Windham Mountain Race Report

Windham was just another great solid race. I ended up getting second. Unfortunately Seth and Emsky did not show up to the race today. Little did I know though that a Canadian Team was there and a guy on the New Zealand team also showed up. The course was awesome with lots of climbing and fun fast descents where you can really get a rhythm. The laps for the course were very short to make it more spectator friendly. My lap average for the race was a little over 19 minutes and we did 4 laps, so this ended up being a very short race overall. This morning at 8 on the foggy slopes of the Catskills, our race had begun. I immediately took the lead and started hammering it. I was scared of the Canadian Team guys coming up behind me the whole time. Around mid way through the climb to the top on the first lap, one of the guys caught me. He was absolutely hauling. I stayed with him just about all the way up the top, but I let him go because I knew I was going to blow out if I kept that pace up. He came through the first lap at about 18 minutes and I came around at about 18:20. I was kind of feeling the effects of going out hard on the second lap and sure enough the New Zealander caught me. I stayed with him till around the top when he gapped me by a little. I caught him on the downhills by the start of the 3rd lap I had caught back up to the New Zealander. At this point the other 2 Canadian team guys were about 15 seconds behind us, so they were closing the gap. The New Zealander though passed me once again and by the end of the 3rd lap had about 30 seconds on me. At this point I was probably about 3 minutes behind the leading Canadian. On the 4th lap I started coming on strong and was catching the New Zealander and leader by big chunks. By the time we got to the start of the downhill on the last lap, I was 15 seconds behind the New Zealander. I bombed the downhill like my life depended on it and caught him before the final flat and climb at the end. At this point it became mano y mano and tactics came into play. I knew there was a climb right before the finish so I tried to draft behind him on the flats to the end. He tried to shake me off but I was just stuck to his tire. When he realized this, he eased off to get some energy for the last climb up to the finish. I knew I couldn't let him ease off, so right then I hit it hard and just sprinted for my life up the hill and on the flat to the finish line. It hurt so bad and was an all out sprint. I beat him by one second. After the race I was happy to find out that I had cut down my 3 minute gap from the start of the 3rd lap all the way down to 2 minutes! I was catching the leader at a high rate of speed and if the race was definitely a little longer I think I could of caught him. The winners time was a 1:14:45 and mine was a 1:16:45, so it was one short race. The officials didn't expect us to crank out near that fast of lap times. This is most likely why they made the pro women's race 5 laps long when it was planned to be 4 laps. So in Cat 1 17-18, a Canadian won, I got second, a New Zealander got 3rd, and a Canadian got 4th and 5th. After me and the New Zealander, there was around 2 minutes to the 4th Canadian and then another 2 minutes back to the 5th Canadian. In 6th was the second best American who was 12 minutes back from the winner. I'm not totally sure on the times but I'll post them on twitter when they get announced. After the race I chatted with the Canadians and the New Zealander and they were all great guys. What a fun race! It was a short all out slugfest between us. Overall all a great way to the end the season. I can tell I'm gaining lots of speed quickly and can't wait for next year. My time was 2 minutes faster than the fastest Cat 1 adult.

Mount Snow Vermont Race

First off this was an overall great race. The group had very good racers and it was a full brawl out there. The course was very technical, rocky, and muddy. I ended up using my mud tires for this race. I was passed right at the end and got 4th. Vermont though for Seth, Eric, and Joseph, were all their home course. By the way, the Joseph guy who got me right at the end is an 18 year old cyclocross racer who lives in New England. He went to World's last year and was one of their top guys. Also we did 4 laps of around 4.1 miles. At the start of the race immediately Seth and Emsky took off the front of the group. Oh, also they started the 15-16 year olds with us. So Joseph and I took off with Seth and Emsky. Also Chase Dickens joined along for a second but immediately fell off the back. I tried to stay with Seth on the first lap but I could tell he was just pushing way faster than I could go. Also on the first lap Seth dropped Eric Emsky. So I let him go and just kept pushing it hard with the cyclocross guy, Joseph, behind me. I was about 1.5 minutes behind Seth on the first lap. The second lap we kept pushing it hard and lost around 1.5 minutes again to Seth. Joseph and I were turning very consistent lap times and actually on the last lap I think we gained a little time or stayed even with Seth. For a while I thought Emsky was hurting and we were going to catch him but he was just a little too far away. So for the rest of the laps we had the hammer down staying consistent. Every time we would come to a big climb I would get a little time on the cyclocross guy, but on the very technical descents surprisingly he would catch back up. He was probably catching up well because of how muddy the downhills were, and we know that cyclocrossers are good at mud. :) On the last lap on the climbs I really put the hammer down and dropped Joseph by about 15 seconds on the last climb. Unfortunately though we were catching other cat 1 group's and on the single track super technical downhill it was so hard to pass. So Joseph ended up catching back up to me, after I had just blown my leg dropping him on a climb. At the bottom of the downhill he eventually got around me and got me on the final flat to the finish line. My legs just weren't able to react from my interval I did on the previous climb. So it ended up that I was 4 minutes behind Seth and we think around 2.5 minutes behind Emsky. I'm not totally sure on Emsky's time though because he didn't have his timing chip. And then I was 4th right behind Joseph the cyclocross guy. Sorry I don't remember his last name lol. From me to 5th there was a 6 minute gap. There were some other decently fast guys in the group but they were a ways back. Also Chase Dickens who started with us won 15-16. He was 10 minutes back on my time though and 14 minutes back on Seth. On that course 4 minutes is nothing though, and I think if I have a great warmup and everything totally comes together, I could pull a rabbit out of a hat and beat him. But Kudo's to Seth. He's fast. I felt a little stiff on my first lap, but not to bad. I started feeling much better for the next 3 laps though. I'm excited for Windham!