Fitchburg-Longsjo - Stage 3

Today was the big one: The Wachusett Mountain Road Race. 92 miles of pain and suffering climbing up the steep slopes to the base of the Wachusett Mountain Ski Resort 8 times and then all the way up to the mountain summit on the last lap. This is the stage that always shakes up the GC at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic, and it held true to tradition today.

Being without a team for support, my plan was again to sit in as much as possible until the final climb, and then limit my losses to the tiny climbers that littered the pack, frothing at the mouth for their chance to float up the mountain while those of us who don't weigh 135 pounds suffer behind! The dynamic of the race would have to be just right for this plan to work though, and today was just not my lucky day in that regard.

As soon as we got through the neutral start, Targetraining sent a few guys up the road in a break in order to win the Points Jersey. I knew that this was their intention so I wasn't too worried about them staying away, that is until they got over 7 minutes on the field with 40 miles left to go! At this point everyone was looking at me to start pulling it back, so it was time to get to work. I did get help from the Fiordifrutta and Kenda-Raleigh teams, but it seemed like every time I would drop back into the pack to recover the pace would let up and another break would get up the road which I couldn't afford to let go. So I ended up doing a lot of work to 1) chase down the initial breakaway that had a huge time gap, and 2) keep the field working harmoniously together and preventing other breaks from getting away. Fiordifrutta was particularly aggressive; constantly sending guys off the front to which I would have to give chase, wearing down my energy stores.

Although I was doing a lot of work, I tried to be smart about it. I took strong, steady pulls up the steep climb to the feed zone where drafting played little to no roll. I figured I would be working hard here anyway, so I might as well be in front pushing the pace enough to prevent attacks on the steep climb, but not hard enough to drop riders who I would need to take pulls on the flats. Once we got back down into the valley, I fell back into the pack a bit to recover for the next lap.

Slowly we started pulling the break back. Each time up the climb, the gap fell to 5:20, 4:35, and then finally under 3 minutes. Independent Fabrication started helping with the chase too hoping for a good result on the day. We caught the break on the second-to-last time up the climb to the feed zone, but I had done so much work that I really needed to recover at the top of the climb. Just at the moment, the counter-attack came from Fiordifrutta and Mechanical Services, who had the 3rd place rider on GC. A couple of other dangerous GC riders bridged up to that break, but I couldn't do anything but watch them ride away. If I tried chasing them down at this point, I would be completely blown for the climb up Wachusett Mountain. I had to recover and try to pull time back on the climb.

The counter-attack got as far as 2:30 on the final lap; they were flying! We made the turn into the final climb 2 minutes behind the break, and I was only able to pull back 15 more seconds by the finish line. I finished 1:45 down from the stage winner, losing the jersey and dropping to 8th on GC.

I was disappointed to lose the Leader's Jersey today, but on the other hand I rode as strongly as I ever have this season, so I'm not too disappointed with my ride considering the situtation I was in. Thinking back on what transpired today there are some things that I could have done differently, but in the end I did what I had to do as the race leader. I could have let the original break go and chance having the group finish minutes up on the field, or I could have chased them down and chanced a counter-attack getting away at the end. I chose the latter; the more aggressive choice. It's always been the way that I've ridden, and my hard work trying to defend the jersey was definitely noticed.

So now I sit in 8th overall with 9th and 10th places only 5 seconds behind me and 6th and 7th places 10 and 6 seconds ahead of me, respectively. Tomorrow is the crit and although it will probably stay together, if I feel good I will try something at the end to grab a couple of seconds back and maybe move up a spot or two in GC. -- Al