Mt Snow Classic

This past weekend was the Mt. Snow Classic cross country mountain bike race in Vermont, a true classic (as far as I understand it been going on for years, and in my past few summers I have now raced here 5 times.) I was hoping to get a great result, with a 5th a few weeks back and a 3rd last weekend I was hoping to keep up the streak. Enter the problem, a high level of fitness is hard to obtain but easy to have slip away. The past 5 weeks I have done 8 races, averaging one every 4 days, and I knew I was slipping but I was hoping to have one or two more races left before meltdown.

My friend Sean, Tom, Joe, my self and a few other stayed at Sean's house right next to Mt Snow, and I headed up Saturday to make a weekend out of the race. Saturday was pretty fun, got to watch the Mt. Ventoux stage in the Tour and had some dinner and a ride. Sunday morning we awoke to wet roads, a sign that it had rained the night before, which is to be expected with the almost constant rain the past week, which only makes Mt. Snow more interesting, however I have never raced it dry so its really hard to say.

Fast forward to the race, after an all right warm up I ended up lining up against 28 pro/cat 1/open racers, a great turnout, and the field was strong to boot. The race went off, and everyone was jocking for position as usual, and we hit the first climb and I felt all right, I was heading up the hill in 4th position or so, and feeling all right. We then went through some sloppy single track, and started the longer climb in the race, and this is where the 8 races in the past 5 weeks would either make me or break me, and unfortunately for me, they broke me. I just had nothing in the tank, and tried to keep pedaling but people were killing my up this hill. I think I dropped into something like 20th place, and seriously considered dropping out, but I like to finish races that I start regardless if I feel great or terrible. So I bit the bullet and kept grinding it out. On the second and third lap I was able to keep my head down and pass 7 or 8 guys, and I was just looking for the finish. On the last lap I was able to catch an old time rival Ben Moore, from the MidWest Cycling Conference, and pass him as I was trying to cook down the final hill to the finish line. I ended up coming in 9th place out of the 28 startes and actually not a bad result considering how I felt, but not where I was hoping.

I am now going to start building up some base fitness again, as when I was racing so much I pretty much just raced and recovered, with little actual training or nice longer rides. This should be a nice break as I will be able to get back to some fun riding, however there is a race this upcoming weekend that is tempting me, depending on how I feel I may or may not show up.

In conclusion, see the photo below:



Mt. Snow got the best of me this time, but there is always next year! (not to mention the winter when a chair takes me to the top, haha)