Season kick-off

Officially kicked off my race season this past weekend. First time in a couple of years starting with a road race, heck first time I duo’d it up with a mtb race too!

Headed east on Friday with the Minerva Design crew for Battenkill-Roubaix. Got there nice and early and plenty of time to chill in the hotel with Brendan. For first time in a long time I slept like a log when away from home for a race. It was unprecedented, but def worthwhile. Brendan, Drew & Jeff were all in the cat 3 race, while I got lucky and got do an extra 20 miles in the 2 race. Things started great and I had really good position thru the bridge and onto the dirt without issue. Bottles flying everywhere, but managed to sit comfortable at the front. There was a nasty steep dirt climb that nearly cracked me, but I held tight. …. Till the next time we climbed it as we looped back onto the course again. The wind was blowing like crazy and I was just off the back off the much smaller main field. Gave chase for a bit, but the wind had other plans. Decided to just roll it back to the car and tend to my wounded ego. But, Brendan put on big show in the cat 3 race and took home a huge Win in a 3 up sprint. Soon enough I’ll be working for him in the 1/2 races if he keeps up the win streak.

Sunday was the GVCC’s first ever mountain bike race. It was nice to see something that Todd and I had chatted about really come to fruition. The weather was gorgeous and I had laid out a really kick as 2+ mile loop course. Had a few tough climbs, some good single track and some fast field sections. Lake even kicked off his race season in the kids race. He was a little outgunned by the big kids and their bigger bikes, but nonetheless he did his 2 laps around the soccer field and was super pumped all day just to be out at the races. Plus he got to go play on the playground most of the day too! No kid will argue against that!

We had some huge numbers for the race & nearly filled out the expert class with 47 racers! The short prologue field helped thin things out before we hit the single track and opening climb. I made it into the woods in 2nd place and held it till we came out of the elevator climb. Dan Staffo (on a cx bike) attacked hard in the upper field, but I couldn’t close the gap. Spent the next 3 laps reeling him in on the single track only to lose him on the climbs and in the fields where he could fly. On the last lap, Doug Rusho had been breathing down my neck and passed me on the way up A-train. I kept him close and was ready to attack up the moon valley climb, but washed out on the corner before hand and was never able to recover and close the gap.

This let the 5th place rider (Rob Pilato) close the gap to me. He hunted me down and off the final descent into the field he used his momentum to swing past me and try to drop me in the grass heading to the finish line. Little did he know i was fully prepped for his move. I simply sat in on his slipstream, let him pull me to the line and jumped him in the final 100 meters to keep 4th place! 1st place was way off the front but 2-5 were only separated by 15 seconds! That’s some great xc racing! I had a ton of fun and hope everyone else did too!

Huge thanks to the GVCC & Full Moon Vista for the setup & support! Hopefully this event continues to grow over the next few years.

This weekend is the Bloomfield road race, then my personal favorite The Prattsburgh Rambler!

Here’s some Pics from the weekend….