KSR 2018 Blog

[djming]

Registration is closed and the Tech Guide is finalized so time for another Killington Stage Race.
Saturday (circuit race), Sunday (100K road race with finish at Killington Base Lodge) and Monday (11 mile ITT).

Looks like it could be warm for Saturday (but hopefully not 2016 temps!)
The lineup for Saturday's 18 mile/lap circuit race (with once again the revised finish back to the Skyeship and not the downhill death sprint):

Open 4/5; 8:30 start for 2 laps - Cal Goodhouse, Derin Iscan, Mike Westberry, Tucker Wetmore (Tucker firmly positioning for sandbagger of year
4/5 "Masters" (age 35+); 8:40 start for 2 laps - AJ Camelio, Todd Jewett
Cat 3; 11:25 start for 4 laps - Rees Madsen, Robbie Raymond
Masters 40+; 11:35 start for 3 laps - Dave Mingori (plus a bunch of 545 guys)

Daily updates posted here.

[peterkuhn]

So vicariously stoked, wish I could be there!

[Deltabrian]

Good luck boys!

[jraguin]

Good luck guys! I look forward to reading the stories!

[JeremyC]

I miss this race....NOT.

Good luck. I'll be in the area so you may catch a glimpse of me...

[djming]

Interesting forecast for this version.
Near 80 for Saturday but with T-storms and rain coming in the afternoon. 1:00 on chance of storms and rain.
Sunday starts with showers but (should) be dry by start time. Pretty much 50 for a high.
At least Monday (right now) shows a tailwind...
Time to start getting stuff ready!

[jraguin]

Remember: ice baths. Rich and I did them two years ago. I don't know if they work, but it sure is funny hearing the screams of Rich going into the bathtub full of ice!!!

[djming]

Day 1 was overall pretty darn good for MRC, but a couple of us didn't fare so well.
Spoiler results:
Cal Goodhouse takes 2nd in the 4/5 open
AJ Camelio 9th in the 4/5 35+
In the 3's Rees and Robbie both get away from the main field with Rees taking the W off a 2 man break with almost 2 minutes on the main field. Robbie solos for 3rd still 40 seconds up on the main field (plus time bonus)

Now the rough stuff -
Mike W got taken down on the final turn for the approach to the finish. Road rash and a pretty bad bruise on right leg. Broke a hanger which Look/NRS able to fix. Game time decision for day 2. He was given same time as pack.

Todd J got clipped in the final 500 and while he stayed upright the other guys pedal ripped off Todd's derailleur. He ran across the line with bike over his shoulder and RD in one hand. Hope he can get that fixed. He did get same time as the pack.

Me - A whopping 22 guys in the 40+ field. 82 degrees at the start and onto the 2nd climb my suit was already white with salt. In the span of maybe 5K went from feeling good and right there with Miles B and Colm M contesting the 2nd KOM (where I still manged to come across 6th or 7th) to cramping in both quads, then calves, then getting dropped when the pace ramped up on Rt.100 to chase the break (that I was positioned to be in..) Sat up for Dan Goldman who was equally suffering. Took turns with him till the final 2K of the 3rd climb when he rode away from me. Solo in from there. Initially I thought I was DFL, but turns out Jeff Gordon from CCB pulled into a convenience store and I passed him while he was getting water.
89 at the finish. Thankfully Alice was at the finish with Cokes and some food, although I still almost blacked out and couldn't eat for quite awhile after. But I made the time cutoff (good, I think?...)

Now let's hear the blow by blow from others...

[rraymond]

Race was pretty weird. 1 or 2 riders would roll off the front and get a gap. Then it would be a swarm of bridging attempts which would end as soon as people realized they were pulling the field.

A break of 6 or so went pretty early and stayed away for 3 laps. We almost caught them the third time up the KOM but then the field sat up. Caught them soon after.

AJ Camelio, Tucker, and Lane were my saviors at the feed zone giving me a water bottle. First time using a feed zone.

Towards the start of the 4th lap Rees goes and 2 riders bridge to him. Very little effort to chase. 1 of those riders gets dropped on the climb. After the KOM I got to the front to block and cover any attacks. I was pushing 100-200 watts on the front and nobody wanted to come around and pull. One guy says to me "we know you're blocking but we don't care at this point".

A few attacks go and I followed then attacked and went solo with maybe 5 miles to go.

Rees is in the GC lead and ended up winning the sprint jersey too which he has a really good chance of keeping tomorrow.

I didn't cramp thankfully since that was the longest race I've ever done. Looking forward to some cooler weather tomorrow.

[JeremyC]

I've seen snow and also 90 degrees at KSR anything can happen. It was pretty comfortable on the golf course. Great results but I also feel for the other guys, hang in there. Hoping to catch some E MTN road action tomorrow.

[djming]

Day 2 - what a difference a day makes! 30 degrees colder than yesterday for the start. Breezy.
I was really unsure how my legs would feel after yesterday's debacle so I totally sat in thru the first sprint and actually grabbed 5th in the sprint. Maybe today might be okay afterall! Maybe 1 mile before the turn for the start of North Rd Juan from 545 goes off the front. I wait to see if anybody chases it down but no. I wait a bit longer then with ~1/2 mile before the climb start I go after him to hold 2nd wheel hitting the climb. A group of 10 or so forms, with 3 that fall off. 7 of us thru the KOM and at the feed zone were given a 1:15 time gap. Continued to work together (except for the few times the moto had us go single file to let traffic by..) until the Skyship. Hit the turn for the climb and Miles quickly goes off with a Scott guy from Canada. I pace behind a 3 man group including Colm from 545. I'm clawing my way back to them and begin thinking about the battle for 3rd but on the final pitch my right hammy starts cramping. Ease off and manage that but the gap grows too much so solo the final 5K and hold my own pace to easily secure 6th.

Other quick results that I saw:
Tucker 2nd in the 4/5 open with Derin also top 10 (Alice thought 6th or 7th). Mike gets the hard man award for overcoming his crash injuries and holding for a solid placing.

Robbie a clear 2nd in the 3's.

More to come later as detailed results posted.

[djming]

More detailed results and turns out I ended up 1st 50+ on the day.

Tentative current GC standings after day 2:
Men's 4/5 Open:
Tucker - 4th, Derin - 13th, Cal - 20th, Mike - 44th

Men's 4/5 masters:
AJ - 10th, Todd - 27th

Cat 3's:
Robbie - 2nd, Rees - 9th

Masters 40+:
Dave - 13th (not bad considering I gave up 10 minutes on day 1)

[rraymond]

A few miles in a couple of attacks start probably from people who don't realize there's no KOM points for the first climb. Attacks continue on the downhill. I move up towards the front to watch the attacks. The field is chasing everything but people are reacting slower. One rider attacks again and I bridge up to him with a few other riders. We have a gap and start working together really well taking short hard pulls. Pretty quickly the field is out of sight.

We drop one rider on North road climb leaving 8 in the break. The KOM jersey is with us and nobody contests the points. On the downhill after the police car and lead car take a wrong turn and I follow while everyone keeps going the right way. I fishtail and skid as I try not to rear end the cars that just slammed on the breaks. Then I chase back to the break who are nicely going easy so I can rejoin.

Fast forward through a lot of pain to the start area for the TT and we have built our gap to 5.5minutes and are still working together mostly.

We hit the final climb and the KOM leader takes off and is out of sight very quickly. The 2 KMS juniors drop off along with CB Andrew Muir.

Brian Alba, Carlo Quiche, a CS Velo rider and I are all in the same area on the steep climb. Over the top CS velo drops off. Soon after Carlo drops then Brian and I are together. He drops then I go as hard as I can because Brian is a beastly TTer and a huge threat to the GC standings.

I finished 2nd nearly 2 min down from the winter but 1 min ahead of 3rd place.

My whole body hurts now.

[jraguin]

Awesome job guys. I have to admit, I was geeking out comparing some of the your times vs. my time of my one time doing it. Robbie, you and those guys really threw down in the early part before North Road. That is amazing to see. And Tucker!! Holy crap, you went up that E Mountain Road climb fast! It shows how dynamics of the race radically affect the times!

[Jacob]

Congrats guys, great results.

[djming]

TT for me today was an exercise in futility. Time was decent, but I had no power to give. Yesterday's bounceback (which was pretty darn good) was all I was going to get after Saturday. Mid field finish for the day and GC.

But, of course there were more MRC podiums:

Tucker takes 2nd on the day and solidified 2nd overall GC in the 4/5 open (welcome to cat 3!)

Robbie 4th on the day and 2nd overall GC for the 3's (welcome to cat 2!!)

[twetmore]

I'm a bit late to the party but here's my recap:
Day 1 was the most terrifying race I've ever done. Roughly 4 miles into the race while the peloton is meandering along some buffoon careened into me (so hard that the hoods on my bars bent I might add) and sent me flying over the yellow line. According to a B2C2 rider who witnessed it my rear wheel was so far off the ground that I was at about a 45 degree angle. I somehow straightened my front wheel and saved it, but holy shenanigans was that scary! If there had been oncoming traffic I'd be dead. Our second lap was much faster than the first, but it was all together going into the final stretch. As written above Cal made an awesome move with about 700m to go and held on for 2nd. I was going to join in on the sprinting fun but the rider in front of me sat up with about 150m to go and I had to slam the brakes. Womp womp.

From a near-death-experience perspective the road race was far more mild. Racing however was spicy at times. North road was fast but manageable, and I worked with Derin to keep him up at the front so he wouldn't get dropped on the ensuing descent with junior gears. 1.5 miles after hitting route 4 the peloton neutralized itself for no reason other than laziness and we proceeded to meander along at the slowest pace I've ever witnessed in a race. Just as people were starting to get antsy about who's going to do the tough work of pulling at 150 watts Mike Westberry rolled up to the front and set a perfect tempo that everybody was happy with. For 6 miles he kept me, Cal, and Derin in pole position heading into the climb. Attacks happened, and the eventual race winner dropped everybody like a bad habit, leaving about 6 of us to battle it out. I found some watts on the final pitch to take 2nd.

Other items of note:

• A bald eagle led our field for about a mile on 12. U-S-A was chanted.

• Mike Westberry earns a billion hardo points by not only starting the road race after a day 1 crash but also catching back on after getting dropped day 2 and pulling some epic domestique duties into the final climb. MRC had wheels 1, 2, 3, & 4 for 6 miles heading to the climb!

[jraguin]

Nice job Tucker. I noticed that guy who beat you was the guy who basically soloed (with 1 guy sticking to his wheel) at Ken Harrod. I also noticed he finished 3rd at the Kanc hill climb, only ~30 seconds behind John Jantz (now a Cat 2 almost Cat 1 who blitzed through the ranks the last couple of years).

[cbusick]

Great results guys, way to represent the club!

[J.Brodie]

Nice work and impressive racing indeed!

[pace21]

Robbie 4th on the day and 2nd overall GC for the 3's (welcome to cat 2!!)

Tom is cheering

[peterkuhn]

Yeahhhh buddy, way to go dudes!!

[rraymond]

Stage 3:

Coach Tucker deserves my undying gratitude. He helped me with my positioning and lent me his TT bike & helmet. I thanked him by flatting it on the ride back to the car.

But seriously, he rushed back to the start right after his race ended so I could use his bike (named sex panther) and got me fitted on it. That left me 10 minutes to practice riding a TT bike for the first time before my start. I knew I was too tired from the previous day's break to put out the power I wanted so I focused on being as aero as possible. By the time the course flattened out both my legs had started to fall asleep. But at least now they didn't hurt. Anyways I ended up 4 seconds off the podium but held onto my 2nd place in the GC!

Side note, I believe the tailwind picked up for the later waves so the 4/5 field was gypped out of faster times. There were some fast dudes in that field and their TT times don't reflect the effort relative to the 3 and 1/2 fields.