Seriously one of the best and most fun rides home of the year. Bitching headwind, just biting hard into my face. And I managed to hit the hardest bit of rain. It tapered and almost stopped by the time I got home.
Just a massive rush of awesomeness. Powering through, got the clothing perfect, brim on the cycling cap under the helmet kept the rain off my face perfectly. Dumping buckets but man it was pure amazingness. Got a solid solid zone 4 effort for the 15 minutes or so from under the Henderson to the Dairy Bee.
Two good reads for Battenkill. One (thanks MB) and Two (thanks CB).
I got a serious case of monster goose bumps reading that first one. Holy F*ck this is going to be EPIC. Yes I fahking used the word EPIC. This edition, as they all are, will most definitely be fitting of that word. Can't wait. Actually I've never had problems with Juniper swamp, it was (in the past two editions) the one before it that popped me from the main group. Juniper wasn't so bad. County Rte 64 with the mile + climb with 12%+ grade has caused me more trouble in the past than Juniper. Why? I don't know... okay i do know. First year I was better because I metered my energy over County Rte 64, but the descent with the left hander onto the dirt kind had me riding timid, second year knowing I got popped there I tried to stick with everyone and got tossed out with the dishwater. Meter the effort. But there were lots of reasons for getting popped both times. The second read (yeah i wrote the first stuff before the over use comment of epic, i know i know - way overused), pretty good.
Feed zone is pretty critical in this race. Honestly. It takes a huge amount of energy out of you to do it. And to be in contention you need to either load up like a pack horse and feed the flames like a pro or be real pro and get a feed bag and bottles at every feed zone.
I'm so looking forward to this race. Sounds like Ferguson won't be as bad as last year. But man - The new route just clicked regarding the Juniper Swamp/64 section. Oh shit that's going to hurt a lot. That first feed zone hits you early. I'll be surprised if anyone has had much of a chance to eat or drink before then. This is going to be fun. I wonder what the long range forecast is, hmm they just show showers on Wed and Thursday... but the temp is higher than I would like. But hey it is still a long way out.
And the Spartan's played like rookies in the first half - too bad. I fell asleep with my youngest before the half was over, hoping maybe that they'd be able to pull the miracle off. But no, they couldn't. Oh well still pretty damn fine job of getting that far. No shame in 2nd place - well shameful how they played in the opening of the game but hey, at least they made it to that game.
Heddwch
G
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A couple of notes - the anthem report says 2700 feet of climbing, but the race map says 4000. I think this is the mapmyride issue noted on zen's blog -- they don't count hills less than 60 meters, of which this course has many.
If there are really no obstacles between the bridge and Juniper Swamp, the fields will hit is en masse, and it could be a much bigger cluster than years past.
You are going to be descending the hill on 64 where you got popped before, just in case you are not clear on that.
It would appear that going behind Willard Mountain on the dirt Mountain Road rather than around the front on Intervale is where the missing elevation from years past went. The rest of it is very close to going backwards. Too bad, as climbing that monster downhill on Intervale would have been pretty tasty.
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