GMSR 2017

[djming]

Another Labor Day weekend, another GMSR.
Fun weather forecast for Sunday...

Day 1 Start times:

50+: Mingori - 9:40.30 (MUCH deeper 50+ field than at KSR!)
4/5 Open:
Westberry - 1:08.30
Leger - 1:11.30
Madsen - 1:13
Raymond - 1:16.30
4/5 "Masters": Cugini - 1:43

[KTeves]

Good racing boys!

[jraguin]

Yes good luck guys!

[djming]

Stage 1 in the books for me. HOLY WINDS. 50 degrees with 15+mph NW winds but gusts. Climb was actually a slight tailwind (kinda off your left hip), but as seen as we began bearing left, fuggedaboutit! Headwind/cross from left shoulder for final 4 miles. Knocked around in spots.
Everyone had to deal with it, but while my power was right on what I wanted for the climb (went just a bit easier than last year), I struggled to hold the target thru the finish and ended a good 15W off what I was hoping for. Stopped the clock in 16:44 (time kinda meaningless in these conditions) and ended up 15th (46 reg'd). So much deeper (and larger, with double the numbers) a field than Killington, although the guy who won here last year and won all 3 stages of the 50+ at KSR this year put 25 seconds on everyone else. 2nd-5th bunched within 7 seconds and were the only others to break 16. Then 6th-16th are bunched within 28 seconds.

Tomorrow should be a nice day, but Sunday looks to be...not.

[rraymond]

Wow those were some winds. I'm not used to being knocked around. Saw the 500m flag and thought it was the finish.. whoops. Finished 16:08 leaving me in 7th. A guy from Sunapee crushed the field but otherwise times were pretty close. Not as high as I'd like but oh well I still rode hard. 53 seconds back from the leader. On to stage 2.

[mfwestbe]

Stage 2 - There's definitely some good news out there!
For myself, I find I'm just simply getting crushed. Dropped up the first hill, caught on with a group and came back. The sprint was weird; got boxed in between 1000-500 around 10-15th wheel by people who seemed like they wanted position, and then didn't do anything. At all. Anyway, got crushed right after on the next hill/kom and soloed for a while, then caught a guy and traded pulls. I didn't drink enough, and feel pretty shelled. The end.

[djming]

Well, if I had any questions about the quality of this 50+ field versus KSR, today put that to an end.
Due to road construction issues, the "circuit" race became a 1 lap (except for the 1's and 2's that got to do 2) race of 53 miles on a slight revision of the KSR road race course, with the finish the same as the KSR '17 circuit.
42 starters today with a KOM starting 5K in. No problem there. Right turn on Rt.12 (the revision, didn't do North Rd) which began a 7.5 mile multiple step grind. Started mellow and just kept ramping up with the last 5K going pretty hard. I was maybe 6th for the KOM. Prosper Rd (dirt climb), I PR'd by 31 seconds just to barely make the top 10 over the top. People absolutely drilling the descent. Onto Rt.4 and it's still a pack of 25-30 strong in the main field. Pace was (just a bit) more animated than at KSR.
Had a conversation with a couple other cat 3's I know in the field about trying something but it was very clear that the top guns were going to shut anything down. Sit in and wait. Just before 500 to go when David Taylor launches a huge move. I'm in perfect position to jump on his wheel (or at least try) as I feel this could be a winning move. I go but he's so strong I'm struggling to gain when a guy swerves over into my line causing a slight touch of brakes and so much for that. And yes, he did go on to be 2 sec clear of the field for the win. Not saying I'd have been able to hold with him (in fact, likely not), but I was ready for the go. At least I'm confident that I can drop a good chunk of guys on the climbs.
Onto day 3 which promises just a bit of rain, wind and all kinds of fun

[rraymond]

Last year before I biked much or raced, I had heard Roy talk about his time racing here as a Cat 2 years ago. I followed the Green Mountain Stage Race online as the results were posted everyday. In my ignorance I thought, wow 4 days of riding in Vermont, that sounds like a great time! This was the race that made me want to train and start riding regularly. I had 3 goals for this year in this order: 1) Ride and do well at GMSR 2) Get enough points to upgrade to cat 3 3) Win a race. I was able to do all of those today (since I'll probably have a mandatory upgrade now).

For me this was probably one of the more boring races I've done, until the end. I sat in all day, saw as little wind as possible and stayed with the main group. The climbers went at it up the first climb 3 miles in trying to gobble up the KOM points. We dropped a lot of people but most caught on over the next 10 miles. Turning onto route 12 the pace picked up again as the sprinters went for the intermediate sprint. I was towards the back so I didn't bother especially since the sprint led into a big climb that shot a lot of the field off the back again.

Over the dirt on Prosper our field got strung out even more until there was a group of about 15 at the end. That didn't last too long as stragglers made big efforts to regain contact. In the last few miles, Patch from CRCA had 4 or 5 guys so they traded off attacks and leadouts so the pace remained high going to the finish. I was in good position probably 10-15th wheel for the last few miles until we passed the 1k sign when some guys in front of me touched wheels and nearly went down forcing me to jam the brakes. By then I was pretty far back from the front with no opportunity for a sprint. Until suddenly a small gap opened on the left side at 500m and I jumped through since we had the full road.

I was the only guy on the left side of the road and kept my sprint going until I finally reached the front and realized I had a chance. Putting my head down I kept what was left of my sprint going until I saw the line and threw the bike. Finally I got a win!!

That also put me in the lead for the sprinters jersey so I'll be wearing that tomorrow! Also I moved up to 5th in the GC! So all around couldn't be happier with this result and capping off the season here in Vermont.

[pace21]

That's so cool Robbie. Congrats!

[JeremyC]

Boring = patience = winning

Congrats Robbie.

Nice work guys. Good luck tomorrow, it's going to be a shit show

[cbusick]

Robbie!!!!!
I had to go back to road results because I couldn't believe that this was your first win.
Awesome that the stars finally aligned for you.

[jraguin]

Awesome job. Enjoy it. Winning is hard and rare!

[djming]

Nice work guys. Good luck tomorrow, it's going to be a shit show

Yup, pretty much. Day 3 in the books. 51 degrees according to the car in the parking lot at the start. Rain getting steadier. Not much wind (yet..)
10 non-starters today after stage 2, so 32 of us lined up in the 50+. The biggest decision was clothing. Made the call to go with a thin base layer and the MRC Aero-Therm. Knee warmers and full finger gloves but ones that wouldn't hold much water. Ended up being just the ticket. By the end of the neutral start (think a long version of Quabbin), there were bikes that were completely shaking guys were so cold. Turn onto Rt.100 south and within a few miles the wind picks up. Then the rain gets heavier. Yippee.
I just completely sit in, never getting into the top 7. Turn onto Middlebury with one guy up the road and one other bit behind him. Continue to just follow wheels and keep moving up, riding a good steady hard tempo. Push it bit more into the steeper sections and roll over the top in first 7 wheels. Then mistake #1 as I nearly overcook the first tight turn off the summit, the leaders pull away from me and 4 pass me and I just can't descend. The 4 are working together and I'm stuck when finally one other guy catches me. A look back with nobody else in sight so we go to work. Unfortunately I'm definitely stronger than him so I'm doing probably 75% of the work. It takes us until well onto Rt.116 and a good 10 miles but we catch back on to the 4, who have caught on with the lead 8 so now there's 14 of us with almost a 2 minute gap on everyone else.
Over Bristol Notch when as we approach the dirt section Sam Morse (Corner Cycle) attacks hard (isn't he a cross guy?) and we all follow single file thru what is now packed mud. Kind of a surfy feeling. The NEXT 35's handled it admirably. Rain is back and forth and at least it's now mostly a tailwind (for now..)
Into Baby Gap and I'm feeling pretty darn good. Morse is still up the road and about mid-way thru Baby Gap David Taylor went off solo and nobody followed (and yes, he went on to win again today). Over Baby Gap and I filter back to get my last gel and get some more water and switch the bottles. Get in with Jay Trojan who lets a gap open. I figure it's more important to get my fuel in than to put the effort in to close (mistake #2). By the time I snap out of it the gap has grown and Jay is struggling a bit so we can't close.
We have dropped at least 2 from the group, but at start of App Gap I'm maybe 15 sec down on the main 8 (with Sam and Dave still away). I don't even see the eventual 2nd and 3rd finishers go from the start of the climb. I just go into what I can do and keep things even, passing Bourgoin from Momentum, then Shultze from CliffBar and closing on a 3rd (blue kit). Almost thought I had him but just ran out of steam for the final 200.
Oh, and for the final 2K it was a noticeable cross/headwind that did knock you around, then over the top it must have been blowing over 25mph.
I do some match and estimate I was 7th. Official results have me 9th on the day, but somethings not right as they have a Momentum guy (Weinrich) right in front of me, with blue kit guy 18 seconds up. That's not right. Maybe the simply mixed up those two, but I really do think I was 7th or 8th.
But, I did move up from 15th to 7th on GC.

Onto the crit. Top 5 is pretty much set. Theoretically I could move up 1, but also have 3 guys close behind that could vault over me so will be fun.

Over to the Blue Stone in Waitsfield for some protein. This should do the trick:
The Double Wide: Half-Pound VT Beef, Cheddar, Crispy Onion, Slab Bacon, Fried Egg, Brioche Bun

[mfwestbe]

Reporting from the back of 4/5 - Lining up was half the battle; there were many who did not. My rough thinking of today was that I'd hang with everyone until Middlebury Gap, then go endurance with whoever was around. Turns out I stayed close in the first section of Middlebury, and lost contact around the last 1-2k of the gap. However, I was with other guys today, and we collectively bombed down the other side through Ripton.

My group collected a couple guys along the way, including a group with Curtis Madsen. We ran a steady double-pace line, and caught up with the lead group just after the Notch Rd. climb and on the dirt section. I actually dropped off the back on the climb, but hammered through the dirt to catch back on (worth it). Rode together with everyone until about 2k up Baby Gap. From there, my legs were fading and I couldn't put out the power I'd have liked to up the climb, but did what I thought I could sustain.

The wind had definitely come down the mountain by the time I got there, and at times was quite brutal on the last 2-3k (probably 20-30mph gusts, still w/ rain). That hurt. But anyhow, I came in 24th over the line, and went from 45 to 31 in GC. Doesn't matter much, but at least I feel like training paid off. I also learned from yesterday that I had not been very alert to my drinking, so, forced good amounts of fluid today, which helped a lot.

[rraymond]

This was pretty miserable. It probably took me 20 minutes after a hot shower to stop shivering. Right from the neutral start I had puddles in my shoes and couldn't stop shivering. Climbing was the highlight of the day because it was an opportunity to slightly warm up. Started out at the front and did some pulls to keep warm. Lots of attacks but mostly pretty weak. One guy got off the front and held it. Turns out he finished second yesterday so he scooped up the top sprint points. I didn't contest the sprint and sat in but lost the jersey which is fine by me because I won't be marked at the crit tomorrow.

Going over the top of middlebury I was 6th and had let the leaders race for the KOM points (spoiler Rees handily won that KOM). On the descent I didn't try hard to close the gap because I wanted to be safe but I caught up after the Breadloaf campus. People continued to catch back on for the rest of the race.

Somewhere on Baby gap I look up and see 3 strong guys from my field further up the road. I didn't see any of them attack but nobody in the group is chasing so I bridge and catch them by the descent leading into App. We see one guy up the road but Billy and I drop our companions and pace each other up passing the other rider. (FYI Billy is training for Kona. This is his first time racing but has been following up each stage with a run or swim...). About 2k to go, a rider from a different field tells us that there are two more up the road which we didn't know about. So no easing up here. The GC leader is way back which makes Billy the leader de facto.

The head wind gets stronger and stronger the further up we go. At 1k the road opens up and we see one rider up ahead. At 500m we are closing on him. at 200m Billy speeds up and I fall back a little but keep a steady effort. At 100m Billy catches the other rider and they are even. I'm about a bike length back. As soon as the gradient falls I jump for it, passing both of them for second place! Proceed to nearly fall over and go in the makeshift tent out of the rain.

This moved me into 2nd for GC as well, 10 seconds back from Billy with the race winner 10 seconds behind me. I was not expecting to do this well but there were a few climbers who did not start today and the others spent a lot of energy contesting the KOM competition while I again took it relatively easy. On to the crit. There are 2 GC time bonus sprints (4 deep; 8,6,4,3) and the final sprint has a time bonus (5 deep; 15,11,8,5,3). I'm also 2nd in the sprint leaders jersey being 3 points back but I don't think I will bother since there seem to be lots of people trying to get points here.

[cbusick]

Nice job guys! Good luck tomorrow.

[pcollins]

Excellent job guys!
Robbie, you're on a roll, congrats! The win is well within your reach. Study up on the intermediate sprint laps and go for them. Last year I moved up on GC significantly by sniping bonus time. You want to be first or second rider going through the last corner, it's super fast into an uphill sprint.
Go for it tomorrow!!

[pace21]

I second what Pat said. From the sounds of it you could win this thing outright with some clever intermediate sprinting and a reasonably high finish placing. GO FOR IT!!!!

[JeremyC]

4/5 guys pretty please help Robbie win this thing. Positioning and leadouts for the intermediate sprints is crucial, team help here is imperative. 2 Jersies are at stake, put your personal aspirations aside, this is classic team bike racing!!!!

[djming]

I won't spoil Robbie's race except to say it was exciting to watch and I had a tough time debating between getting in a suitable warmup for myself and cheering on our guys. If only my race hadn't been the very next one up.
50+ stage 4 crit and it was ON from turn 3 after the neutral. It was hard. Only 20 seconds slower than the 40+ field (same number of laps). I basically spent the first 10 laps anyway just trying not to be last as any gap that opened was going to spell the end.
Survived, although on the last lap a split did open up and there was 7 sec gap given between the 1st twelve and rest of the field (although that seemed a bit large..)
Posted results, which included intermediate sprints and the time gap, had me BARELY keeping my 7th on GC. Then results showed me slipping by seconds to 9th, just behind Ron Bourgoin and Bill Caligari. And then they revised them yet again, putting me 8th, 1 sec behind Ron. I think the time keepers need a math lesson as I've triple checked things and come up with me still being in 7th (tied). Oh well. I am satisfied with the result, and had I not been a bit off on the TT (I was hoping to match last year's power effort but was 15W lower) and had I not made a stupid mistake on stage 3 I gotta feel real good in that I would have been right there with Eric Weinrich for 5th. And with a podium of David Taylor, Ron Amos and Jack Jefferies, plus a more than double field size, duplicating my 3rd from KSR was a complete long shot at best.
No Mayor's Cup this year, so that's a season!

[rraymond]

Well now, that was the most exciting race of the season! Thanks Pat for the tip on the last corner, I put it to good use.

25 laps, 15.5 miles. Lining up I tell the sprint leader that I was not going to go for the sprint points and instead focusing on the GC time bonuses hoping that he won't work against me. Felt bad when I accidentally took the jersey later...

Around the first corner during the neutral start a junior cuts me off and bumps my handlebars so I slow down to avoid crashing. Now I'm at the back. This is going great. Pace is high so moving up is difficult but I slowly manage. About half way back leading into the first GC time bonus sprint. The guy 10 seconds behind me in GC is slightly off the front and gets it followed by the leader whom I completely underestimated in his ability to handle the bike during a crit. Fuck. Now I'm only 2 seconds ahead of the guy in 3rd and 16 seconds back from the leader. Now I have to do something.

I manage to move up further but sit in through the sprint point prime 10 laps in. Off the front is Torin from Sunapee who won the TT and soloed to victory at Beverly so I go early for the next time bonus and attack on the climb on lap 11 and bridge up to him. We immediately start working together. I tell him I just want the GC points. Billy, the race leader, leads the chase with Rees refusing to pull through. Torin lets me get the time bonus but Berk gets 3rd so he picks up some additional seconds. Still we stay together as I'm maxed out. He takes a long pull to help out and my heartbeat managed to fall one bpm. So much for rest. I know I can't keep this up the rest of the race.

Luckily I won't have to as at lap 20 we are caught just before the finish line as the sprinters reel us in as they go for the sprinters points. I see the Sprint leader behind me and I wave him through so he can get the points but I pick up a few since I'm third over the line.

5 laps to go. I sit in and the pace slows dramatically as everyone is exhausted from chasing breaks the whole race. Field has been whittled down nicely. I start to get swarmed as riders who sat in all day move up. Rees lets me sit on his wheel to recover a little. Keeping Pat's advice in mind I decide the only way I have a shot is if I attack early. Screw a bunch sprint. Second to last lap I go hard on the downhill passing everyone and jam through the corner. Pouring everything I have I keep going through the backside hearing friends and teammates yelling from the sides. I still have a small gap but Billy is chasing hard. Down the last hill I sit on my top tube and blink but my eyes don't want to open again. Too tired. Back on the saddle and through the turn peddling and gasping for air I through my bike not daring to look back. I won!

The race leader, Billy got second so he kept the jersey. I was 4 seconds behind him overall but the gap between me and third place is now 20 seconds. Also I took the sprinters jersey despite not having gone for a hot spot sprint on any day. Could't have asked for a better way to close out the season!

[Jacob]

That's great! Nice job Robbie and everyone else!

[djming]

And to top off Robbie's race, he (to me, and other non-biased onlookers) had a solid gap of 2sec to the field at the finish. Supposedly (at least this is what we were told from my field), the gap is from the first person of the front field to the LAST person of the next group (this doesn't seem to make sense, but is why our split in the 50+ was given 7 seconds, per an official). Given that, had the officials granted the gap he might have had enough to make up the 4 seconds!!

Regardless, this is a damn impressive result line from our race team results sheet:
S1: 7/57, S2: 1/57 WIN, S3: 2/56 PODIUM, S4: 1/47 WIN, GC: 2/57 PODIUM

[dantelman]

It was fun reading the results. Great work and results by those that attended. The last time I raced GMSR was way back in 2007, and the weather was good on 3/4 days- with the RAIN coming on Sunday for the 65 mile RR. As the others here mentioned, the race starts downhill and with rain and temps in the 50s you get freezing cold. I don't think I really warmed up until we started climbing Middlebury gap.

I wonder about the future of this race, because 10 years ago Gary (the organizer) got over 1100 entries, I think now it's down to 500 or so. The Cat4/5 used to fill up (both age groups) as well as many of the other fields would sell out. The race is late in the season and CX races seem to keep getting earlier so there is more overlap now.

Incidentally regarding accommodations, since I am now in MRC, and also belong to a ski club in Waitsfield, for those that will do the race again in 2018, I can provide very inexpensive accommodations at Ramapo Ski Club- located at Mad River Glen. The cost for racers would be $15 per night. Additionally for those interested, there is the opportunity to go up ahead in June/July or August to train on the gaps and stay inexpensively.

I would love to do the race again (it's been 10 years) although I remember that it was hard as hell and obviously requires a lot of training to prepare for it.

Doug

[jmorrissey]

@rraymond congrats on a great race and what a way finish up the year!!!