Tour of the HIlltowns, returning to racing

I'm back from a four day jaunt to New England and upstate New York, and I'm pleased to report that things up north are progressing will, despite my absence.

While on this road trip, I went through at least three tanks of gas, visited friends from high school, college, and my life in Saratoga, and, most importantly, rolled over many of my favorite Saratoga County roads in some great company. But, more on all that later.

I also raced the Tour of the Hilltowns, the New England regional championships, in Windsor, Mass., on Saturday. Between being given clearance to ride and this past weekend, I participated in two Thursday night crits and a race in Prospect Park. I've now realized that none of that was really racing. By that, of course, I mean that it was shockingly hard.

I've raced Hilltowns every year since upgrading to 2, and every year has reminded me of why I like racing bikes: The chance to find my limits. The 97-mile race went exactly as I thought it would go (more or less). It was fast from the gun--so fast that I was spinning out my biggest gear, a 12x52--and we completed the first 30 hilly miles in about 70 minutes. Somehow, I managed to hang on, even when the group accelerated over some medium climbs, which I can only assume my fitness is rebounding.

It was a very hot day, and most people were racing with an extra bottle tucked into a pocket. To supplement that, we were all getting water from the official's vehicle and taking bottles of neutral water, most of which was immediately poured over our heads to aid the evaporative cooling. The first lap, on a shortened course, went by really quickly. The second lap, over a longer distance, contained both a fearsome descent down some of the worst pavement I've raced over (including roads we traversed in this year's Rapha Gentleman's Race), and then a long, steep climb back out of a valley. The pace going to the top of the descent was nutty, as positioning was key for anyone who had aspirations of doing well. For my part, I just wanted to survive a little longer, and was pleased to not get dropped before the long downhill.

I fully expected not to make it up the climb with the leaders. In fact, I was fairly confident that with my legs still in comeback mode, I'd get dropped. That happened, but with the added caveat that moments before hitting the climb, I slammed into a particularly sharp pothole, which caused my handlebar to slip. I tried to get a tool to fix it from the officials, but it wasn't happening, so I set out up the climb with my lever hoods pointing in a downward, instead of forward, direction. I mostly did the climb on the bar tops, which were still in the same place, but not being able to stand up certainly slowed things down for me.

So it goes.

Up ahead, the big guns, including pros from the Jelly Belly, Jamis, Team Type 1 teams and probably others that I didn't notice, along with some of the strongest New England amateur teams were fighting it out. Done racing but still 30 miles from my car, I was happy to come across Vinnie Scalia, who was also dropped (although he was dropped after heroic efforts at the pointy end of the race). We enjoyed some conversation over the following miles, eventually reaching the finish line as the last two finishers. One the way, we enjoyed a rather lengthy water stop during which I was able to procure a multi tool, with which I fixed my handlebar.

If nothing else, it was certainly an interesting day on the bike, and, as Vinnie pointed out, a good day of training ahead of the Tour of the Catskills, which is now just a little more than a week away. Hopefully I'll manage to climb a little better then.