July 30, 2006
A notoriously difficult 70 mile race that starts with a climb to the Jay Peak Summit.
| Name |
Category |
Time |
Overall Place |
Age Group Place |
| Francis Blesso |
|
DNF |
N/A |
N/A |
Official Results
Francis Blesso
During my pre ride on Saturday, I head lots of creaking in my bike and I was
having some ghost shifting in the easiest gears. I took it to the local shop and
we found a bent cassette. I bought a heavy one for big $$$, but was happy just
to have the bike working. The next morning, there was still the creaking,
which I figured was from the bottom bracket. I decided to ignore it and just ride, or
is that just hope?.
The first part of the race climbs right to the top of Jay Peak. It was tough. I was
in the middle of everyone, and tried to keep from
over-doing it and saving energy for the end. There was a good amount of walking.
I may have been able to ride more if I wanted to expend more energy and was out
of the crowd, but I figured it wasn't worth it.
That climb took me about 45 minutes, but the sick downhill to the bottom took
just 5. I must have passed about 10 people who were less agressive than me on the
way down. At one point I hit a small dip and nearly went over the handlebars at 30mph!
After that came an uphill road section and then a nice singletrack section. I blew
by a few more people in there who couldn't handle the tecnical stuff. Next up was a mix
of dirt roads, paved roads, and smooth paths. I was riding with a few guys for a while,
taking turns drafting each other. We passed a few pickups coming the opposite direction.
You need to pay attention on the dirt roads going downhill and watch out around corners.
We had another nice singletrack section after the fifth aid station and then a
good climb to the seventh one. Right before getting there, my freewheel broke. I walked
to the aid station and begged anyone to give me a new wheel. No such luck. I figured I
had just been climbing so much that it would be mostly downhill to the next aid station
so I figured I'd coast. That turned out to be a frustrating descision for two reasons.
First, the sweet singletrack section was pretty rolling, so I couldn't just coast. That
would have probably been the most fun section of the race,
if I had a @*#$(@! wheel! Second, after that section
was a 5 mile uphill road ride on Jay pass to the eigth aid station.
After two hours of pushing my bike, I reached the aid station. I asked around for
a loaner wheel, but had no luck and decided to drop out. My first DNF in 6 years.
