Tour of the Battenkill 2013 -- AND Carl Dolan

This past weekend was the Tour of the Battenkill.  Dubbed "America's Queen of the Classics," it is a 65 mile race in upstate New York (Cambridge).  It features 5000 feet of climbing and 10 dirt/gravel sections.  This race has Jake's name written all over it.  Last year was his first year in the 15-16 boys race, and Jake rode really well, just missing the final select group.  You can re-live that here.

This year, gone were the sunny skies and 60 degree temperatures.  And gone were the unknowns.  Instead of "we'll see how you do" this year Jake came in wanting and expecting to do well.  But there is still a field full of the very top 15-16 year old boys from the east coast and even Canada.  At least 5 of the top 10 best cyclocross racers in the age group were there.

Because this is a blog devoted to the Soigneur Dad, you get the full story, not just a recap of the race (but that will come).

But wait, there's more.  Sunday was also Liam's first race back at home on his new team, NCVC.  He would do the Carl Dolan Memorial, and Loren would reprise her role as Soigneur Mom (skip to the bottom if you desire that report first).

We decided Thursday that we should leave Friday morning instead of Friday after school so that we could get there in time for Jake to pre-ride parts of the course.  They had changed the course a bit from last year, and Saturday there would be races going off every 10 minutes from 8am to 2:30pm.  Jake's race would be Sunday at 10:30.  In short, the weather was terrible.  It was pouring rain all the way up the east coast.

Rain in the Catskills

But we got to the hotel in Saratoga Springs around 2:30, checked in, then drove straight to Cambridge (45 minutes depending on how slow the people are driving the country roads).  It was significantly colder than when we left home.  We got Jake's number and were about to go out on the course when I saw Shane (Scoggin) mom pumping gas.  We chatted with her briefly and agreed to have dinner with them at 6.  I let Jake drive our way around the 65 mile course (must practice).  It was definitely different.  The dirt roads had much less gravel, but were very wet.

I took some video and photos:
Here is the covered bridge early in the race

did I mention rain and mud

This is the final, decisive climb up Stage Road -- note this

but then it keeps going

It's lovely country

the decisive climb onto Meetinghouse road

the top of Meetinghouse Rd

fields

views

bucolic

dirt climb

Panorama

We had dinner with Shane & his mom at Wheatfields Restaurant, which was very good.  Shane was doing the Cat 3 race on Saturday instead of the Jr. 17-18 on Sunday

Saturday
Saturday we went back to Cambridge and did a ride to open up Jake's legs.  It would have been very pretty, except it was 40 degrees and overcast.

really lovely if it were 30 degrees warmer and sunny

sheep for Loren

We saw Shane shortly after his finish.  He did well, finishing 13th out of 130, and I learned from Jordan Cross that Shane animated the race at key times.  We heard tales of carnage from crashes on the wet dirt roads in big fields.  Jake napped Saturday afternoon while I did a little work and watched a little bit of the Masters.  We ate dinner at Wheatfields again.

Sunday -- Race Day
The weather forecast for Sunday was temps in the mid-40s and overcast.  There was a chance of snow overnight (seriously!?)  I was really worried about what Jake would wear.  Ultimately, he wore 2 defeet sleeveless undershirts, and 2 short sleeved jerseys with arm warmers and full leg warmers.  Seriously, it was cold and windy.

We left Saratoga Springs at 8:15 and got to parking around 9.  Jake and Andy Fleming went out for a warm up ride (first I had Jake go to the officials to check his roll out), while Andy's dad, Jeff, and I put wheels in the wheel car and generally organized.  Jake seemed to be in a good place in his head, and was fooling around with track stands while they staged the race before his.

Jake & Andy

That's Sam Lear in the background

I can do track standz?

Then it was time for staging and the start

Game Faces

 

 and they're off, and there is trash talk within 50 yards of the start

 So, Jeff and I made our way to the first feed zone at mile 25. It was at a dairy farm/creamery, so the smell of the feed zone was...poo -- and it was cold & windy.

We waited a bit and they came through, I got Jake a bottle, but no sign of Andy

Well, poor Andy had broken his chain and arrived via the sag wagon.  He was not happy, poor kid.

boo boo face

I had identified locations along the course where we could stop and see them come by as we made our way (perhaps at high speed) to the second feed zone.  So, first we stopped at mile 33 near Greenwich.  As we sat there it started to sleet!  Jake came through in the group. Carney Cassidy Rd was right after this, a nasty climb

 So then we raced to the next "intercept" point at mile 37-ish at Cambridge Battenkill Rd.  Again Jake was right up there

So now we really raced to make sure we got to the second feed zone before them.  We did (although we didn't wait long).  A kid was getting off the front.  I got Jake a bottle (and yelled at the idiot parents that think they should step into the middle of the road).  This was 20 miles from the finish, and it was about to get real

Instead of taking the official route back to town for the finish, I figured out a cut through that would let us intercept them at mile 54-ish, which would be after the second-to-last, decisive dirt climb of Meetinghouse Rd. where historically the selections are made.  I was nervous about whether Jake would be in the selection.  That damn kid who was just seconds off the front was now 3 minutes off the front. Oh, wait, what's that you say....he's the Canadian National Time Trial Champion. Oh, great.  Jake said they didn't even realize he was off the front until it was too late.  They would see lots of people up ahead who were coming backwards from previous fields and couldn't tell who was who.

I gave out a "whoop" that Jake was there in the lead chase. 7 guys, and then not much behind.  We drove like hell for town.  After that video was the final climb of Stage Road.  Steep and dirt.  Jake said that a kid attacked, but was quickly reeled in, but Jake could tell that a bunch of them were hurting so he kept driving the pace along with another boy from the Sommerset team (I think).  That dropped at least 1 boy.  But then there is a 4 mile run in to town.  Jake says they started playing the tactics, with people throwing down hard attacks only to be reeled in.  I stood there at the finish as the winner came through.  But then 2 minutes later Cooper Wolsey came through alone in 2nd.  Jake said they had no idea he was gone (how that happens I don't know because I'm pretty sure that's him 3 seconds ahead in the last video).
Jake says he came into the final corner 3rd in the group of 5, following Tom Dudzik of Garmin (who Shane had told us was strong).  Here's the video of the finish (note that my yelling is getting less extreme)

Photo of Jake's group after sprint from the Daily Gazette

 Well, not his best sprint, so 7th overall and more importantly he was right there in the elite group, animating in the final miles.  He said that he thinks he could have gotten away from them if he had really "attacked" on the Stage Rd climb, but the plan was to be more conservative.  Maybe next time he goes for the attack; maybe he was better on the climbs than they were (he was certainly the skinniest and least muscled of that group of 5).  Oh well, he rode really well and is in a great place to get much stronger going into the next few months.

Results (and he won $40)

It was a long ride home, but spirits were decent and traffic was light.  I'm proud of how he raced and how he handled pre-race.

EXTRA BONUS COVERAGE -- LIAM RACES AT CARL DOLAN MEM.

What? could there possibly be more?  On Saturday was Liam's opening day of little league on his new "Majors" team.  They crushed the other team.  On Sunday, Liam would do his first road race of the year at Carl Dolan Memorial.  Liam has joined the NCVC juniors squad this year.  They have a VERY big group of 10-14 kids and a very motivated and great team mom, Marge MacKeith, so that works well for Liam, who likes the social aspect as much as the racing. He has been going to practice in Arlington and was ready to race.  I once again sent Loren a detailed list of instructions, and she got to experience the joys of an 8am junior start, which meant leaving the house at like 6:15.

This is all 2nd hand, but I know that there was a BIG field.  More than 35 kids 10-14 signed up, and they would start at the same time as another 25 kids in the 15-18 group.

At the start

The start (by Loren's iphone)

Post race cupcake

the choice of all your serious racers

Liam came in 17th, which isn't bad out of that big group.  I really can't get a take on how it happened, but I gather he was riding alone, not in a group, so we'll work on that a little.  G Schultz won the 10-14 race by 2 minutes.  There's a boy that will love Battenkill next year.

Jeff Cup 2013 -- Absentee Dad Report

Jake's racing season started 2 weeks ago at Black Hills Circuit Race, but that ended mid race when his chain broke, causing much cursing.  So, no report from there, but here are two videos from the first few laps

Yesterday, April 7, 2013, Jeff Cup.
The first really big race of the year.  Everyone gets all worked up for this race.

Jake would be in the Men's Cat 3/4 race (he's a 3).  BUT, the management at my firm scheduled a firm retreat in Arizona for that weekend.  So....someone else would have to step in to play the role of SoigneurDad.  Jake's race was not until 2:30.  George Schultz and Dan Klaussen both offered to take Jake down, but G and Luke were doing the 15-18 race at 12:30.  I didn't want Jake to go down there hours before his race.  So, Loren was tagged.  It would be "SoigneurMom."

I gave Loren & Jake detailed directions, in multiple emails: Lists of what to bring (lunch, bottles, clothes, etc), directions to the course (this was probably Loren's biggest concern).  Then I flew off to Arizona, to "retreat"

Ok, so I went for a bike ride on Friday and Saturday while other people had spa treatments or played golf.  So shoot me.

Sunday was nervous for me.  I was able to talk to Loren and Jake very briefly as I was on the way to the airport and they were getting out the door.  Otherwise, I would be on a plane until 4pm Eastern Time.  On the plane, I got wifi for an hour and saw a few pre-race posts by Loren, so I knew they got there on time.  Otherwise, I didn't hear anything again until 6:30.  AT&T's wireless signal is non-existent at the feed zone (as I now remember from last year), so I couldn't reach Loren or Liam.  I did talk to Doug Graham (Verizon subscriber) when the plane landed.  Otherwise, I sat at home worried about crashes.

Loren passed the "pin on numbers" test

Loren & Liam in the feedzone

Jake well positioned at staging next to Jake Sittler

So, the race itself....Here is what I can piece together from Jake.

First, this is the email I sent Jake in the morning:

"This isn't rocket science. Watch Dave miller and jake sittler. They have won the first two races in breakaways. Go with them. Mark them like you did jimmy Pickard."  That last comment was a reference to Jake's breakthrough second place last year when he followed former Div. 1 college runner Jimmy Pickard's breakaway move [reported at this Link].  

Jake was well positioned in the front of the group for the first few laps (according to Doug Graham).  

If you look closely Jake's 2 guys back in the middle (photo by Doug Graham)

Coming into the end of the 4th lap (out of 6 -- 62 miles total), when the group made the right hand turn to head for the start/finish, Jake Sittler went, and Jake Thompson went with him.  this is a profile of the elevation from the right hand turn (so at mile 0).

According to Jake, Sittler proceeded to ride 3 other guys off his wheel, probably in the course of a mile to the finish line.  According to Loren, when they came through the feed zone they had a 30 second gap on the field.  The feedzone was probably about mile 1.5 on this elevation chart.  Jake was holding on for dear life.  Sittler asked him to pull through once and Jake had to decline and ask for time to recover.  But then Jake did pull through.  But, after the long climb past the start/finish (basically it's a slowly increasing climb for probably 3 miles), Jake popped.  He had gone too deep to stay with Sittler and he blew up.  He lost contact with Sittler, and I gather was fairly quickly overtaken by the group.  He got back in the group.  Now, this I'm confused on, but apparently they were pretty much immediately neutralized (ie forced to pull over) so that the 1/2/3 group could pass.  According to Jake they then pretty much immediately sprinted up the main "hill" on the course, which was too much for Jake immediately after going so deep with Sittler. So, he and Andy Fleming finished out the lap, and were pulled off the course by the officials at the finish (not being allowed to finish the final lap).  I gather that Shane and Ben Dinapoli (new teammate this year) finished in the group, but Jake didn't know where.

It was the right move.  Jake Sittler solo'd away to win by who knows how many minutes (he's a Cat 1 for cyclocross, but god forbid that the USAC officials upgrade his road category until after he adequately rides away from enough Cat 3/4 races).  Jake was disappointed, but he certainly read the race right.  He just isn't in a place in his training cycle to go that hard and recover.  But the effort was good training and will hopefully help him for Battenkill next weekend. Oh, that's right, big road trip this weekend.

Cyclocross Worlds 2013 -- Worlds in America

I'll try to keep this short (and will fail) although my head is still swimming from the weekend.  My anticipation over this event had been growing all week.

The Plan:

I would pick the boys up out of school around 12 and go to BWI for a 3pm flight on Friday.  We would see the rider presentation Friday night, then the Juniors race and Women's race on Saturday, then the U23 and Elite Men on Sunday.  When I printed our tickets out Thursday night I noticed that they didn't mention both days even though I paid for both.  So, Friday morning at 9:10, I called the ticket people to make sure it was ok, and ..... I was told that the Sunday races were cancelled and everything was moved to Saturday because the Ohio River was going to flood the venue on Sunday. Wow! Well, I was glad we were going on Friday.  Loren & I got the boys from school and we were running a little late, and I may have exceeded the speed limit ever so slightly to get to BWI, but all was fine.  Lots of people on our flight who were also going to Louisville for Worlds (the airport was also overrun with Ravens fans going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl).

Friday Night:
Flight was fine. We got there and Louisville was welcoming the event.

CX Hairs "Gettin Lucky in Kentucky" shirts

We had a minor hickup when we went to the wrong Marriott (the nicer one), but no worries.  We had dinner with Justin Mauch and his dad, Larry, at Gordon Biersch.  That was nice, and we ran into and chatted briefly with Adam Myerson at the restaurant. Then we went over the official race hotel, the Galt House, (first regret is not booking us in there; I remember it getting not great reviews but it seemed pretty nice) for a reception put on by Focus Bikes that Chris Mayhew told me about.  It was winding down a little but I met Greg Keller of mudandcowbells.com and we got some free t-shirts that were nicer than anything official.  We didn't see any racers because they were all in bed by then.

Parking seemed mysterious, so while at Galt House we saw a thing for a shuttle and I went ahead and paid for the shuttle passes for us.  We would just walk the 2 blocks over to the Galt House in the morning then ride to the venue.

Saturday -- The BIG Day
Ok, so, did I mention is was cold as hell Friday night.  Indeed, and they were calling for snow flurries all day Saturday.  We woke at 7am to this:

An inch of fresh snow.  Awesome!
Well, the boys & I put on multiple layers of clothes and our heaviest boots.  I went with my LL Bean boots (that I got in 1984) because we knew it would be wet.  But they have no insulation so I brought chemical toe warmers in case (also extra socks).  Unfortunately, the old boots have terrible traction, which would be a problem.

We wandered over the Galt House and waited for the first shuttle with a group of Belgian fans.  It was very cold.

I was really glad we opted for the shuttle so that I wouldn't be trying to figure this out in the snow.  We got there, no lines, straight into the venue

Liam at gate

Juniors warming up

The venue was a snow-covered wonderland.  It was beautiful (but cold).

We had time, and we wanted to go meet Edwin from Van Dessell to say hello in person and thank him again for his support of Jake's racing.  So we wandered over to the expo area for a while.  We found him.

Then we scored more swag.  Hats from Shimano (that blue one that Liam is wearing in the rest of the photos) plus hats from Trek, and thanks to Mark Monnett the local SRAM rep that I met at Taneytown, we got a Tim Johnson and a Zach McDonald "big head" (Zach is even on a stick).  Liam now treasures Big Head Tim.

Junior Race
We headed up to the start area for the junior race.  American Logan Owen was a real contender for top 3, and really was the 2nd best hands down.  We waited at the end of the pavement with Andy Guptil, Curtis Windsor, Chris Keeling, and Philip Rob for the start of the festivities.

Here's video of the start:

Owen had had an issue and was already way back.  Jake went running off so Liam and I wandered around to watch the race.

This is a happy boy

Lots of people in Winchester Apple Cross hats from the DC area were there.  It was incredible.  Logan Owen worked his way forward and caught the 2 belgian boys who were in 3rd and 4th.  Lars Van der Poel (spelling?) was long gone and another Dutch boy was in 2nd. Here's video of Logan about to make the catch:

He ultimately finished 4th after a bobble cost him 3rd.

Women's Race
Very quickly up next was the women's race.  We had found Jake, and Liam and I had discovered a place along the sand where you could see a bunch of different parts of the course, so we hung out there (second regret is maybe not wandering around the course more, but we were afraid of losing our spot, from which we had several good sight lines).  Just like in the junior race, Katie Compton had some sort of horrific start and was way back.  Ugh.  She did come back to get 2nd.  We were yelling ourselves horse.  Marriana Vos rode away with it.  The Dutch were 2 for 2.

We went to grab some food after the women's race.  The food tent was really inadequate for the crowd (we do better at Super8 races). We waited a long time to get a burger and coke

In line behind us at the food tent

The Crowd was growing

Crowd on the hill behind us

U23 Race
We went back to our spot by the sand for the men's Under 23 race.  It was a good race between a Belgian and Dutch rider.  The Dutch guy caught the Belgian with about 2 laps to go and carried it home.  The Dutch were 3 for 3.  The snow was giving way to mud. We cheered for Zach McDonald and I waived my Zach-on-a-stick at him.

I just found this photo from Greg Keller, thanks (www.mudandcowbells.com) that he took right across from us as Zach went by; we're right there, crammed against the fence (Jake has on the orange/yellow scarf I have the white sleeves and Liam is between us)

It was incredible to be so close.  We could really see a lot of this guys were suffering badly.

Elite Men
We had an hour before the Elite Men's race, but didn't want to lose our spot as the crowds were really getting bigger. (probably should have wondered around, oh well).

waiting for the next race

 

Liam held Big Head Tim the whole time

Here are some videos of the men's race.  They're a little darker than I had hoped.  The sun had gone behind the clouds and it started snowing during the race, which was just incredible. First lap:

This was the crowd around the sand and then Sven comes through with 2 to go

I was pulling for Lars Van der Haar.  He got 3rd and was literally foaming at the mouth at one point.

This was the last lap. Sven Nys had taken the lead.  Do you think Liam was into it!

We couldn't possibly get to the finish, so we watched on the jumbo screen across the field, which was another advantage of our location (if they had 1 more of those, maybe 2 it would have been perfect).

We watched the podium, my boots slipped and I fell on my butt in the mud, the crowd boo'd Pat McQuaid, and it was all over.

Saturday Night
Saturday night we heard there was a SRAM party at 4th Street Live (a kind of open mall area with restaurants and bars).  We didn't find it but we ran into Andy Guptil et al, and we were able to score a table for 12 at Gordon Biersch (again, that's fine).  It was nice.  During dinner we saw Jonathan Page with his family; he walked by our table and I congratulated him.  Then someone tweeted that Lars Van der Haar was at Smash Burger across the street, so after dinner we walked over but he was gone.  Then as we walked back to the car, Jake says "that was Sven Nys."  I yelled to him, but he was on the phone & the other belgians looked like they were going to kill me.  But we followed him into Gordon Biersch and said hello and I got a photo of him and the boys

Jake said he had a minor heart attack when he first saw him.

Sunday
What the heck to do on Sunday.  "Stalk Euro Racers" was the boys' desired pursuit, but we hung out in the hotel in the morning.  Then we went to the Frasier History Museum (yes we were desperate) to kill some time, then we wandered over to the Louisville Slugger Museum.

Supposedly Ryan Trebon was somewhere inside but we didn't want to just wait for him.  And of course, shortly after we left Tim Johnson tweeted that he was there -- damn.

We made our way to the airport.  Getting Big Head Tim and Zach-on-a-stick through security was a concern, but they made it (and we were those people with way too many shoes but because Liam was 12 they sent us through the metal detector rather than the scanner to move us along).
Photo by JD Biladeau of us with the heads

Liam held Big Head Tim on the plane.

And then we were done.  We got home a little after 10.  Tired.

What an emotional whirlwind of a weekend.  I know the boys had a great time.  We could have done a few things better (hotel), but all-in-all it was great (but cold).

So, as a final -- small world -- note, early Saturday I saw Meg Biladeau, who was from the Mid Atlantic but moved to New England 6-7 years ago.  She was an early Cross Blogger and supporter/racer/etc.  She remembered us, and she even remembered a picture of her and Jake at Granogue in 2006 (when Jake was 9).  So, funny thing is she and her husband JD were on the plane home with us, sat behind us, and so we did a picture of her and Jake to re-create that photo from 2006.  Here are the 2 photos.

2006 Granogue

2013 CX Worlds