Lessons from Battenkill

I've hear legends about Battenkill and I was super excited about this race. 104 miles, dirt roads, good fields. Sounded like my type of race. In retrospect, I think I was a little too excited. I usually do well if I have a big week, followed by a few easy days, but I think I hit it too hard during my big week and came into the race a little overtrained.

Battenkill RR Report
Pro 1 Men
Place: Meh!

On Friday, Keck and I made the 11 hour journey up to Cambridge, NY. It was a long drive, but I was happy to be driving up 2 days early so we could relax the day before the race. We were treated to awesome host housing by our wonderful hosts, Aaron and Amy Mengel. best hosts riders could ask for.

On Saturday, Keck and I went out for an easy spin to loosen out the legs before heading to the race site for a press conference. It was a great little sit down interview with about 5 of us cyclists and Dave Towle, who is the best announcer ever!

We made the decision to drive the course that afternoon, but it's kind of hard to memorize and twisting turning 64mile loop.

We didn't race till 2pm on Sunday so we got a nice relaxing morning at the host house. We managed to watch Paris Roubaix in the morning to get ourselves pumped up and before you know it, it was race time.

I'll make the actual race report nice and simple. Russ, Keck and Rugg were awesome and made it into some good breaks.I on the other hand, was staying safe in the pack and conserving energy. Then I made a stupid mistake. About 90mi into the race, I was sitting a little too far back and some guys got sketchy on a downhill dirt corner. I got gapped coming out of the corner as the pack drilled into a crosswind. With 15mi to go, my race was done. I sat up and rode easy with a group to the line, coming in somewhere in the mid 40's.

What did I learn: Pay attention! Stupid to let myself drift that far back that late in the race
                            Drink! I was definitely dehydrated and had a good layer of salt covering my
                            face at the finish.

Oh well, there are plenty more races to come.