Putney West Hill Race 2010

2nd place and afraid to even touch "the one" Michael Broderick!

33x20 has been my workhorse gear for climbing races. And when I say climbing I mean normal climbing. Not Mount Snow climbing. I think I will be putting on my 22 tooth cog that I got for being in Single Speed USA in Tucson last February for Mount Snow.

Putney has some good climbs in it though and I suffered through them with my one gear. I think if I had gears I would have cranked them all the way down until I was spinning like the road runner and not really go anywhere. The climbs reminded me of riding my fixie over the winter and pushing a 42x17 up these big hills in the north west corner of CT.

Before the race Josh mentioned that Justin Lindine would be at the race. So I thought for sure he would win. But instead of Lindine, Michael Broderick shows up straight off the world cup tour in Europe. Super nice guy. I imagine he was yawning out on the course when no one could stay on his wheel.

On the starting line I was looking around for some other top guys. Powell, Snyder, Mooradian,? Nope. So who do I have to look out for to get some points. Foley was the only one that I would have to worry about. Unfortunately for him he was having a bad day and finished 7th. And Josh was also not feeling good for 8th place.

30 seconds to go! I hope this works.

Coyote Hill 2010

33x20

John Foley and I duked it out but Foley took 3rd place and me 4th.

I think the most I think the most interesting thing about the race was our bikes. John has a full suspension 29'er with gears and I'm on a fully rigid ss 29'er. Except for both being 29'ers they were essentially at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

The terrain was brutal with roots and rocks and fast down hills. At one point I had to launch over a mud puddle at the bottom of one of the fast descents hoping that It wouldn't end my season early.

I dropped Foley on the initial long fire road climb and gain about 45 seconds then he would catch me on the back half of the course. My guess is that he used all of his suspension to compensate for the loss of time. Then we would finish the lap together.

The last lap I knew my only chance was to hit it hard on the climb no matter what happened. Sure enough he caught me towards the end of the lap and I held his wheel. He was in front of me as we passed Sweeney walking his bike from a double flat. I was on his wheel and needed to pass him but couldn't find the strength or line.

Foley's HRM was going off like he was a ticking time bomb. My own alarms were going off in my head.

I couldn't get around him and that was it.

So is it the bike or the rider? You decide.

I also thought that my Stan's crow tire worked really well on the wet roots.

The Monte was there too. Unfortunately he was running on empty and all of the training for his big event left him without a leg to stand on so he dropped out after the first lap.

All of his training payed off in Ohio at the Mohecain 100. Harlen Price and Gerry Pflug didn't know what they were up against. Way to go Monte!