ToV Stage 4: Douthat State Park to Waynesboro Road Race
Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007
The "Queen Stage" of the race, Stage 4 featured a 108 mile death march with two Cat 3 climbs and two Cat 1 climbs, the second of which has sustained pitches of 15 - 18%. The day was seriously going to be epic.
Thankfully, the race started pretty reasonably and stayed that way for much of the race. There were a bunch of attacks, but nothing was really sticking. We hit the base of the first Cat 1, "Vesuvius," and the pace increased. The Colombian Caico squad of the race leader were throwing down the gauntlet on the climb.
Given my meltdown the day before, I had the 25 on and vowed to just climb at or below threshold all day. My legs were coming around but I didn't want to kill it. So, I did just that. I was gapped off the leaders at the top of Vesuvius, but I got in a great chase group of 20 guys and we Team TT'd it back to the front of the race, after Caico shut down the pace at the feed zone.
I hung well with the front group until the base of the final Cat 1, Reed's Gap. Again, I started the climb slowly and worked into my threshold power and kept it there. Even with the 25 on I was still climbing out of the saddle at only 7 mph.
It was great seeing all the fans on the top of this climb, especially the UVA supporters cheering us on. That really helped, since the hill was really starting to wear on me.
I was about 45 seconds behind a chase group of 20 at the top of the climb, but thanks to Mark's local knowledge of the hill, I made up some serious time on the descent. I can't tell you all how well those Cervelos descend; so solid and smooth!
Back on the flats, I bridged up to the caravan and I see Daniel Holloway's ugly mug yelling at me out of the VMG car to get back in the chase group. While cursing Holloway the whole time, I kicked it into high gear and re-joined the others.
We were a few minutes down on the leaders and the chase group I was in this time was not working so well together, despite some serious heckling by me. I rolled in somewhere in the top 30 and was seriously smiling from ear to ear that this epic stage was in the books.
Thankfully, the race started pretty reasonably and stayed that way for much of the race. There were a bunch of attacks, but nothing was really sticking. We hit the base of the first Cat 1, "Vesuvius," and the pace increased. The Colombian Caico squad of the race leader were throwing down the gauntlet on the climb.
Given my meltdown the day before, I had the 25 on and vowed to just climb at or below threshold all day. My legs were coming around but I didn't want to kill it. So, I did just that. I was gapped off the leaders at the top of Vesuvius, but I got in a great chase group of 20 guys and we Team TT'd it back to the front of the race, after Caico shut down the pace at the feed zone.
I hung well with the front group until the base of the final Cat 1, Reed's Gap. Again, I started the climb slowly and worked into my threshold power and kept it there. Even with the 25 on I was still climbing out of the saddle at only 7 mph.
It was great seeing all the fans on the top of this climb, especially the UVA supporters cheering us on. That really helped, since the hill was really starting to wear on me.
I was about 45 seconds behind a chase group of 20 at the top of the climb, but thanks to Mark's local knowledge of the hill, I made up some serious time on the descent. I can't tell you all how well those Cervelos descend; so solid and smooth!
Back on the flats, I bridged up to the caravan and I see Daniel Holloway's ugly mug yelling at me out of the VMG car to get back in the chase group. While cursing Holloway the whole time, I kicked it into high gear and re-joined the others.
We were a few minutes down on the leaders and the chase group I was in this time was not working so well together, despite some serious heckling by me. I rolled in somewhere in the top 30 and was seriously smiling from ear to ear that this epic stage was in the books.
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