Jiminy Peak RR

Embarked Saturday morning around 6:30am for the trip to Jiminy Peak in Mass. I've been waiting for this race for the past month...in that I knew it had some climbing in it. Three hours later we arrived (thanks for the company!). Weather - great; registration, super fast; legs - feeling good. Did a quick warmup and then lined up for the cat4 race - 125 riders. Had one teammate in the race...so that was good to have Paul in there with me. The race consisted of 3 laps...30K each.

First two laps were pretty uneventful. Except for the officials stopping the race! LOL. One lap in a few riders were tossing water bottles into the grass. WTF...is that "really" necessary? So a few guys admit, they are DQ'ed...and we resume. A few breaks go off the front on the next two laps...but both are brought back. They never got out of sight...so they were always on the mind of the teams leading the chase. The race basically came down to the final climb...when everything came back together.

Before the final uphill...there is a fast right hand turn off of a downhill. I was told to stay in the top 10 around this turn...and then shit would go ballistic up the climb. It did...unfortunately I was about 30th guy in line. As the climb started I sprinted past a few riders trying desperately to reach the front of the race. The climb has an initial rise...flattens...and the pitches up to the finish. As I reached the flat section a group of about 17 had "just" nipped off the front. There was no one helping me pull, and I just could not close the gap up to those riders. Crossed the line in 20th. I keep thinking back: "If only I was in the top 10 around that turn..."

It was hard to move up the field the entire race...but I did have a few chances to pop out at the front on the final lap...but hung back thinking to conserve a bit more energy. When I get those chances next time...I'm taking them. Some pics from Saturday: