From Matt D in the CAT 4 Black group:

On the first 5 miles leading to the covered bridge it was nearly impossible to move up in the field.  I was stuck on the outside the whole time.  Cory, aka Bake, as in ‘Shake and Bake’, had placed himself well in the front.  My goal was to get to him before the first climb.  Once on the first dirt section I moved to the inside by sacrificing some spots, as it seemed the only way forward was either on the inside or by blatantly breaking the yellow line rule, which others definitely employed.  I finally got to the inside and was able to move up rapidly by riding in the loose stuff.  A few powerful pedal strokes and I was up front with Cory and Matt Miller (eventual 3rd place finisher).

From here on out I felt great.  I crested each climb comfortably in the top 10 and proceeded to push pace while others wanted to recover on the flats, corners, and downhills.  I ended up finding myself solo off the front on two occasions by doing this.  If a few guys had matched my pace then this could have worked out well, dropping some of the nimble climbers in the process, but these efforts up front just hurt me in the end.

As for clothing and equipment, I was very pleased with my selections save maybe too much air pressure in my rear tire which on occasion cut into even the hard packed dirt. The Greyhound Juice ‘Original Formula’ was working well in the rain, and my team issue wind vest was moved to my jersey pocket at about mile 25.

A couple obstacles along the course made things interesting and more fun. First, someone lost a water bottle just in front of me on one of the dirt sections. we were going about 30mph and the bottle was dancing like an uncaught football after a punt. I was standing, coasting, ready to bunny hop if necessary. Nothing ever came of it. Then on another slight downhill dirt section we came up on multiple emergency vehicles tending to a crash from a different field. Brakes were applied heavily as the whole pack had to squeeze single file around an ambulance. I was one of the first guys through, and a few of us hit the gas hard. Moral of the story here: ride up front and always expect that there will be cars, ambulances, and dogs in the road.

Coming into the last climb I knew I didn’t have the same power that I had on previous 6, but I gave it my best.  My smooth power was just not enough to match the 12 or so guys that flew up this last climb like it was mile 15.  I crested the hill standing up giving it everything, hoping I hadn’t lost too must distance and would be able to TT back on on the flats.  But I had lost too much distance.  I worked with another guy in a two man pace line to catch.  We didn’t loose anymore ground but we weren’t gaining any either.  Then with about 2 miles to go the wheel van passed us.  Ahhhh, such a mental kick in the nuts.  This is the official sign that you are out of the race.

I was beat and didn’t even bother sprinting around the guy I was working with at the finish.  I ended up taking 14th place.

In retrospect, I should have stuck to my original plan of doing no work between the hills, knowing I would need to be more rested than others for the climbs. Nevertheless, I was very pleased with my performance, and I think the rain made me faster.  I’ll be back next year.

-Big Bird

Stats:

61 miles, 2:51
21.3 ave mph, 50.2 max
3176kcal

From Joe M in the CAT 5 U35 group:

After being on the waiting list for months, I showed up at the registration table hoping there were some no-shows. It was lookin pretty good for me, I saw a lot of blank boxes where a check mark should have been to indicate “present”. Shortly after registration had closed they called my name and I was in. I rushed to get my number on, pack myself for the long haul and got to the start line with virtually no warmup.Turns out it didn’t hurt me at all as the neutral start that was supposed to be only a mile or so turned out to be more like a 5 mile neutral start.

The next 5 miles were slightly uphill and I worked to stay at the front of the group so I didn’t get lost in the accordion effect around the turns before the first climb. The first climb was paved and I was able to keep attached to the group. The 2nd climb came only minutes later and was much steeper than the first as well as unpaved. This is where I lost contact with the main group. A combination of having limited traction, not enough power and a lowest gear of only 42-23 really did me in. After that it was a game of tag between the stragglers who couldn’t make the cut, just like me. Eventually the Masters 50+ field passed me and Jason W and I started working with a group of them who had fallen off the back of their field. This group worked together really well and we pushed hard for the better part of an hour. I was then dropped from them at about mile 40-45 and practically finished the rest of the race solo.

I met another CAT 5 from Cambridge Bicycles who had fallen off the back at about 10 miles to go and we worked together until the final climb, where he was able to surge ahead of me. I caught up to him as he was helping his teammate with a flat at about 3.5 miles to go. I stopped, chatted and waited with them until the flat was fixed. We start our final push to the finish and the teammate who had the original flat starts TTing his way into town, leaving me and my original CB buddy on our own. After we made the final turn onto E Main St for the finale, my finishing buddy asked me if I wanted to sprint for the finish and I smiled and said yes. We decided to sprint with about 200m to go. I won. It made it feel like I had actually finished a race. Yay.

I think my final placing was somewhere around 31. Will let you know when the official results are posted.