Dutch Country Preview

Yesterday, George and I spent the morning in Lacaster County, previewing the Road Race and Time Trial courses for the upcoming stage race. It was a nice day, albeit EXTREMELY hot and humid. We had two days of 90+ degrees out here.

We got to the first course around 10 am. It was warming up, but there was a breeze, so it didn't feel so bad. The course is beautiful. The roads are smooth and don't bear a single pothole, ridge, or blemish for the entire course. The only part that needed work was one corner with gravel in it...hopefully the race promoter will sweep it before the races start (otherwise, I'm going to be packing...a broom to sweep it myself!). The course is essentially flat, with a few minor, big ring climbs that take you to some minor sweeping downhills. It looks like it will be a very fast circuit with some prevailing headwinds, but not a lot of technical issues.

After leaving the Road Race course, I was pretty excited. I figured that this was going to be a set of races that were right up my alley! We headed to the Time Trial course (about a 20 minute drive), which is described in the race packet as follows:
"This 7.5 mile course on rural roads is mostly flat with one small climb and one longer, out-of-the-saddle climb follwed by a fast straight descent."

OK...so I thought, no problem...this sounds like it has one semi-tough climb and the rest will be cake. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH! NO!

The course starts off and sends you up an incline toward the first turn. Just before the turn, the incline becomes a 10% grade. Once you turn the corner to start down the back leg of the course, you are CONSTANTLY climbing of descending! And these are decent sized climbs...nothing that will kill your legs, but definitely tough...especially considering that what you want in a Time Trial is rhythm, and there is NO RHYTHM to be found here.

Finally, after a swift descent over a narrow bridge, where you can get your speed up to 30+ mph or so, you reach the "longer, out-of-the-saddle" climb. You'd think that you could use your momentum from that descent, but you can't because the first thing you encounter (after a short 10+% grade, is a sharp right turn. Then you hit the main part of the climb. The climb has grades ranging from 4% where is levels off to 12% at the steepest point, and is about 1K long. It is full of gravel bits and is not straight, but an S-curve shaped climb. It's going to be a killer of a climb! Once you reach the "top," there is a false flat leading to the turn (bless this bloody turn!) that leads to a 16% DOWNHILL...where you can easily push the bike to 40+ mph and will pull you through the entire section to the next turn. This is the only section where you might be able to relax and bring your legs back from the brink before....turning the corner for home and encountering those dag-gon prevailing headwinds! :)

This has been renamed the "Torture Trial" by me. It's going to be a GREAT race, but it is going to be HARD!

For the time being, however, I am focusing on the Brownstown road race tomorrow. It should be a great race for me and the team. Of the 21 women entered, 9 of them are Sturdies. We're going to blind them with pink tomorrow! :)