Ari Finishes 2008 Green Mountain Stage Race

Editor: While Ari writes that he gorged himself on humble pie, you cannot eat it if you don’t show up; it’s better than eating nothing at all. No one should underestimate Ari’s accomplishment at the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont, making BHCC’s first appearance and, more impressively, first finish at one of the hardest stage races in the Northeast. Ari has had many top finishes this year, bu his respectable 29th place finish in the GMSR is one of the best performances yet by a BHCC rider.

Congratulations Ari!!!

PROLOGUE – 5.6 Mile Individual Time Trial - 9/3/08

After a slightly late start from Walpole and a longer than anticipated lunch stop, we arrived in Warren, VT with just enough time to sign in and get myself suited up and on my bike for a 25 min warmup prior to my TT start. The only knowledge I had of the course was via the mapmyride.com/Garmin profile, which showed a 2 ½ mile climb followed by a slight downhill, some rollers and one short, steep descent with a 12% .2mi climb into the finish. Looks easy enough…

I shot out of the start with Maya and Sue cheering me on and hit the climb feeling great. During the first mile I kept the tempo high and steadily gained on my 30 second man. Then, the pain hit. A short 10% ramp at 1.3 miles put me into the hurt box and destroyed any rhythm I had going. I had to completely dial it back for the remaining mile of the climb and couldn’t do much to increase the pace on the false flat near the top. No chance of catching my 30 second guy and the rider starting 1 minute behind me came past like he was on a motorcycle.

I settled into a steady pace and ended up finishing in 17:29, which was 3:28 behind the winner and in last place among the finishers (I at least beat the DNF’s).

A tough way to start my first stage race, but it was obvious that there were some very competitive CAT 1’s and 2’s in the field.

Stage Result – 45th
GC Standing – 45th

STAGE 1 - BRIDGES RESORT CIRCUIT RACE

With the reality of Masters 30+ field quality, I refocused on trying to get some points in the sprint competition for the Green Jersey. Today’s stage consisted of two loops around a 30mile circuit which featured two shots at KOM points atop a 2.5mile climb and sprint points awarded to the top 5 in the intermediate sprint at mile 34 and at the finish. I planned to compete for the sprint points.

The pace during the first lap was pretty tame until we hit the KOM climb. I dropped my chain at the bottom of the climb and had to chase back on to the peleton. By mid climb, I was already in some serious pain, but managed to hang on in the middle of the pack. We then hit a fast 4 mile descent that shot us out onto RT 116 for a fast 10k to the end of the circuit. I went with a number of moves off the front in an effort to be well positioned for the intermediate sprint. It all came together by 2k out and I went at it like it was a race finish. I thought I grabbed 5th for a placing in the sprint, but they had me just behind at 6th. Unfortunately, there was an acceleration from the group just after the sprint that left me hanging on by a thread to the back of the peleton, trying to recover. The 30+ category was only 45 deep, so there was really nowhere to hide. We hit the rollers and I couldn’t hold onto the group when the road tilted up. The guy in the SRAM car was nice enough to pace me back on, but I burned whatever matches I had left getting back to the field and got dropped for good on the KOM climb. I spent the next 10-12 miles solo (and lonely and dejected) until being caught by a groupetto. We rolled in together 13:24 off the winner. Ouch!

Garmin Stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6671500
(notice the 3700’ of climbing. This was supposed to be the flat stage for the sprinters)

Stage Result – 39th
GC Standing after 2 Stages – 40th

STAGE 2 - MAD RIVER ROAD RACE

The road race stage is billed as one of the hardest days of racing anywhere in the Northeast. 75 miles with 3 major climbs totaling 6243’ of climbing! Being so far down on the GC and without any sprint points, my goal was to just ride as conservatively as possible and try to make up some GC ground by having a good ascent up the Baby Gap and App Gap. I also hoped to stay with the lead group up the 9 mile Brandon Gap climb from mile 24 to 33.

Following a chilly neutral start down the Sugarbush Access road we hung a right on RT100 to start racing as we made the ascent to the top of Granville Gulf. A break went off immediately and quickly gained 3 minutes on the peleton, which kept things very smooth for the first 25 miles.

Once we hit the bottom of the Brandon Gap climb, the pace continued to ramp up. By the half way mark, we started dropping riders off the back. I was suffering, but kept pace until the 1k to summit marker. The road tilted up steadily to 11% and I was too afraid to blow up with over 40 miles and a huge mountain top finish remaining. I sat up and settled into a more manageable tempo and picked up two others at the top as we hit the descent. We bombed the downhill (check the max speed on the Garmin stats http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6671498) and caught on with a larger group.

This all stayed together until the bottom of the Baby Gap, which is prelude to the monster App Gap, but still goes up over 1000’ in less than 4 miles. I again opted for the conservative approach and ended up passing some riders who set out faster at the bottom. Strangely, I was starting to feel more comfortable as the climb went on.

Once over the Baby Gap, there’s a brief 1 ½ mile descent and then the road ramps up VERY sharply onto the App Gap for 3 miles until the summit. I’ve never been on a climb like this before. The App gap was steady between an 8-10% grade with switchbacks between 18-20%. Afraid of going too deep into the red and not being able to turn the pedals over on a switchback, I “spun” mostly in my 23 and 26. As I got closer to the top, there was carnage everywhere. At the 1k marker, the roar of the crowd at the summit was audible and at the 500m marker the finish was visible, although it appeared to be 500m straight over my head – very steep! Rounding the last switchback and coming up the last 100 meters to this mountain top finish was incredible. Even though I was finishing 27 minutes behind the winner, it was still an amazing experience.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6671498

Stage Result – 35th
GC Standing after Stage 3 – 31st


STAGE 4 BURLINGTON CRIT

The course is set up on a .62 mile, 6 corner loop through downtown Burlington. Everyone’s advice was to go hard immediately, as anyone caught off the back of the lead group was likely to get pulled.

Well, I went hard early and was in the front group with a little gap back to the field. The pace was fast and I was hoping it would let up soon. No such luck. I popped after 5 or 6 laps and rode solo for a few laps until being caught by what was remaining of the peleton. I still hadn’t recovered, though and couldn’t hold the accelerations out of the corners. So, solo again for what seemed like forever until catching on with a chase group for a while until we finally got the hook from the race official, as the 4 man break started breathing down our backs.

Stage 4 Result – 27th
Final GC Standing – 29th

The GMSR was a great experience. There’s no question I was in over my head with this 30+ field, but I would absolutely go back and do it again.