The Yellow and Green of CCD was flying strong today at Hampshire 100. Tim talked me into racing Expert, so Brian Currier, Tim Trotter and I were all line up in Expert.

The race started out very fast with Brian setting the pace. The first couple miles were a fast pace line of Expert racers. Within the first couple miles we caught up to the Elites who were riding casual. The group then rode together for awhile, until the first climb. The elites, and Brian started to pull away and I never saw them again. I started to ride my own race at this point. There was a fun decent down one of Crochet Mountain's trails. Those water bars caught me off guard at first, but by the last couple I had them pretty well timed and was able to get some air. Awhile later we made it to the powerline climb. This thing just sucked. It was steep and rocky and I did everything to keep pedaling until I realized that I'm only 20miles into a 60 mile race, so I jumped off and walked. A ways after the top of the climb I ended up getting a flat that took about 5 minutes to change because the CO2's were not playing nicely. As I was sitting there a Sport rider caught me and passed. That made me a bit nervous, but I realized at the end of the race that he was just a fast Sport racer. I got going again and realized that there was still not enough air in the tire so I had to stop and put more in. Definitely going to tubeless now. The race went on pretty uneventfully for awhile other than being very careful about my lines so as to not blow my rear tube again. After one of the food stations I made a wrong turn and spent about 10 minutes going down a powerline trail and then having to climb back up it once I realized I had made a wrong turn. From then on the race went on pretty well. I was feeling good and just keeping the legs going. There was one Expert that passed me when I had the flat. I caught him but was then passed by him when I made the wrong turn. I made up the 10 minutes and caught him again with about 10 miles to go and never saw him again. The last 7 miles of the course were by far the best. The single track flowed nicely, the climbs were fun and the downhill was fast. Unfortunately, I was so tired at this point and fighting cramps that I couldn't really enjoy them. Then finally, I come out of the woods cross the road to the end of the race, make my way around the track and cross the finish. I was happy with how I rode, and very surprised when I discovered I won my age group in Expert. I think I need to stick to these longer races.


So, the race was definitely more painful that 12hrs of Great Glen and I was told that it is more difficult than Shenandoah, so I am happy about that.

The race was definitely different, just kind of riding through the woods and back roads following arrows. There were some parts where I literally didn't see the trail, you just look through the woods for the next orange arrow. Other than the one wrong turn I made, the arrows were great. Turns out I wasn't the only one who made that mistake.

Now, time to rest till Shenandoah, and get some Stans to make my bike tubeless.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Good Job boys. That's what a 24HOGG warm up does for you.

This is one of my favorite races simply because of the simplicity of the event. 62 miles of a little bit of everything except blown and groomed trails make for several hours of adventurous fun. Due to a lack of long ride training my plan was to go easy at the start and just stay with the leaders without doing too much work. Figured this would help delay the inevitable fatigue later in the race. So I stuck with this brilliant plan all the way to mile .4, I suck at following my plans. Some guy took off on the first dirt road section and I could not deal with him pedaling away from us. So I get all aero like and real him in, dragging Ken, Tim and all the other experts along with me (that?s right, I called Ken and Tim experts). Soon we catch and blow by the single speed peloton as expected. What I did not realize is that the elites were mixed in that group also and they latched onto the CCD train as we went by. Over the next several miles I pulled the train at a reasonable pace. I should have forced others to help, but I?m not that smart apparently. When the course finally starts to turn upwards a couple guys sneak by. Now I still am thinking the Elites are gone up the road and that these guys passing me are experts. So I try to keep up with them without much success. At the first aid station I am told that four have gone through leaving me utterly confused. It is supposed to be the entire elite field and the four that passed me that had gone through. At station #2 it is confirmed that I am the leading expert and I feel better about not being able to keep up with those in front of me. When I hit the power line climb Alec Petro and Gregory Jancaitis are just ahead. I ride as far as I deem reasonable and hop of to begin the hike. At the top of the hike the top two elites are just remounting, never to be seen again. Most impressive was Jancaitis never getting off his bike and riding the entire climb. More impressive, he rode 27 laps at Great Glen just last weekend. Now onto the second railroad bed, and this one gets nasty loose and sandy for the last mile. I ride this section pretty well and latch back onto Alec and Gregory near the end. Now some serious climbing starts and they open up the gap once again. I end up riding alone for the next several miles. Then I round a corner and there they are right in front of me again, and another rider is right behind me from out of nowhere. Turns out they made the same wrong turn as Ken and allowed me to catch up. I stay with the three for the next few miles of mostly singletrack and then on a rough downhill the rear tire pressure decides to equalize with the surrounding environment (means I got a flat dummy). A quick fix and I am on my way with no real harm. Never did see Alec or Gregory again, but did catch the one ss that went by during the pitstop. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. Got a bit behind on nutrition at one point, but caught it early enough to avoid a bonk and finish feeling strong. The last 10 miles are much improved over past years and were a lot of fun. The rain held off until the last mile or so for me, so weather was never a factor. Ended up finishing in 5:29:50, good for first overall in the expert class. This was good for a nice NH100 wind chime and two very sore nipples.

I love this event, Randi and crew due a great job making it happen. Put it on your calendar for next year and I may even give you a pull for the first few miles.

Here are a few post race pics, http://s973.photobucket.com/albums/ae217/bjc1515/2010%20Races/2010%20Hampshire100/
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

[url]http://mtbmind.com/forums/topic.php?id=68[/url]

Here is a little video. You can see the Green and Yellow train at the front.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini