Battenkill - an actual race report

Kyle, Marty, and I took the start with the nerves high in the field. Kyle and I faded to the back for the first 10 miles of pavement, and I was feeling safer there than in the bunch with everyone's elbows flicking and heads swiveling. But coming into the covered bridge and first gravel section, I snuck on up to the front. It was a good thing for me, because I avoided the first crash of the day. Kyle, however, did not and chased like a madman. He made it back on 5 miles later, but just in time for the hardest gravel climb of the day and spent the next 10 miles chasing again until the lights went out.

An early break of 2 riders went up the road at 15 miles in and were long gone for the entire race - Pavel Gonda ended up muscling that break all 60 miles and taking the win! Marty was staying out of trouble by hitting the front before each climb and fading towards the back to save energy. And I was just staying near the front as much as I could. Things started lighting up on the roads leading up to the hardest gravel section - Meeting House Road. Another break of three formed in that section and stayed away to the finish, and my one regret of the race was not being more attentive here, but I was playing it conservative and stayed with the field. Meeting House was fun as I started to play cards and hit the front and stay in good position as the field shrank to about 25 guys.

After Meeting House, I hit the last climb and suffered my way into the remaining 12 guys that would contest for 6th place. I was thinking about this RadioLab Episode about limits and a text message from Lindsay that said "You have no limits", and made it to the descent to contest the sprint for 6th and think about how beautiful the race had been.

Coming into the finish / 2 kilometers to go, 3 guys slipped off the front one and two at a time, with no reaction from our field. Unfortunately Marty was dropped on the very last climb and unable to help keep things together for me. I sat back and hoped that they wouldnt get far enough that I couldnt overtake them in the sprint. I took the last leadout at 500 meters to go and jumped and barely missed out on catching the 3 attackers. Ended up taking the sprint and got 9th overall. Marty was chasing my group the whole way into town and ended up coming in solo for 19th place.