Katie Lamben (TEAm Lipton) won The Tour of the Hilltowns by a whopping 6 minutes. We begged her for a race report and she begrudgingly acceded.

Tour of the Hilltowns

Windsor, MA

August 20, 2005

This might be one of the most boring (not to mention self-centered) race reports in the history of race journals. But here goes!

The course starts with 20 miles downhill. I attacked 3 or 4 miles in just to liven things up and warm my muscles (it was foggy and wet); I got away with a Verizon girl. She didn’t want to work, so we came back to the field. I attacked again a mile later and got away with a different Verizon girl and another rider. The other girl was very gung-ho so I thought I’d just put a little bit in and keep our little break going. By the base of the course’s major climb (mile 20) we had 3 minutes or so on the field. East Hawley Road is about a 4 mile climb with no huge pitches but a pretty steady grade. I figured I’d take my chances alone, so I just rode at my own pace, dropped the other girls, and kept going. I think by the top I had a couple of minutes on rider 2, and no idea where the field was.

I just kept motoring…36 miles all by my lonesome. I got stung by a bee, providing a moment of excitement. Merlin in the Campy car kept me company. Towards the end when I was feeling oh-so-tired, I rode over the edge of what I thought was a tumbleweed (OK, so those aren’t so common in Massachusetts, but I was at the point of exhaustion when one neither sees so well nor considers the ridiculousness of the thoughts that spring to the numb mind). It was a snarl of steel wire, which tangled in my pedals and derailleur. I think Merlin was glad for a distraction after a very boring ride – he jumped out and untangled me and sent me off again. I made it up the last little hills and sailed in to the finish victorious but pretty pooped. When I waited 6 minutes for the field to arrive, I couldn’t figure out whether to be happy that I spanked ’em, or annoyed that I spanked myself so hard, as my friend likes to say, “sin necesidad” [without necessity].

Katie (far right) with her teammates at Owasco.

My 2 teammates in the field had done a pretty impressive job of keeping the pace as sloooooow as the honey we like to drink in our Lipton tea…until the sprint where Zoe sprang to a fantastic third place. Other than that, I really have no idea what was going on in the field. Someone else has to write THAT report.

Best Regards,

Katie Lambden