Bringing Home a Jersey

Green Mountain Stage Race 2008

The trip started Thursday morning when Elizabeth dropped me off at the airport. While checking in the lady behind the counter asked if I was flying with a bike, to which I replied, “Exercise equipment.” Since it was under the 50lb weight limit, she decided to measure the linear inches to see if it was considered oversized, and it was. So $100 later, I was on my way.
I flew into Hartford, CT since it was significantly cheaper, even with the rental car and gas. Once I arrived I waited for my friend, who was flying in from CO. As I waited I put my bike together in the parking garage. Since his flight was later than expected, I went to find a grocery store to pick up a few items and a bottle of wine as a host gift. I then went for an easy ride since I wasn’t sure if we were going to get up north to preview the course before it got dark. We left Hartford around 5pm and made it to the prolog around dark. We saw a few riders just finishing their ride as we started. It was black out as we started up a long and steep climb and from there it leveled out to the finish. Luckily Tim had a light, but nonetheless it was an adventure. We reached our host house around 11pm, made some eggs and went to sleep.
The next day we raced the prolog and all went pretty well. I ended up 17th, only 33 seconds behind the winning time. I passed my 30 second and minute man before I reached the top of the climb.

After the race we ate our ham sandwiches and headed back home for a nap and lunch. After lunch we previewed the circuit race course. It took us a while to figure out how to navigate the roads in VT. After checking out the course we headed home for some dinner of pasta and homemade bread and sauce.

Day 2
The race started out pretty well with people fighting for position during the neutral roll out. Pretty standard East Coast style. Then we hit the first climb and the attack started. As we hit the 5k to go for the KOM, I saw a couple guys start to line up the lead out train. I hopped on their wheel and thought that I may as well try for the KOM. I ended up riding past the leadout trains and passing the guy who was sprinting for the KOM. I really couldn’t believe I won. As we started out second lap of two on the course, a couple guys attacked. I was 3rd wheel and decided to drift to the left and when no one followed I started to put a little more power into the pedals and found myself in the break. A couple more guys bridged up and we had a great group. We continued all the way to the KOM, where I was able to pick up full points again. The group came back together and we were about 5k from the finish when 3 guys got off the front. The lead out trains brought it back to 3 seconds before the group up the road crossed the line. Everyone was all over the road and I later found out I was one of 13 guys who was relegated for crossing the yellow line. It was a 30 second penalty. After the race, my friend and I went to pre drive the next day’s course. We ended up getting lost and by the time we drove the course and made it back it was 10pm before we had dinner. Not the best recovery.

The next day I was in the King of the Mountains jersey and got a call up. The race started as soon as the gun went off. I managed to make it in the break. The break made it past the sprint line and even to the top of the KOM line where I picked up the rest of the KOM points. We rode to the bottom of the last climb where the field finally caught us. I was in about 25th place when we hit the climb and worked my way to 12th before I crossed the line. The last climb was very steep and I was glad the SRAM guys lent me an 11-26 cassette.

The final day, Monday was the crit. It started at 4:10pm and it was a warm windy day. I was called up again for the KOM, which helped out a lot for placement. The race was just over an hour long and since the GC was so close, the contenders were not making it easy. For most of the race it was full gas and the field was strung out covering about ½ the 1 K course. I managed to avoid crashes and finished in the top 1/3. My friend and I hung out in Burlington for dinner and made it back to our host house around 9pm. We packed up our bikes and put everything in the car since we had to leave around 4am to get down to Hartford in time for my 10am flight. Again, the person behind the counter asked if it was a bike and I told her it was exercise equipment, but then she asked what kind of exercise equipment it was. I was kind of stuck but said told her it was the kind that can be used to test Vo2 max and lactate threshold. She didn’t ask anymore questions but did charge me another $100. I wasn’t as lucky this trip ,compared to CA where I didn’t have to pay for my bike.

- Rolf