It’s with a heavy heart and a kicked dog (just kidding, I didn’t kick my dog, I don’t have a dog—dogs require walking—bike racers don’t walk) that I write my Battenkill recap. Before I get to the dirty details, I should start with a little bit of background.

I registered at midnight on the day registration opened to make sure I got a spot, little did I know that I would be put into the cat 4X “pool of death”. I appreciate that Dieter tries to put teammates together, but I was more concerned about the guys who we were put up against. As we were lining up for the race, I heard that we would be racing against a former German Grass Criterium Champ. I’m not sure how the categorization process works at USA cycling, but placing a stud like that in a field with developing cat 4s like us seems really unfair. I don’t think the guy placed but, I’m sure I saw him near the front killing it in the section that were most grass-like. That guy should be at least a cat two. I’m working on an email for our district representative, so I’ll let you know how that progresses.

Although I did have a killer location for my “Holiday Van” hotel room, I found myself getting a little too cold in the night leading up to the race, and this led to some tossing and turning. My host family’s teenaged son also had a job delivering pizzas, so he would come home after his shift at night and wake me up when he pulled into the driveway. If I go back next year, I may have to pay him to not work on the week leading up to Battenkill. It may seem like a waste of money, but these are the details that help win races.

Speaking of details, I thought that I had nailed my tire pressure choice for the day. The barometer on my iPhone indicated that I should inflate my tires to 88.75 PSI (this is where tubulars come in really handy, if you’re not racing with tubulars, you’re at a BIG disadvantage). So I pumped up my tires to 88.75 in the rear and 87.5 in the front, because I like to feel the extra suppleness that having 1.25 less PSI in the front gets you, in hindsight, this may have been a big mistake.

We lined up for the race and we took off. I felt fine in the first section, but didn’t go near the front as that’s a total rookie mistake. I stayed sheltered and conserved energy by getting into an aero tuck for the large percentage of the early miles. But when we hit Juniper Swamp Road, things went sour. As soon as we started climbing in the dirt, it felt like my front wheel was an anchor weighing me down, I was REALLY missing that extra 1.25 PSI in my front wheel. It felt like I was riding in quicksand. I dropped through the pack. I saw Jeff there (who didn’t have to work after all) and I told him to pace me on the hill and then back up to the leaders on the downhill, but he just kept climbing. We had a conversation about this after the race, so I won’t bore you with the details here.

At the top of the hill, I found myself gapped off with a under inflated front tire and no teammates to pace me back. I went into “beast mode”, put my head down and put the metal to the pedals. I caught back on, but I had used up one of my matches. I got a bottle from our special “secret feed zone”. (All the pro teams do this, waiting for the actual feed zone is too late, you need people all over the course). The bottle exchange was little awkward because I was using a new feeder instead of my girlfriend—right now, we’re BUUB (broken up until Battenkill), so I paid my host family’s pizza delivering son to deliver my bottles.

Getting the bottle raised my spirits, and I settled in to the pack again, we hit Joe Bean Road and my under inflated tire nailed me AGAIN. I could even feel it on a climb on tarmac! I was gapped again and Jeff was nowhere to be seen (did I mention we had a “conversation” in the parking lot after the race?). I think this is where the German Grass Crit Champion hit the gas because the pack took off like a rocket. My day was done and it was undone by 1.25 pounds of tire pressure. I was super bummed. I didn’t even talk to the guys who formed a chase group behind the race. We rolled together for the rest of the race, and then the bike racer in me came alive on the finishing straight as I jumped my companions for the placing in the chase group. It was a small consolation, but it confirmed what I knew—if I could’ve just stayed with the front group, I would’ve had a huge sprint at the end.

It was a big bummer to have so much left in the tank at the end, and I think that relying on my iPhone to give me accurate atmospheric pressure was a HUGE mistake (note to self: be sure to pack a barometer next year). But the race was a good learning experience, and the extra race miles mean that I’ll be flying for the next fews weeks of park races, especially since I’m racing for revenge!