The pre-ride went well. The weather was sunny, low 30s, and no wind. The signature dirt roads of the Battenkill course were dry, and we had a great day. I was fairly pleased with my endurance. March is very early in the season to be doing a 65 mile ride, especially one that includes 16 miles of dirt roads and 5000' of climbing. I definitely credit all my hard work with the Spinervals Super 6 training plan with giving me the early season conditioning and endurance to tackle that course. The course is no joke; all ups and downs, with very few flat sections. The hills are short, steep, punchy hills--just the type I've always struggled with. I prefer long, gradual climbs, where my personal power-to-weight ratio gives me an advantage. I had difficulty with Juniper Swamp Road. It's a dirt road with a viciously steep little climb. The road there was a little wet, and when the pitch became uncomfortably steep, I stood up on the pedals to gain some power. Mistake! My rear tire started to spin, so I sat back down. By then I had lost all forward momentum, and after another attempt or two alternating between sitting and standing, I had to get off and push my bike up the hill. That pissed me off. I've only done that once before. I did fine for the rest of the ride, actually feeling a little stronger on the last two big climbs--Meeting House Road and Stage Road. I averaged 13.8 mph for the ride, and I wasn't very happy with that. Yes, it's a difficult and challenging ride, but I knew I'd have to do better than that on race day to finish well. After the ride, we went out to dinner with the Mendozas and had a great time. One of the nice things about our Spinervals Cycling page is that I feel like I've known many of these people a long time. Eddie, Kelly and I just clicked together, like we'd known each other our whole lives.
Fast forward to the weekend of the race. I had reserved a hotel room in Saratoga, NY for Saturday night. In retrospect, I wish we had gone down Friday night so we could've helped Kelly work the feed zones for Eddie and two of their friends who were racing that day. We left about 10:00 Saturday morning, made good time to Saratoga, checked into the hotel and headed to Cambridge. It took us awhile to find Kelly. We browsed the expo and neighboring businesses, finally found Kelly and stood at the finish line to cheer Eddie in. The Mendozas invited us for dinner at the house they rented. What a nice evening, visiting with the whole Mendoza clan and friends. Headed back to the hotel for a decent night's sleep.
We had a nice, solid breakfast at the hotel and drove out to Cambridge with about an hour to spare before the start. Turns out we had the start location wrong, so it was a good thing we were early. I was struggling with what to wear. It was cold and windy. If the sun had come out to stay, it would've been ok, but it didn't. I got all the way to the start and realized I'd forgotten my timing chip, and had to ride back to the car. I had plenty of time, it just made me panicky. Two guys that I ride with locally were doing the Fondo. I found them and Kelly well before the start. All four of us started together. It was a fast first hour, averaging over 17 mph. We stayed together until the first climb at seven miles in. Kelly rode out a little ahead and one of the guys went with her. The other guy got dropped on Juniper Swamp (I made it over on the bike, yea!), and Kelly waited up for me. We all met up at the first rest stop at mile 25. The Joe Bean climb was right after, and Kelly and I attacked together. We dropped the guys, and Kelly gapped me, I kept her in sight for awhile, but then lost her. I rode the rest of the race pretty much alone. I basically rode with the same group of 20 or so people. I would beat them up the climbs, and they'd blow by me on the downs. I tried grabbing wheels, but after I recovered a bit, they seemed too slow, so I'd pass, but they wouldn't grab my wheel. Or they'd blow by me too fast for me to get their wheel, but then I'd just catch them on the climb. It did get mentally tough after awhile. The wind made it difficult, and seemed to always be a headwind no matter which direction I went in. I did get a little bit of a tailwind push up Meeting House and Stage, which was awesome. My husband Wayne, Eddie, and Amanda--the Mendoza's friend, were just awesome. They were at both feed zones--I only spent a couple of minutes at each one--passed by me a couple of times, honking their horns and shouting encouragement. They actually stopped on the steepest part of Meeting House, cheered, took pictures, and Eddie ran alongside me, a la Tour de France. When I finished the last climb on Stage and got back on pavement, I pushed it as hard as I could for the last five miles. I averaged 15.1 mph for the race, and finished in 4:21 (Link to Garmin file). Finished 4th in my age group out of eight, 13 out of 27 women, and 125 out of 196 finishers. Not bad for an old, skinny woman. One difference between Battenkill and Centurion is that there weren't as many women at Battenkill, and the ones who showed up were serious riders.
When it was all said and done, I decided that I loved the dirt sections. They are speed and power sappers, but they make the ride so much more interesting. Now that I know the course a little better, I will ride it more intelligently next time. I can't wait to go back next year!
