Rapha Gentleman's Race

[RPerson]

Quite possibly the best "race" that you never knew was happening. The Rapha Gentleman's Race is an invitation only event (which is why most people never heard of it) that is put on in various locales. I was "fortunate" enough to be invited to ride with 5 employees from Seven this year. It's part TTT, part rando, part adventure race, and part pure stupidity. The TTT part comes from the fact that you must start and finish with 6 riders and you are timed on the 6th. The stupidity part comes from the fact that the course is very much like D2R2, but possibly harder. It was advertised as 116 miles and pre-race checks on various map programs said 8,000 feet of climbing. Depending on who's Garmin you trust, the final count was more like 118 miles and between 10,000 and 12,000 feet of climbing.

Despite this not being an open event, the parking lot was pretty much old home week... most people knew most people with teams like HUP (with ringer SBZ), Geekhouse, and some rag tag bunch from Pedros (including the infamous Cort Cramer) showing up. Format was a handicap race based on the categories of your riders. If it tells you anything we started in the second wave of the day at 9:40 with the Geekhouse boys. It was pre-planned that we'd pretty much ride the whole thing with them and give or take some miles, we pretty much did. Early on we were in a back and forth battle with the IF team which just seemed fitting, but they had a series of mishaps and we didn't see them again until the finish.

The course, especially the first 75 miles or so was just relentless. Non-stop climbing and descending. 2 mountain climbs on dirt access roads that you would have thought twice about driving on. Multiple 45+ mph descents. A couple of looooooooooong stretches of dirt road that gave you a good feeling for what it's like riding Paris Roubaix. Somehow my team escaped the day with only 1 flat which pretty much defies logic if you saw the rocks we rode over all day. We did have one near miss when one of our guys was bombing a winding downhill at 40+, overcooked a turn, and blasted into the woods. I just saw a bike flipping in the air as I pansied my way down the hill, but he popped back up faster than anyone should have and was on his way again. We also had a guy who was in rough shape at the end because he did almost the whole thing with no food due to severe stomach problems the whole way. I somehow got incredibly lucky and have everything go right on the day that you want it to. No mechanicals or biomechanicals the whole day.

Total pedaling time for me was 7:40. Our team's elapsed time was well over 9 hours. Long day, but tons of fun. I highly recommend making good friends with the Hupsters or one of the local builders and trying to weasle your way into this one next year. There should be some funny vids and pics hitting the web this week too so keep your eye out for those.

[rusto]

Where did the race take place? (Don't say in LOST's "sideways" timeline!)

[RPerson]

Start/Finish was in West Cornwall, CT. I spent most of the day however feeling like I might as well be on the set of Lost because I had no frickin clue where I was.

[Cort Cramer]

Rich summed it up nicely. My "rag tag" crew had the win in our grasp until some knucklehead riding carbon tubulars flatted with 10K to go Nevertheless, one of the most difficult yet most rewarding days I've experienced on a bike. As Rich says, this is a must-do if you're lucky enough to get the golden ticket.

C

[taudep]

That sounds painful. Rich, you sound like you're prepping for some 12 hour Solo mountain rides?