Today we raced the Assault on Devils Kitchen at the Tour of the Catskills. This is the hardest ride I've ever done. 65 miles of racing with about 6000ft of climbing and a 5km climb at the end of the race with up to a 16.7% grade.
This was a cat 4/5 mixed race with a field of about 75. It started out with a lot of climbing that split the field up quick. I was on the back of the lead pack which was about 15-20 racers. I fell of the group a few times and had to work a lot to get back. At one point there was a minor crash in front of me which caused me to lose them by quite a big gap. Luckily there was a huge descent coming up. I rode down the whole thing without touching my brakes in order to catch up. There was no visible pack behind me, so If I didn't catch up, I was pushing the wind by myself.
I stayed in the group with my teammate Alan (who ended up 17th) and my friend Eli who took 4th. As we were coming down another descent which went around a corner, my rear end kicked out sideways and I almost crashed. I got up out of my saddle and realized that my tire had gone flat. This was 2/3 into the race. I was pissed as I knew this would kill my race.
I waited at the intersection but it took about 20 minutes until a support car showed up. We had this great idea at the beginning that it wasn't worth it to carry a flat kit because once you flat you are pretty much done. That was a stupid idea. During the time I waited I watched the rest of the field pass me by. My other teammate Johnny stopped as I was fixing my flat, and we rode off together in dead last place.
Johnny didn't seem to have much left in him so he stuck behind me as I pushed the headwind and my limits for another 20 miles. I picked off a bunch of racers along the way, I'm not really sure how many. I didn't look back until after about 10 miles, and I realized that Johnny was nowhere to be seen. There was a pro 1/2/3 girl who had latched on to my wheel. I was mistaking the sound of her bike for Johnny's. Either way, I kept pushing until I hit the wall. By wall I mean the devils kitchen climb.
I was wondering when the climb would be coming up, and it was obvious. It looked like a fucking wall. I could see people ahead of me struggling on the first 100 meters. My body had energy but my legs were dead from pushing so hard on the way there. I made it up most of it but I had to get off at a couple points. 80% of the people around me were walking their bikes. It was so steep that it was actually hard to walk up. My heart rate was through the roof and I felt like I was seeing stars. Shit was intense.
After the relief of finishing the climb, the last 5 miles or so until the end were rough. I was out of water, light headed and felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. I found myself again alone and just pushed through it. I surprised myself actually as I seemed to still have a bit left in reserve. I picked off a few more on the last stretch.
Overall I ended up 39th. I am still happy with the result because of my huge setback. I know I would have done much better had I not flatted, but thats the price we pay. The feeling after dismounting the bike when I was done was indescribable. I was so spaced out and couldn't make sense of anything around me. After drinking a ton of water, coke, muffins, a cheeseburger and a beer, I sort of realigned my head.
I'm not gonna lie, right now I can say that I don't ever want to do that climb again. I have a feeling that will change and I will probably do this again next year. Somehow through the pain that we endure, there is pleasure, and looking back at today I can somehow say that I had a great time. Til next year?...
The race:
A few photos via instagram:
 |
| 3 bikes stuffed into a Honda CRV |
 |
| finish line |
 |
| race and reward |
 |
| sunset on the way home |
Nice job... Maybe next year you can stick around for Sundays stage. Airport road is a good second to the Kitchen ....Good times.
ReplyDelete