Stage 1 - Lookout & First Stop Bike Shop Circuit Race - 72 miles
A beautiful crisp mountain morning (32 degrees) began the Memorial Day Weekend at the Killington Stage Race. It's good to be back with the Kelly boys after a couple weeks of hiatus. The first day provided a some fast racing with lots of downhill and gentle climbs. Nothing had much chance of staying away and I spent most of the day hidden in the field working as little as possible. Jon D'Alba joined us and patrolled the front to perfection with Ben Frederick changing rolls from usually leadership to helper and absolutely killed it. Curtis did his thing making sure any breaks up the road were safe and the rest of us sat in. It was awesome to see those guys take their jobs to heart and do such a good job. I accidentally got in a 5 man break with a lap to go just by following a wheel and then the peloton easing up. We never had a chance gaining no more then 35s and I did as little work as possible. We were caught by 5k to go and I rolled in on the crazy 50mph downhill sprint finish. All safe for the day with our GC guys feeling good and ready to go. Tomorrow brings another 72 miles with a big climb finish that should shake things up a lot before Monday's TT. Should be another great day in Vermont.
Stage 2 - Champion System Road Race - 76 miles
Today was set up for the GC guys with a tough 20 minute climb finish up to Killington Mountain Resort, a hard 3 km began the effort with 4 km of rollers until the final 1200m up to the resort. Curtis and Ben Fred made the early break at mile 1 and the rest of us spent the long downhill sitting in and barely pedaling. Ben played chicken with a rider from CCP and unfortunately that game brought them both back to the field. We hit the first KOM of the day and rode up in no rush and we were told the break had 3:00. Another loop around the KOM let the break out to 5:00. We came off the last KOM with 25 miles to go and after a big descent and a brief stint on gravel the peloton was rolling and began to real back in time. On the gravel Dakota had the quote of the day asking Jeremy Powers, "Hey, Jeremy, do you even ride on dirt?" Killed it. We turned onto the highway with 13 miles to the climb and a stiff headwind and slight uphill. We got the entire Kelly train with Ben Fred, D'Alba, and Dakota leading the rest of us out in a perfect single file line. Those guys just killed it snaking us through the group and depositing us right at the front of the group as we made the left hand turn with 8.5km (~5mi) of climbing left.
After taking a little break from riding last week I wanted to help the guys that have helped me all year for them to have a shot at the win. I was a little too aggressive early but helped set the pace for the first 2K or so before getting popped and riding my way in for a whatever finish. It was a lessoned learned as I really wanted to help the guys on the rollers but Chris smashed it and finished up in 9th in a monster field with Seitz and JT coming in just behind in 12th and 13th. We would have loved a little higher finish but honestly in this field we're really happy. More importantly the TT is tomorrow and I think our guys will definitely move up and there is less than 30s to third for Chris. I'm excited to give it a crack myself but more to see how our guys shake up the GC tomorrow. We want to win the overall but we rode everything perfectly and having Curtis in the break meant we could keep everyone together and fresh until the bottom of the climb. It was an impressive day of riding even if it didn't end in a win.
ITT - Stage 3
After the second stage we had 3 guys hoping to move up into the Top 5 in the ITT with Jake, Seitz, and Chris. I was excited for Chris and the others to give it a good crack, all three of those guys can rip a TT and watching how Chris was riding I knew he would smash it. Jake won the TT at Page County with Seitz just behind so I knew they could move up big spots. The TT was 17km mostly a gentle uphill, then a big flat straight section, followed by a climb and rolling into the finish. I didn't do much, but I was irrelevant to the race and was mentally and physically fried by the TT start. I was only able to catch Chris coming in but he was flying! When things finally shook out it was Chris in 9th in the TT with a time of 22:50 moving him up to 6th place overall in the stacked field for the best result of his career. Jake ended up coming in with a time of 23:09 for 12th and Seitz at 23:31 for 17th. The final GC shakeup left Chris in 6th, +1:05, Jake in 9th at +1:39, and Seitz in 12th at +2:01.
Overall all it was a really good weekend. The field was incredibly strong this year and we did everything to set our guys up to give them the best chance at success. We always want to win, but Chris got a huge result for us in 6th and in the end we are as happy as we can be with that. It's a huge step forward for Chris getting his first shot at really leading the team and not stuck in the mile 0 break all day. He did a great job at stepping in to that role and finding success. JT and Seitz rode like old pro's and gave us 2 other great GC riders. From here it's time to focus on the build up to Amateur Nationals with a bit stop at the Clarendon Air Force Crits in DC on June 13/14th.
Keep those pedals spinning,
BSlow
Keep those pedals spinning,
BSlow