"Hot"-a-Ton-ik Hills Road Race

Sunday, June 18, 2006, Housatonic Hills Road Race - Southbury, Connecticut

Wasn't it just last week that I was making derogatory comments about the cold New England weather? We woke up early (though not early enough) and it was like 70 degrees before 6am. I leave Mike in charge about what time we're supposed to leave for a bike race---I'm just along for the ride and to cheer him on. Unfortunately, it was too hot for Sydney to come along---so we just loaded up both of our bikes and headed to the South western corner of Connecticut.

Once we crossed the Stateline, Mike looks at the time and says, "How many more miles do we have to go?" I replied, "according to the map, we've got about 80 miles ---give or take". Turns out we needed to leave 30-40 minutes before we did. Hope there are no police officer's on this list---Mike put the pedal to the medal and practiced a VW Golf Time Trial. We got to the race course 10 minutes before he was supposed to race, and he was pinning his number at the start-line just as the 100+ rider strong Pro 1/2 field was heading out of the gate!

81 miles, 3 laps around a 27 mile circuit with 1500' of climbing per lap---with 95 degree weather and no wind! I suited up and followed shortly thereafter with a bunch of bottles in a messenger bag on my back. What a beautiful and hilly course. as the other fields of riders begin to pass me, I ended up with company to ride to the feedzone with as so many folks were getting shelled off the back. Once I made it to the feedzone, I had about 20 minutes to kill before the Pro field arrived.

I unpacked a musette filled with water bottles and waited. A Garneau rider (his name is Joe and he lives around the block from us) lead the way with about 5 other guys in the break. 5 minutes later the rest of the bunch came through and I handed Mike his bag of drinks and headed back to the finish.

It's different when you're not racing---I thoroughly enjoyed the lovely hot day. Mike unfortunately needed more water and so, dehydrated as he was, didn't end up having the greatest of rides. The uphill finish was harder than anticipated...guys were coming through with minutes between them and there was no pack finish.

Oh well---you can't win em' all! We arrived home pretty flogged from the heat and the hard riding, and were reminded of the August Cal Cup races---Rule # 1, don't arrive to a long hard race with only seconds to spare before take off!