people pass me in the final three miles.

I stopped at four of the nine aid stations. As usual they were well stocked with food, engineered food (hammer gel, hammer heed, electrolyte pills) and water. The volunteers were awesome as usual. The Police were super cool on all the road crossings and the EMTs seemed to be on the ball for the participant who ate a tree or boulder fairly early in the race.

All in all well worth the effort and a race worth doing just for the unending and merciless pain.

I'm in an airport waiting for the next leg of the journey home. See you all around the virtual water cooler.
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
looks like Mark has some serious training before Vt50 '08 if he wants to beat Will next year :shocked:


Time Overall Place Class Place Name Bib Class Age
4:24:44.66 1 1/43 Letendre, Will 192 Expert/Senior II/Male 33
...
5:41:04.80 150 50/79 Southwick, Douglas 238 Expert/Veteran/Male 40
6:52:43.45 382 6/37 Pappas, Benjamin 893 Novice/Veteran/Male37
7:58:07.09 555 2/9 Peters, John 898 Novice/Master II/Male 62
...
11:39:59.31 686 13/13 Gallant, Mark 833 Novice/Senior II/Male 32
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
awesome...another female friend of mine won her class!

7:38:32.89 510 1/3 Liu, Jenny 866 Novice/Senior II/Female 32

ps:this was her 2nd race ever!
 
mogulskr

mogulskr

Monkey
Aug 28, 2002
642
1
NH
I was slowed my by knee, but I am happy I finished. One of the best parts is when you come down the final hill no matter if you are 1 or 595th a bunch of people are cheering you on.

Time OverallPlace ClassPlace Name Bib Class Age
6:54:39.17 388 7/37 Smith, Bob 911 Novice/Veteran/Male 41
8:18:22.28 596 24/37 Rust, Scott 906 Novice/Veteran/Male 37

Amazing thing about registration this year is I registered 3 people in those 17 minutes.
 
J

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
Cool! Sounds like an awesome event and you guys had a good time. Maybe I'll try and get it on it next year. Nice to hear that Lea did well- she was on my college cycling team and is a nice kid.
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
check who got 2nd in their cat! :clapping:

Novice/Master II/Male

Place Time Name
1/9 ...............
2/9 7:58:07.09 Peters, John
3/9 ................
 
johnbryanpeters

johnbryanpeters

Hero
Sep 27, 2001
36,069
16,494
Making moss sad in New Haven, Vermont
Yeahdat. I'm actually sorry that I started looking at results, it was easier not thinking about it.

Turns out I was 2/9 in Novice/Master II/Male. Had I been in Sport, I would have placed 13/17; I guess if I get in next year I sign up for Sport.

Wonder if I should have checked for swag or something.
 
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