Battenkill 2012 (and opening day Little League)

Tour of the Battenkill. First "Big" race for Jake for the year (national level competition; long, hard). Billed as the "Queen of the American Classics." The 15-16 race would be 62 miles with 10 sections of dirt/gravel and 3600 feet of climbing. Course map This was months in the planning. A long drive to upstate NY, long training rides on gravel. Worries about what tires to use. All of this was thrown into disarray and placed under a shroud when my dad's health seriously declined and on last Sunday, April 8, he passed while Jake and I were there with him. This hit Jake hard and he didn't sleep well at the beginning of the week. We would have the funeral the following Sunday. Dad would have wanted Jake to race, so we would simply leave to drive home immediately after the race.

Friday the 13th proved lucky for me and Jake. We left at 6:15am for our trip to the Tour of the Battenkill in Cambridge NY. We had no traffic and made it to the hotel in Saratoga Springs in just 6 hours 15 minutes. Lots of nice views in the Catskills. We got there in time to run to Cambridge, register and get Jake's race number, and meet the other HPC riders, parents, and Sue & Pierre for a pre-drive and pre-ride of the course. We had heard that the dirt roads were mainly smooth, and the first half of the race that was true. There were lots of climbs, many deceptively hard. Then we got to "Cheese Factory Road" at mile 37 (refer to map). Re-named "Cheese Grater Road" it had deep gravel and was exposed to the side winds creating massive dust.
This would be a decisive point we thought. The gravel on the penultimate climb was even gnarlier in some respects with big rocks.

and downhill rocks The boys got out and pre-rode the last 20 miles.
I saw Jason Berry and Ky Hunter out preriding (and Paul Curly) Here's Jason. He won his race, congrats to him.
After the ride Jake said we should definitely put the 700x25 tire on the back to handle the rocks. This would put him very close on roll out, so in the morning we would need to get there early to check it and change back to the smaller tire if necessary. We had dinner with everyone which was very nice. I got to talk to the other parents and then Sue and Pierre held a pre-race strategy meeting.

Since this blog is dedicated to the race parent, I should mention the special effort of the other team parents, like Larry and Pam Mauch, Allen Miller, Suzanne Scoggin, Jeff Fleming, Jacob Slife's mom, and the Panogiatopoulos (not sure how to make that plural). These folks put out a great effort to get the boys to the race and to pull together to make it so that the boys can race with everything they need. It's great to get to work with them. Also of course Sue and Pierre who teach the boys how to be better racers and to try and do things the right way.

We got to the course 2 hours in advance. I rode Jake's bike all the way to finish to check the roll out (my main concern) and it just passed with the 25 tires. Lots of nervous energy for me at this point, worrying about spare wheels (turns out there was SRAM neutral support w/ Junior gears). Jake, Shane Scoggin, Andy Fleming, and Jacob Slife were the 15-16 team and they did some warm up riding. Shane was the obvious team leader, having won the Cat 3 race at Blackhills in a breakaway, but Sue and Pierre believed that all the boys could do well. Here are some photos from pre-race.




They were off and I began my day of driving and running. I ran back to the car and drove like a madman to get to the first feed zone. They came through all together. Jake got a bottle from Pierre so didn't take mine, which caused some confusion.
On the way to feed zone 2 I stopped at a point where the course crossed. It was about mile 36 (see map). I didn't have to wait long and the 15-16 group came through. Jake was there. He'd made the selection of the final 20 along with Shane. I got some video


I was psyched. I followed their group as they headed for Cheese Grater Road and saw them turn onto it. And I knew that there they would unleash the dogs of war. I drove to feed zone 2 and waited. When the lead moto appeared there was a small group of 8. Shane was right in it. Then Jake and another boy appeared about 7 seconds behind, looking good. Jake took my bottle.

Bill Browne (himself an elite Soigneur Dad) got this photo of me giving the feed (thanks Bill)

This was incredible. 47 miles into this race and Jake was just behind the lead elite group of 8. Those were the 16 year olds who would win this race and he was just barely off them. Jake says that Shane had hammered the gravel section just before the feed and that's what gaped him off.

This is what Jake said happened. He went for the glory (my words) by digging hard to try and chase back onto that lead group of 8. It was carnage behind him. Andy and Jacob were 2 minutes or more behind with a bunch of others. Jake could have ridden conservatively and joined with other stragglers to go for the best result, but he went all-in to re-connect with the lead group. I'm proud of him for making that choice and going for it. He didn't connect but he rode with some other boys that caught him, but This sapped him and when he got to the last climb he cracked a bit. So he lost some positions on the final climb.

We got back to town just in time to see the 15-16 leaders turn onto the final 350 straight. I thought I saw Shane, but then he came in just 30 seconds behind them, finishing a strong 7th. He had driven the race at key points. Then we started counting. Jake came in a few minutes later with Parker Brookfield of the Miller School team and Jake outsprinted him.


I thought he was top 15, but he was 16th. Still an incredible performance. He was covered in salt and dust. I told him his grandfather would be super proud of his performance and effort.Justin Mauch had scored 4th in the 17-18 which was awesome. We made the drive home starting at about 4:30. Got home at 11:15-ish.

On the drive, Loren gave us updates from Liam's opening little league game that we had to miss. Liam had a lead off triple, a double, a single, and performed super in the field. He was given the MVP for the game. I'm not surprised. He has been playing really well in practice. Another performance that would have made Grandpa Tommy very proud.