Tannersville, NY is a solid 5 hr drive for the team, but thanks to Dan's connections to the area we were able to secure friendly and comfortable accommodations at Hotel Vienna in Windham on Friday night, nestled against the edge of the Catskill Mountain range. Rested and well fed on race morning, the team had high hopes heading into the Hunter-Greene Summer Classic.
.JPG) |
| The team loading up on fuel and Hammer prodi |
 |
| The Giant TCRs looking sharp on race morning. At the finish a racer from the W 1/2/3 field said "Look at those team bikes. They are LEGIT!"
With 107 miles on tap for the Pro 1/2 field, they were first to depart the start area. With 5 DER members in the field of 30-40 rides, DER had the largest team on hand. Road captain, Dan Vaillancourt, laid out the plan for the day, which involved putting a man up the road early to take the pressure off the team. Eliot drew the task of entering an early break and he saw the opportunity to get up the road with a member of the CRCA Foundation team just a few miles after the start. Eliot and his companion quickly built an advantage while Troy, Matt, Dan and Fred controlled the pace of the peloton. Time checks were sparse on course but what little information that was being distributed was in favor of the break. After ~15 miles of racing the break had built a 5 minute advantage,and at one point they pushed the gap to nearly 8 minutes. The pace in the peloton fluctuated between full gas when there were attacks, to a snails pace of 16 mph when no one wanted to take responsibility to pull the group along. All the while Eliot and his partner in the break kept grinding out a constant pace trying to maintain their advantage.
|
 |
| Troy had time to slip to the back of the pack and grab a photo of the group! Fast Fred hanging in the back conserving his watts |
The cooperation and the pace of the break started to falter on the third lap, after nearly 80 miles in the break. 1 lone rider was able to make the bridge to the breakaway duo around mile 95, giving the original breakaway duo some much needed relief. The trio hit the finishing 1km climb with a healthy lead on the peloton and the podium spots would be sorted out on 13% slopes of East Jewitt Hill. The CRCA/Foundation racer was the first to come unglued on the climb leaving Eliot to battle it out for the top step with Grinta Cyclings, Johan Gibcus. Eliot put in one last effort on the steepest slopes of the climb, 200 meters before the finish, and created enough separation that he could sit up and put his hands in the air and enjoy the fruits of his labor. Hank, having finished his master's event, met Eliot with an ear-to-ear smile and a cold bottle of water for the effort.
Fred finished strong, crossing the line in 8th position, Dan was a few minutes behind Fred, while Troy and Matt, their work of controlling the pace of the peloton complete, found the heat a little too much and stopped numerous times on the last lap to re-hydrate at roadside spigots.
Hank had a great race as well. After a flat in the neutral zone and a painfully slow wheel change (the support van didn't realize the race had started and he was minutes behind!!!!), Hank was able to chase back on and make the selection into a breakaway of 11. Hank was able to drive a wedge in the break on the penultimate climb and drag himself and one other racer clear. They also battled it out for the top step of the podium on the steep slopes of East Jewitt Hill. Hank fought like a lion, but came up about ~30 meters short, a victim of the heat and dehydration cramps. An impressive effort in any case.
 |
| The DER boys after a great weekend of racing in the Catskills. |
The summer racing season is heating up, so check back to see what Downeast Racing is up to. You can also keep tabs with the team on social media:
Twitter: @racingdowneast
Instagram: @racingdowneast
No comments:
Post a Comment