Jiminy Race Report

On Saturday, hundreds of brave NYC riders ventured north to compete in the Jiminy Peak Road race. This was my first time racing at Jiminy and I have to say it is a great course, and a great race. The road is quite wide and in great shape and the terrain is challenging but not brutal. The race even finishes on a decent little climb that I thought would work well for me.

I prepared for the race by hosting a boozy dinner party at my apartment until 1am on Friday night. After a few hours of fitful sleep, I rolled out of bed with a hangover, brushed the wine taste from my mouth, jumped in the car and set out for the Berkshires. I should have known at this point that this was not going to be my race, but I’m a very slow learner.

I arrived around 10am and the weather looked grim. It was dark, cold and raining and it did not look to be clearing. By the time we rolled out, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still dark and the road was pretty wet. The race began pretty slowly with some innocuous attacks, but at least it was dry and warming up, so it was almost enjoyable. I was unfamiliar with the course, so I planned to spend the first lap getting familiar with the course and looking for good spots to attack later in the race.

Getting impatient

I was told that it was unlikely that a break would stick on this course, so I decided to try and push the pace on the climb with the goal of forcing a selection a la Bear Mountain. I went to the front after the right hand turn and picked up the pace and succeeded in stringing the field out, but did very little damage to anyone but myself. That first effort lasted 15 minutes and we averaged 33.5 kmph up the climb. For the 15 minute effort, I averaged 325W (345W normalized). At the top of the climb, the road took a short downhill and then turned onto the finishing climb, which took a bit less than 4 minutes. I averaged 330W (355W normalized) for that climb, but was losing places all the way up.

I recovered on the long downhill and flat after the finish line and decided to try the same strategy on the next lap (again – slow learner). This time, there were some others that joined me on the front and we again pushed the pace to try and force a selection, but again did little damage. The climb on the second lap was about 3 kmph slower and I averaged 304W (330W normalized) and 317W (353W normalized). At this point I began to realize that my (foolish) strategy had done nothing to break the field up, and that I my legs were really beginning to feel the effects of 2 pointless efforts. The last ride up the hill, I sat in and realized why my efforts hadn’t done anything – The last time up the hill, we averaged 32 kmph, but sitting in I averaged 227W (254W normalized) – that is to say that I was putting out almost 100W more on the front – no wonder I wasn’t dropping anyone!!!

We went around the final turn and onto the finishing climb and I opened it up and almost immediately realized that my race was done. My legs were spasming and I was totally spent, the result of a terribly conceived and poorly executed race strategy. I rolled up the final climb at a leisurely pace with Alex Ostroy to place 72nd –my worst placing ever. My ride was so bad that I even got calls after the race from competitors wondering what happened to me.

Good results come from lots of preparation, good fitness, and a sound race strategy – all of which I was very short of on Sat. I can only hope that I have a better ride at Bear – I guess it can’t be much worse.

Race Data:

Duration: 2:19:15

Work: 1739 kJ

Norm Power: 274

Distance: 85.59 km

Peak 30s: 607w

Peak 1min: 517w

Peak 5min: 369w

Peak 20min: 333w