The Cascadilla Hill Climb is a regular Ithaca event that brought in about 50 riders this year. As a solid B racer from the Tuesday Night Races earlier in the season, I registered for this group today. This race has matches with 2 (or sometimes 3) racers at a time. The winner moves on, the loser gets a second chance, until all but one rider has lost twice. I showed up just a minute late, but was able to sneak onto the list in time.

The first match was with Max Kraft and one other rider I hadn’t met before. I was worried with this as the first race, because Max had recently beat me on the Brown Birk race (the last TNR of the season) with a good lead up a climb. Even though I had some tactical ideas in mind, I blasted off the front immediately to get a big gap. This used far too much energy, so I soft pedaled once I was out of sight until they caught up a bit. I kept looking back anticipating that they would catch up and pass me, but there was still a good gap to Max and a bigger one to the other rider. The final stretch came and I pushed one last bit to ensure the gap would stay and won the match. My goal to not waste all my energy on the first ride didn’t work unfortunately!

The second match was with Juan Salazar. We’ve been on many rides together and I knew he had far more miles and experience on hills than I did. Juan is always looking to add more climbing to his long weekend rides. I started slow, hoping to cruise along until the final stretch to pull out a sprint. We rode next to each other most of the way, when I realized my chance. He was shifting occasionally, since the incline does change several times, and I decided that the next shift I hear I’m going to sprint, hoping to get away when he would have a harder chance to latch on. Whether or not this plan was the kicker, I sprinted fast and looked back to see a big enough gap to ensure victory.

My third match was with Sam Kolins, another solid B racer who probably matches my miles this year but has more experience (I’m pretty sure). This race was similar to the last; I tried to match him the whole way until the final stretch. The main difference was that Sam kept pushing the pace. I think he was hoping to tire me out with this pace, in hopes that I would slow, but I was ready for this one. He lead most of the ride with me closely behind getting ready to jump if he sprinted. The last stretch came and off I went to pass him and secure another win and a spot in the top 2!

Finally I got to rest while Sam, Max, and Juan raced together to see who would race me on the final bracket. They are each great racers, so I was eager to see how this one would fare. They looked very close coming across the last bend. Sam had a slight lead over Max, and Juan was close behind. Now I knew my final match would be me and Sam for the second time. We realized that in order for Sam to win, he would have to beat me twice now, since I had yet to lose a match so far. This was reassuring, and I decided to aim for a slight lead (if possible) instead of going all out, hoping that I could either win the next one or tire Sam out enough to win the final match.

After waiting for traffic to pass, Sam and I approached our (possibly) final climb. This was similar to our last race, with Sam pushing the pace early. The difference was that this time about halfway up I decided to push it harder, and had the slightest lead. Once in the cemetery, we realized we started too soon because there was still a family race (parents with kids in tow), and a car in front of them. I passed the traffic, trying to leave as much room as possible for Sam to get by if he was going to pass me also. I rocketed off the front one last time and Sam could not catch me. I had won the B’s! I was thrilled because after the final TNR coming in 2nd and feeling ready for more, I was able to use that energy on this race. I was concerned that it may not have been a fair match with the traffic interfering (I hadn’t looked back at this point), but Sam said that it was indeed a fair win.

This was an amazingly fun race, even though it was extremely taxing to do hill repeats at that kind of speed against very strong competitors! I’d say this concludes the 2009 racing for me, but with cyclocross just starting up, I may have a new style of racing to enjoy during the fall.

Things to remember for next time: I was in the lowest gear the entire time (40×23). At this gear I was able to spin fast enough to not need to stand up at any point. On the flatter sections I considered shifting one over, but decided the extra 2 shifts was not worth the risk, especially with my currently sticky rear shifter.

A small group of 5 left EHP after waiting for any stragglers, route undetermined. We rolled up Ellis Hollow and Eileen made a few decisions and we were set for White Church / Coddington. White Church was recently repaved, but now it’s covered with chipseal. The pace seemed high (maybe I’m just tired from racing yesterday). We stopped at the point to turn on lights and made a smooth ride up Coddington. We turned on Banks and headed back via Rt 79 in a line.

The last Tuesday Night Race of the year ends with the triumphant prize of signing your name on either a Pink Slipper (A’s), Brown Birk (B’s), or the Silver Slipper (C’s). These are all shoes found on the side of the road, a few decades ago, that are now part of Ithaca tradition. I had been racing with the B’s ever since my first race where I easily won with the C’s and realized that I wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected considering this was all new to me.

The race started from the Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve. The route was declared, the A’s rolled out, and it was time for me to ride. The pace wasn’t anything special here, until we turned onto Ringwood where I tried to tempo myself for a steady climb. This is typically a road we slowly ride up before starting the hilly route races, so riding it 5mph faster was a new experience. We then turned onto Midline, where I expected the pace to jump since it’s relatively flat. But nothing happened. A paceline formed, and I swung through a few times only to soft pedal through the left lane and parts of the right. After the recent incidents caused by this group not making aggressive moves, I knew it was time to try something. I’m scared of breaking away because I still don’t know exactly where each turn is.

Coming up the right lane, I went faster to jump off the front. I was cautious not to start a solo sprint. I was looking for a few others to join me so that we could leave the passive racers behind and work together in a smaller line. Especially with some iffy turns where there’s traffic, it’s much faster if you aren’t stuck in a long line. Unfortunately only one other tried to join me on the breakaway. I wasn’t willing to keep pushing it, so I moved off and rolled back into the pack. A few rotations more and still no moves.

Approaching Rt 79, every tends to slow down if there’s no chase, because of the right angle turn onto a major road. This was my chance to make a move. I was near the front and started going faster when Juan came up and said “Let’s Go!” There we were, on the smooth newly-paved Rt 79 with a good gap behind us. I was worried that with only two we had little chance, but I had to take the opportunity. We rotated a few times, and eventually one other joined us. This is good because we had more people to share the work, yet bad because it meant we weren’t too far ahead. The pace was beyond my ability though, and without being able to pull enough we got reeled in by the pack we tried so hard to leave.

I was passed by most of the group, trying to figure out if I was spent or still capable of more. Juan says to me, “I just committed suicide” since we had both used a lot of energy only to end up in the same place as the group. I shouldn’t have let so many pass me here and just held on as best I could. The pace of the group was reasonable, and I held on during the incline well. I realized that somehow my legs were still inspired, so I started to pass several riders at my ideal tempo for this type of hill. We yo-yo’d a bit and finally I made a big effort to get ahead of them to discourage them from catching up. It’s rough when you get passed on a hill by someone that makes it look easy, so I tried my best to be that person this time, since I was so often in the other position. It worked perfectly.

Now I could only see a few other riders ahead of me, although quite far ahead. I tried to keep my pace slightly higher than ever, and was catching up slowly. I knew there were a few hills left, so I tried to find the right pace to catch up without getting to them too soon either. I paused for a few strokes and prepared for one final push to get to the front. I passed these two riders at a considerable speed and didn’t look back. Either they are sprinting to keep on my wheel, or letting me go. Nearing the top of a roller I looked back to see they weren’t right behind me. Could I really be in front?!

There was now only one rider in front of me, although quite a ways up. I wasn’t sure if he was an A or a B rider though. By this point I was fairly spent and conceded that catching Max would be impossible given the remaining distance. My focus here was to keep enough of a gap in front of those other two behind me. I looked back a few times and all was good. I even upped the pace a few times knowing that they were likely trying to catch me now that I wasn’t increasing the gap. On the final hill, I stopped looking back and just pedaled waiting to see the A’s at the top. I was the second B rider on top of the hill when an oncoming car came up, slightly out of their lane because they moved away from the A’s on the side of the road. At this point I was done racing and just rolled along when the two other riders tried to sprint past to catch me before the sign. So I may have finished somewhere in 2nd-4th because I wasn’t going to push it with a car right there. I’m calling it 2nd though.

This was by far my best performance in a TNR. It’s hard to believe that I not only tried to make breaks for the first time, but had a moderately successful one for a few miles AND was able to still keep up on the next hill and still manage to get ahead of most everyone. I think next year with a little more confidence of the routes and early-year miles again, I should be able to place more, and possibly will try to hang with the A’s… possibly.

With earlier rain, it was only Sam Kollins, John Dennis, and I ready for the 5:30pm start. We looked up, noted the direction of the clouds, and headed away from the storm that had passed which went through the northwest corner. I love the northwest corner… maybe because so many rides go southwest, maybe because it’s just rolling hills forever, or maybe because there is almost no traffic.

We kept up a moderate pace, with no huffing and puffing which was great after the racing yesterday. We made route decisions on the fly, and I got to ride on many roads new to me. I’m always up for riding on new roads instead of the same old roads. We made it back to EHP before sundown, but after stopping at the office I turned on the lights and rode home swiftly.

24 miles from EHP and back.

We started up Ringwood, and the A’s decided to hit some major hills and ending on Mount Pleasant. Thankfully the B’s chose a different route this time going on Hurd and then Snyder Hill. Right from the beginning a break gained some ground while the group was still adjusting after the initial stop sign. I was near the front and flew off to catch up, although no one else came with me. The pace was above 30mph for a minute while the break tried to gain more ground, but they eventually slowed just a bit and the others caught up.

The turn for Hurd is very sharp, and after getting back on track, the hill starts in just a few hundred feet.  It’s certainly difficult to start a hill climb without much initial momentum! After about 10 seconds of pacing myself but still climbing hard, my right side was cramping more than ever. I tried to ride through the pain but I was already falling back and not feeling better. I kept riding hoping that I could eventually catch up, but by the time I felt like I could get going fast again, I could only see two other riders and they were far ahead and trying to speed up as well. I never did catch them.

At this point I knew the lead group was well ahead with no chance of me being able to gain a few minutes to catch them so I rode a bit easy until the cramps ended. At that point I went into TT mode and was riding 30+mph on the drops but still didn’t reach anyone. Once I couldn’t see anyone else ahead of me, I decided to just stay on Rt 79 to get home before sunset instead of riding up the next hill. I was pedaling slowly and then 4 other B riders caught me. I didn’t think there was anyone behind me! I rode with them for a bit until they turned of 79, and I continued towards EHP with Jed.

32 miles this evening, plus the commute home

I was hoping to race on Tuesday, but with on and off thunder storms in the afternoon, I caught a bus home instead of riding in the rain. I aimed for riding with the Wednesday night group instead, but forgot that the regular group leaves at 5:30pm and the women’s group leaves at 6pm. I arrived at 6pm, and realized my timing confusion when I saw 20 women and only 2 other men for this ride. They said that the guys were okay to ride this time, so thankfully I didn’t have to ride alone.

I can’t recall the exact route, but we headed up the walking path and continued uphill through neighborhoods for quite a while. Somehow we ended up on Rt 79, and then headed up more long (but not very steep) hills until we reached a juvenile prison to wait up for the rest of the group. From there it was a lot of downhill riding, and at one point I reached 48mph (still my fastest speed after hitting it several times now).

Rt 79 was all torn up and waiting for new pavement, so we didn’t stay on that for long before heading back to EHP. About 25 miles total for this ride.

It’s been over 90F out the past few days, and while ride reports are coming in from >100 mile dirt randonees on the D2R2 ride, and probably soon from the FLCC Sunday ride around Keuka, I stayed at home hiding from the heat. I had originally planned on riding over 150 miles from the West Hill to meet the FLCCers in Watkins Glen to ride a century from there around Keuka and back again. But I just can’t stand sweating while riding, and figured that 15 hours of that would be too much time suffering, especially since I would have carried more weight in food and water in preparation for my longest ride.

I did however get out to another Finger Lakes Land Trust location near Cayuta Lake (west of Ithaca, south of Mecklenburg). This time it was the Martin Nature Preserve. There are two loops about a mile long that go through old Christmas tree farms, although I had a hard time picturing where those trees would have been. Much of the forest was old trees, including one 300+ year old white oak. While it wasn’t very tall, it was over 5ft in diameter and the limbs reached out very far.

Kathy and I left around 6pm, and by the time we were hiking it was then under 80F. With a thick canopy above and a stream next to us for half of the short hike, it stayed quite cool.

I met up with 5 others at Cass Park for a 9am start. There was a slight chance of rain in the morning, and because of that everyone else stayed at home or found shorter routes. Right off the start, the pace was at my threshold heading up Rt 89. After about 10 miles, I believe two riders had dropped off, and one had joined that skipped the start.

Heading up Rt 89 along the lake was my first experience in a paceline. This was only my third ride with a group of experienced riders, so I was still trying to get comfortable riding closely and staying alert to the actions of the guy ahead of me at all times. When we were near the shore, the wind had picked up just a little so we rode in a tight paceline for a while, bringing the average speed above 19mph.

I had no idea that you could still ride with a group but not pull, so after a minute of hard pedaling, I pulled off the front, and the next little hill was just too much for me to keep up. The other 4 guys were ready to keep pushing along, and they all passed me while I slowed down. I then realized how much benefit I was getting from the draft of the other riders, so I sprinted several times trying to catch up, but ultimately they were pulling away faster than I was able to keep up. I just wasn’t at the same level as them, considering these were seasoned riders and I was just on my 3rd group ride. At this point I had gone 45 miles, full speed, without a break.

Not knowing exactly where the route went, I just kept pedaling and watching the GPS for a place to round the top of the lake. At 50 miles was a convenience store where I saw the other bikes and the guys were inside. One of them told me that I was just a minute behind them, so I guess my sprinting kept me nearby but not with the group. We left after a short break, and I could only hang on for 5 miles. I was done riding that fast for the day!

The rest of the afternoon I rode much slower, around 14mph, took several breaks and tried to enjoy the solitary ride. When I reached the point where I had to decide if this was going to be a century ride of 100 miles or around 85 instead, I decided to go for it. At an upcoming turn I got back on the short route because I realized I was just too tired to ride more miles. I got downtown, tried to find a bus up Rt 96 to get home, but the next one was more than an hour away. I pedaled very slowly up the hill to get home!

From John Dennis:

Eight of us departed EHP about 8:45am under partially cloudy skies, delayed by my hastily gathering oximeter readings from everyone.  The ride out 89 to Brooktondale, down White Church and Coddington to Willseyville, and down 96B to Gridleyville (which consists of one house) was uneventful.  We turned left onto the Gridleyville Crossing Road and continued to 96, where Luat Vuong headed back to town.  The all-male residual consisted of Andy Goodell, Rob Ruttenberg, Ben Gray, Jeremy Gardiner, Owen Bailey, Sam Kolins and me. Shortly after passing the T-junction to Halseyville Road, we passed Wayne Gottlieb and Mark Sorrells heading the other way, back to Ithaca.  They had already ridden the Halseyville loop while the air was still cool. Smart fellahs!

At Spencer, we found many riders saddling up including: Mark Sheehan, Jim Millar, Misty McPhee, Eric Lee, Sarah Strickland, Doug Dylla, Brenda Smith, Marcy Robinson, Erin Mcleod, Mary Mulvanerton, Gary Hodges, Jessica Walden, Rob Fergeson, and Jim McGarry.

The approach to Halseyville Road was actually blocked off by a new concrete bridge being cured under burlap moistened by three or more sprinklers that made us dance as we skipped across carrying our wet bikes.  A local middle-aged cyclist stopped to watch as if he could not believe what he was seeing.  Air temps, cloud cover, and scenery were all excellent.  At Garry’s suggestion we turned right onto Ellis Creek Road about half way down to Route 17C.  This new route to 17C cuts the travel time on 17C down by half and treated us to new landscapes.   I suspect that anyone not in the first two groups or so continued straight.  We did not take the alternate route to Waverly on West River Road on the PA side of the river, as we had already passed the bridge that crosses over to Hoopers Valley.  After refueling in Waverly, we headed west on 17C and, taking the left over the bridge to 17, we hung a sharp right onto River Road and followed this charming, but pot-hole-ridden single-lane road alongside the Chemung River.  River Road brought us to Route 60, which we followed for half a mile west before turning north onto Route 3/Wyncoop Creek Road.  Our rolling climb had begun. Mark Sheehan continued west on Route 60 towards Elmira.

At the intersection with Marsh Road/Rte 4, we waited to regroup.  However, we learned from Andy or Sam that Garry and possibly others had gone back to assist with a flat that occurred some distance behind them.  Our lead group reaching Spencer consisted of Andy, Owen, Sam,  Jim Millar, Jim McGarry, Eric Lee, Misty McPhee, Ben Gray, and myself.  Continuing on to Ithaca au velo were Andy and Owen with Jim going part of that distance to reach home. [Andy] recorded his average speed from East Hill Plaza to Spencer as 17.6 mph with a distance of about 68 miles.  Jim recorded cumulative climb in the Spencer-Halsey Valley Loop as 2000 feet.

Andy:

And 3 of us (Sam, Owen and I) continued on from Spencer back to Ithaca. We took Fisher-Settlement Rd to South Danby Rd, which hits 96b. FS is a long dirt road with lots of small ups and downs, and by this time my legs were about done and the avg. speed was 13.5mph from Spencer to Ithaca. We split shortly before Ithaca College, and I rolled down the hill from there and the other two headed to East Hill Plaza, I believe.

Ithaca to Spencer: 17.7mph
After the Spencer loop: ~67 miles, 17.6mph
Total: ~87 miles, 16.5mph

Owen posted photos online on Picasa

And 3 of us (Sam, Owen and I) continued on from Spencer back to Ithaca. We
took Fisher-Settlement Rd to South Danby Rd, which hits 96b. Fisher-Settl.
is a long dirt road with lots of small ups and downs, and by this time my
legs were about done and the avg. speed was 13.5mph from Spencer to Ithaca.
We split shortly before Ithaca College, and I rolled down the hill from
there and the other two headed to East Hill Plaza, I believe.

Ithaca to Spencer: 17.7mph
After the Spencer loop: ~67 miles, 17.6mph
Total: ~87 miles, 16.5mph

This was my first ride with the Finger Lakes Cycling Club (FLCC). The group met at Cass Park, including Terri, Lewis, and Vanessa and left under cloudy skies. Just before we reached Trumansburg it started raining. When we reached the parking lot to meet with potential other rides, no one was there. However one rider we passed on the way thought we were just the front pack, and caught up to us when we stopped at the coffee shop. We cut the route short by going towards Perry City, mostly south of Trumansburg and then back east crossing 96 and heading down 89. By the time we got back into town, it started to downpour as I got to the Commons. At the end, my gps said 35 miles and 15.5mph moving average.