Killington Stage Race 2013 -- Report from Ice Station Zebra

May 28, 2013 -- A long weekend in which a team of juniors drives 8 hours for Memorial Day weekend and encounters freezing rain and snow.  Too much to tell everything.  Here are some highlights of the journey

Thursday night: I'm driving me, Jake and Ben DiNapoli, but we can't fit into my CR-V.  So, we need to take a bike, trainers and wheels to Dan Klaussen's house to put in his van.  9:30 at night when Ben arrives it is pouring down rain when I take stuff to Dan.

The Weather: early in the week, the forecast was for 60s and sun.  Sweet.  By Wednesday they were calling for low 50s and rain.  Not pleasant but, ok.  By Thursday, bets were off and they were saying 40s and rain.  So, luckily I had thrown practically everything in a bag (plastic rain jacket, Jake's full winter shoe covers, etc)  Oh, if only it had been as warm as the 40s.

Friday: Me, Jake, and Ben are up at 5:30 and on the road at 6AM.  The CR-V is jammed

We make good time, but the temperatures were dropping as we head north, and it starts raining.  It looks like this when we get up to NY and then Vermont

Rutlidge VT on the other side of mountain from Killington (2pm)

Southern NY

Highlights from the drive up: we introduced Ben to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog .... and the Smiths.

There was still snow on the slopes when we arrived.  Me, Jake, Ben, Dan and Luke all stayed in a condo.  We went for a 45 minute ride Friday afternoon.  It was misty/drizzle and 40s, but ok.  By later in the evening, this is what the weather forecast looked like for the Cat 3 race Saturday.

So, Friday night, Dan & I went through all the clothes and outwear to put together a plan for each boy.  Dan & I luckily both brought our Castelli rain jersey.  Luke would wear Dan's rain jersey and multiple long underlayers.  His race was at 9am, when it was to be 40 and rain.  It would be 2 laps (37 miles).  Jake and Ben were both going with multiple long base layers, castelli rain jersey, rain jacket, and HPC jersey over the rain jackets; neoprene gloves with latex gloves inside; embro on legs under tights or leg warmers; winter shoe covers (I checked; local shops sold out of shoe covers).

Luke did well and got 3rd, with Andy Fleming 5th.  But by the second lap they were soaked and Luke's hands so frozen he couldn't shift!

Dan & I got Jake and Ben down to the start area and set up on trainers under cover.  It was Brutal. Freezing. This is what they looked like at staging:

Shane (in cognito) Jake, Ben

At sign in we were told they were shortening the stage to 3 laps down from 4 (it was supposed to be 71 miles).  Hypothermia among earlier racers was making the officials realize they couldn't have people out there that long.  Here they came through the feed zone on the first lap.

Everyone was there (although I couldn't ever see Shane because he was in his thermal jacket).  I drove backward on the course to see them again.  I caught them along the stream

I rushed and got back to the feed zone for lap 2.  Jake was well positioned and at ease.


But then we heard that the race was shortened to only 2 laps and that they were on their way to the finish.  So I started driving toward the finish.  But a few kilometers from the finish, there is an HPC rider pulled off holding up his hand -- crap, it was Jake.  SRAM neutral support gave him the junior rear wheel and he was able to finish.  He had hit a severe pot hole (the roads were horrible).  He said the guy in front of him yelled "shit" and Jake only had time to get the front wheel up over the hole.  His rear Ksyrium wheel looked like this:

This sucked because Jake says he was well positioned to contest the finish.  Luckily, the race officials gave him the same time on General Classification as the field since the mishap occurred close enough to the 3km to go.  We shoved Jake and Ben into the car, I helped Shane peel, literally, off his wet jacket, and we drove straight up the mountain to the condo to warm up.  I did time in the laundry room with clothes in the dryer, and we hung other stuff over the floorboard heaters.  We went to Luke's podium presentation, and by dinner time, it was windy and driving snow outside.

fuzzy iphone

G, Dan, Andy, Shane, Ben

Jake and Susan Scoggin

Everyone came to our condo for dinner (Shane & his mom were staying in another condo and Pierre, George Schultz, G, and Andy were in another).

iphone panorama mode

Saturday was the big climbing day, and it was early.  Cat 3 race started at 9am. It was going to be 33 and possibly still snowing.  Luckily, the snow was stopped, but the cold was not.  Jake was able to put the rain jacket in his pocket and not wear the winter shoe covers.  But of course it started to rain as they pulled out:

This isn't too bad

 

Me and Susan Scoggin made our way backward on the course to get to the feed zone, which was mid-course (it was a 63 mile loop with 1 small climb early, then a BIG climb mid-lap then finishing on the big climb up to the ski area near our condo).  It was cold and windy at the feed zone, but luckily no rain.  Some pretty country scenery:

Water falls were flowing

 

Risk of Moose at the feed zone

 

Ben and Shane were in the front group (which was definitely smaller), which lead me to curse a bit that Jake was missing.  Jake was with 4 guys 1-2 minutes back.

Video shows Ben and Shane come through.  I hit stop before the cursing luckily.

So I rushed back to the finish line, up at the ski area.  THERE WERE PEOPLE SKIING!  It was very cold and rain and sleet were coming and going.  Me and Susan Scoggin waited:

Susan Scoggin at the finish; she deserves more credit

 

skiing (although conditions must have been terrible)

Shane and Ben came through together about 5 minutes behind the winner.

Notice how "The Beast" sign is pointing at Shane

Jake was farther back.  He had a hard day.  The 4 guys he was with wouldn't work together to chase so he rode basically the final 25 miles solo to finish.
Luke did well, finishing 3rd to keep his place on GC.  Andy was just behind him, and 13 year old G was 9th.  Here's a photo of G going past the condo on the way to the final 2km of climb to the ski area.

At the condo, I made all the gear changes to set up his TT bike and cleaned out a cassette. Jake watched Remember the Titans.
We all pre-drove the Time Trial Course after dinner. I tried to get some photos of the lovely views but the iphone didn't deal well with evening light

 

Sunday, the sun came out and the temperatures rose to the 50s in time for Jake's time trial.  Unfortunately there was a serious head wind.  We had a little excitement as Dan called just before we were to leave.  The officials wanted the 2nd number (tech guide said just one number), so we drove fast to get Luke's second number just 2 minutes before he started.  He did well, finishing 5th in the TT and keeping his 3rd in the GC in the Category 4/5 race.  So kudos to him.

Jake got on the trainer to warm up.

oh so that's what the top looks like

Brewery by start

Jake ready for start

 

Jake on the road

Ben and Shane started 10 minutes later

Jake did ok.

Still needs to work on TT position and power.  Shane crushed it and was 7th.

Some very pretty views on the ride home.  I had to refer to the Friday morning photo to remember how I got everything in the car.

If it had been like this the whole time, it would have been entirely different

 

It took us closer to 8.5 hours to get home, with stop for lunch and dinner.  Traffic really wasn't bad other than in lower New York.  After that we flew.  A long weekend.  A tough weekend.  Luke and Andy and G did great in the Cat 4/5 race.  Dan was good company as soigneur dad, and really was critical for helping with Ben and Jake.  A team effort.

Poolesville Road Race 2013 -- Battle in the Gravel Trench

Saturday was the 2013 Poolesville Road Race.  Put on by NCVC, an annual classic punctuated by a 1 mile long gravel/dirt road section that is down in a low section near the river, with the real decider being the kicker hills that come right after.

Jake, Shane, and Ben would be in the Men's Cat 3 race, doing 65 miles, 6 laps.  It had been raining for days and there was a significant chance of thunderstorms Saturday afternoon.

Ben stayed with us Friday night and we headed out to Poolesville mid-morning.  We had heard that there was a small "ditch" cut across the gravel road by rain erosion (about 6-8 inches wide).  There were also a lot more small pot holes than in the past.  When we got there, the morning races were finishing and people were covered in dirt from the gravel road.

I talked in the parking lot with Jason Berry about looking for a breakaway with Jake.

Shane hadn't pre-registered, but luckily got into the Cat 3 race via the day-of waiting list.

The boys lined up with Shane and Ben up front and Jake sort of tucked toward the back.  I was worried about that.

So, like at Page County, I hopped on my bike to ride backward on the course, figuring Jake wouldn't need a bottle for the first two laps.  I saw them come by about 2/3 of the way through their first lap, in the rollers after the dirt road.  Jake, Shane, and Ben were all well positioned.  So I kept heading on down to the gravel road to get some video of them coming out of the trench.  When the 123 race came by, Justin was in an early breakaway (that would grow and become the winning breakaway).  There was a solo guy off the Cat 3 race, but really too early for that to stay away.

As you can see, Jake, Shane, and Ben were riding together, well positioned.  I heard that there was a bad crash in the gravel in the Cat 4 race, but I headed back toward the feed zone.  Jake came through the next time and took a bottle but had enough time to bitch at me "where the hell were you the last 2 times" (it turns out Mr. "I never lose a bottle" lost both bottles in the first two laps).  After that I stayed in the feed zone.  The next time through, the group was still together, but I didn't see Jake.  Larry Mauch said that he saw him, right behind Shane.  But no one saw Ben.  So that was after 4 laps.  After a while Ben came up the road.  He had crashed hard in the gravel.  According to Jason Berry, Ben hit a hole so hard it bounced him up in the air and he got sideways, so when he came down he shot sideways into the guy next to him and went down hard.  Sucks.  He was pretty cut up but not badly hurt, luckily.

Ben does not like gravel

So, we rinsed off his wounds a bit and sent him to the finish to get cleaned up by the medics.  Discussion in the feed zone -- poison ivy horror stories.

The next time they came by was the finish of 5 laps, so one lap to go.  Two riders were off the front, and I immediately recognized the riding style of Shane.

photo by Tom Simchak

Jake came by near the front.  I yelled for him to take a bottle but he was too focused.

photo by T Simchak

According to Jake and Jason, Shane's lead grew, and Jake spent the whole last lap patrolling the front.  If anyone tried to chase he would jump on their wheel to make them drag him along.  Jason told me he rode well, and that while he protected his teammate's breakaway, he did it in an appropriate way, that is to say, he wasn't slamming on his brakes and he would roll to the front easy without contributing to the chase just to disrupt the rhythm, but then pulling off and making sure that any attempt to go across the gap was going to take him with it.  I appreciated Jason's report.  Jake said it was really hard because even until the final turn 600 meters from the finish, he didn't know if they might catch Shane, so he was jumping to react to everything.

Well, Shane came across in first with his breakaway companion following, apparently unable to help, Shane had pulled pretty much the entire last lap.

It was great, and Shane deserved it.

winner winner (photo T. Simchak)

The field came in shortly after:

After working hard the last lap Jake still did ok, tucked in for 16th. A higher result would have been good, but I'm really proud of how he rode in support and the fact that he did it in a way that others respected.  There were 21 "did not finish" in this race.  It was hard and dangerous and Jake did well (even though he only had one bottle of water the whole time because his soigneur was out riding for the first 2 laps).

Here's a great photo that catches me getting video of Shane, with his dad across the street also getting video (photo by Tom Simchak I believe)

Susan and Pierre were also there to see it.  Shane got the gravel trophy and a pie that he threatened to eat in the car on the way home.

mmmm, Pie

It was a tough day.  Mike Russo, Chris Marrow and Chris Grengs all got caught in a crash just 800 meters from the finish of the Cat 4 race.  Andy Fleming I think avoided it but was 15th in the 4s.  But Bill Cusmano was 3rd in the 55+ and Justin was 5th in the 123 race.  So, highs and lows. 

Speaking of highs, Dustin Whitlow took this photo of Andy getting nice air over the cut in the gravel road

Jake drove home, which included driving in the rain and on the beltway.  My nerves are fine nonetheless.

Mothers Day was Sunday.  So, we gave Loren all afternoon with a quiet house.  That relaxation ended far too soon, no doubt.