Housatonic Hell.

I've had mixed relations with this race. My first year in 2007 was great- a 2nd place finish in the cat 4's, which I blame on a finishing climb clusterfuck. Due to the Masters field arriving at the same time, the eventual winner got into a small group of Masters racers ahead of our pacecar. I didn't see this until about 200m to the line, after figuring I had the win locked up. Oh well. That was my last race as a cat 4.

Come 2008- I hurt really bad in the p/1/2 field, and ended up in a small group 5:17 off the winning pace. Probably the hardest race I had done to date.

Now, 2009. My racing and fitness was starting to improve and I had a couple good workouts in the week prior. Probably one too many, in retrospect. I think it will serve me well at Fitchburg, but I think I came into Sunday a little tired. Or that's the story I'm sticking with...

Sunday looked like it was going to rain- fortunately it held off, but damn...it was unbelievably humid, so the race was moist nonetheless.

I got in about a mile of warm-up before the start. This is better than nothing, but hardly enough to warm-up at all. I always hate the first 20 miles of every race because I'm just not ready to move quickly...but I'm not about to ride for an hour before a 80 mile race. This is why I object to road racing!

Since they changed the course last year, the race starts neutral up Constitution Hill...but it can hardly be considered neutral when you're going faster than you will on the following ascents.

In any case, I spent the first lap hanging out and yo-yo'ing near the back of the field while I tried to find my legs. It wasn't terrible for the most part, except for the staircase hill about 2/3's through. That hurt a lot. A few attacks jumped off there and the field strung out behind. As one might guess, I was in the chasing effort.

Eventually the field coalesced on Constitution Hill, where I was pleased to find out that we only had to do 3 laps of the course. I previously thought we had 4! Did I mention how seriously I examine the details? I suppose I would have had a more positive outlook on the race had I known that previously.

The second lap was noticeably better. I don't know if it was because the pace slowed or that I was finally warmed up. I contend it was the latter. Cameron asked if I had suffered a flat because he couldn't find me previously. Unfortunately, the only thing that was flat was my legs (not that a flat wheel would be fortunate...). As we came to the staircase climb on lap 2, I was slightly more attentive...but all the attentiveness in the world won't get you into all the breaks. Right about here, Driscoll (and probably others) allegedly attacked. Then I heard a loud pop and Cameron raised his hand. As usual, flats happen at the worst possible times. It's also the curse of new wheels- my Ksyrium SLs flatted in my first race at Army two years ago. If I weren't already barely holding on, I considered gathering Don and dropping back to help. Unfortunately, then we would have three people out the back and not just one...

Gaps opened up and I thought about bridging. I tried, but I just ended up sitting in the gap with another guy. Looking back, we had a small group coming, so I decided we should wait up and get some critical mass. And there went the race.

The groups ahead had all the horsepower, so they got out of sight pretty quickly. About as quickly as our group settled in and faded backwards. I feel like I could have made it had I been more appropriately positioned on the climb, but these are things that only seem plausible after the race.

Following this, we had a nice little group that seemed to be working well enough together. We lost a few guys here and there and the group whittled down from 7, to 5, to 4. Occasionally we picked up a popped rider from ahead, but they didn't stay with us for long. None of us had any idea where we were as far as placing...so we just kept riding.

As we came up to the final climbs, one of our companions decided he was going to ride alone. He opened a 20m gap and just rode there for the next several miles. After working together for 30 miles, Don and myself were not exactly going to let this guy solo in. So we gave him just enough rope to hang himself. With probably 8 km to go, the gap finally closed and Don hit the front hard. Not seeing a reaction from the other two, I also went and we got our alliterative two man team time trial going. It's too bad we weren't actually fighting for any decent placings because it felt awesome. I felt momentarily very pro. We picked up another rider in the process, passed Adam Myerson cruising in, and were forever rolling by remnants of the women's p/1/2/3 field.

Unlike our previous recruits, this last guy held on strong and did his share of the work to secure our positions ahead of our previous companions. He also gave me an excuse to sprint for a placing since I was sure Don wouldn't engage.

I timed my pulls well, and as we came to the final kilometer Don sat on the front and drove us right to the turn that would drop us probably 200m from the line. With Cameron neutralized by his flat, I suppose the pride of Ithaca-based cycling was on my shoulders...a daunting prospect! Racer X (later identified as David Costa from Anthem) came around Don just after the turn and began his charge to the line. Last year I was cut-off by going to the inside...so naturally I did it again(!). After a sloppy mess of shifts I found the right gear and finally stood up to begin my own sprint. It wasn't pretty (or fast), but I mustered enough power to make the pass and win the sprint for 27th place!!!!!!! I was a little disappointed to find that my PT read a max wattage of 866w. Surely it missed the final sprint there...

In any case, this race remains very hard. To have 51 finishers from 82 starters speaks volumes about how difficult the course is. None of the hills are terribly difficult by themselves, but their location and combination makes for a messy race. I just wish I had that second lap to replay again. I don't know where I would have finished, but I know I would not have missed that break a second time. I suppose there's always next year to reclaim my formerly amicable relationship with the Housatonic Hills.