Green Mountain Mayhem

Alright alright alright...
A lot has happened. So much so, I don't even remember most of it. Lost of traveling in the last few weeks, and still some more to come. Cross your fingers and close your eyes, waiting for the Cat 1 upgrade approval so I can mix-it-up down at Univest. The team is running on fumes right now. There are multiple smashed wheels, 1 punctured lung, 1 broken hand, 2 fractured ribs, 1 severe rope burn, and the list goes on.
I though, am feeling nothing short of tired and fulfilled. The season has been an epic roller coaster up to this point. There were these great glimmers of racing, and some horrible flashes of mistakes. That's racing right.
Green Mountain Stage Race... we came within 3 seconds of taking the overall lead. And when I say it was a hard fought battle, it was severely hard. No rest for the wicked, or something like that.

The break down goes like this:
Day 1 (Thursday before the TT) Kyle and some guys go for a short ride to open the legs and scope out the road conditions for the upcoming days of battle. Everything looks good. What DOESN'T look good is the designated parking area for the time trial. They want us to park at Sugarbush, ride DOWN the access road, then race the TT, then ride 6 miles back to Sugarbush, UP the access road. This is no good. So, he bribes a homeowner with some yard space to spare about 200 meters from the start line. We park the team car and set-up all the trainers and break out the cooler and have a good ol' tailgating party, warm-up style. We were in the shade and it was alllllright.
The race:
A few weeks prior we had a GMSR mini camp where everyone came up north and we pre-rode the courses and practiced the TT. On race day, I shaved 50 seconds off of my camp time. In part due to some hot wheels from Echappe Equipment. Also, if any needs some wheels on the cheap, end of the season sale is fast approaching. Anyway, 50 seconds faster than camp, sub 15:00 and still I was 1:20 behind. Well... that was that. Eneas however went fast enough to grab 4th place, Craig was in the teens somewhere and Justin was top 25. We were off to a great start.

Circuit Race:
Fast and furious! 2 Fast 2 Furious! I'll have you know, Craig hates that movie. It was fast, the roads were narrow and soon into the race a break goes up the road with Eneas and Will and some other heavy hitters. Well, they put a minute into the field and Gabe and Craig and I sit back and cool our heels and let things develop. Holy potatoes batman!! The break come back over the KOM and we all come together on the long fast decent. Hmm... Well. Time to make the magic happen. Attack, cover, counter, repeat. It's a fast rolling 10 mile run-in to the finish and it was on. Like the Discovery Channel in Justin Lindine's living room. Things are tense, a crash is brewing, the field is slowing. Trouble! I grab Gabe and we charge off the front of the field, holding a 2 man time trial for a few miles. We're gobbled up on the last big roller and the last thing I see is the ugliest saddle in the race. Troy Lee designs Selle Italia SLR, also known as Justin Wolverine Lindine. He blast off the front, pulls Will Duggan within and 3 others. They're doing mach 4000 and they stick it for the final 2 miles, just grabs 5th and scoops some bonus seconds, and the field was on their wheels with not a meter to spare. I mean seriously, they were caught with no room to move. It was pretty awesome.
I suffered an extreme case of "cross-gut" for my efforts, but was happy with the outcome.

Tomorrow's edition: the road race.