Brentani’s Cycling Blog

Yikes. That’s one tough course. I knew from the start I wouldn’t finish with the pack, so I really just wanted to feel like I put in a respectable effort at the end, and avoid crashing, flatting, etc. I did all that, so I’m happy.

Here’s my report.

first collegiate race in 10 years. Either the B’s have gotten faster, or they’ve always been faster on the east coast, or I’m not as good as I was back then. Pretty embarassing in fact. oh well…the full report is at the new refunds now blog (which isn’t really fully cooked yet, so I probably shouldn’t be linking to it, but oh well…)

It’s official. I’m out of shape. My time today on the hill circuit was 58:45, even with perfect luck on every light and intersection. (My previous best was 55:34.) There was a pretty tough wind from the northwest, but I couldn’t decide if that was going to be helpful or not. It made the descent down 123 very fast, but also made Wilbur and the rolling hills after Wilbur seem to take an eternity. That’s what I get for only riding once a week, or twice when i’m lucky.

I went back to Mount Tom on Saturday, and this time I took some teammates to see it as well. For all that I tried to prepare them, I was the only one who opted for lower-than-standard gearing. Last time I had a 24 tooth little ring, with a 13-26 cassette on the Gazelle. This time I took the Circle A w/ the 13-29 cassette (and a compact crank), which meant I’d be using a much higher gear than I did last time (24-26 v. 34-29), but still much, much lower than some of the others. Mark had a compact w/ probably a 25 for the low gear. Aaron had 39-25 for his lowest, and Marcus made due with 39-23. After all that, I ended up finishing 3rd. Mark left us at the bottom and made us all pretty much look like chumps. He seems to have done the whole climb seated, to boot. Marcus and I were pretty even for most of the climb. He lost traction and had to unclip on the sand right at the bottom, and gradually caught up with me. Marcus, Aaron and I all stopped to catch our breath about 3 or 4 times. The last time, Marcus started up again before I felt able to, and made up the last little bit of advantage I had, then leaving me a bit before the top. Aaron finished not more than a minute behind me. Then we rode back to Hadley where our car was parked and down the other side of the CT river to Mount Holyoke. We did that one twice and I was fourth both times.

All in all, even though I definitely did better on Mount Tom than last time, I’m not really pleased with my form. I’m about 10 pounds heavier than I’d like to be, and last summer I was beating Marcus up most hills, and Aaron, who is a great time-trialist and not generally known for climbing, really shouldn’t be beating me up a hill like Mount Holyoke. Anyway, I at least managed to get some photos this time, although you still can’t see just how tough the gradient is in most of these: