"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Elkhorn Classic Stage Race

Will be my first ever stage race! Excited and nervous as hell. Anyone done this? :thumb:

http://www.elkhornclassic.com/Stages/Stage_1.html

let me know if you have any advice

day1 80 mile hilly RR
day2 10 mile TT
day3 crit
day4 100 mile hilly RR

Oh dear :twitchy:

baw

Yes. You'll love it. Just get in some good long training rides.

Stage 1- very painful. It's a hard stage and it's one of those with a lot of false summits.
Stage 4- Epic but fun!!!

Thanks for planning to come out! Definitely talk to people about coming up- the more the merrier!

not sure that "hilly" quite does it justice... really looking forward to this race.

heh. esp. Dooley. Ernie always does a good job.

Bring an extra water bottle on the two road stages and bring a ton of food.

day 1 is hard, there is a lot of climbing and people arent holding back much.
the time trial is punchy, lots of up and down.
the crit is nice when its not absurdly slick from rain lol.
be prepared for the last stage... it is one hell of a ride.. but very nice sense of accomplishment when it is all over. I wish I was doing it again this year.

im still looking to find out how to get my bike up there from san diego!

I'm trying to find a place to stay up there that's not going to cost me an arm and a leg. Come on host housing.

im still looking to find out how to get my bike up there from san diego!


just ride it up there, ya wuss!

just ride it up there, ya wuss!

i wanted to but i got told in no uncertain terms that i wasn't going to be permitted to\

Hmm, maybe next year.

Be sure to report back on how this goes, I'd love to hear more about it.

Cat 3, 86 man field
Great race, funky weather.
Stage 1 @ 71 miles/@ 5-6,000' climbing. Dang fast race, avg 25.2mph for the stage. Huge down pour @ 25 miles in, didn't slow anything down. I went off on a 2 man break @ mile 35, joined by a third and we tried to get a gap on the field. I knew this not a good thing to be doing as I was just burning energy that I would need later. We got up to a minute on the field going up a big climb to the 2nd feed zone, and lost it by the time we crested. Stayed out for about 40 mins. @ 20 man chase group swallowed us up, the rest of the field was spread out behind them.

The last 20 miles I tried to recover and get ready for the final climbs, I almost blew up no less than 3 times as the accellerations started getting harder up each climb. On the final 2.5 mile climb I started to get gapped, but held my threshold and came back in the fold. I felt pretty good at this point and hit it towards the top and strung everybody out. I easied up as we crested and let a couple guys go by, but nobody was really going at it. I recovered for about 20 secs and laid into it with 5k to go. The field let me go as we started into @ 2k worth of downhill the bottomed out at 3k to go and a dead flat windy straightaway to the finish line.
I had built up @ a 200 - 300yd lead by the 3k mark and just kept telling myself "you can do this, its only a 4 min effort", I was going as hard as I had ever done anything in my life. Everytime I looked back they were closing fast, and I was puking in my mouth with every pedal stroke. At 1k they were only back 150yds, at 200m 50yds, .....2 secs. I won the stage by 2 secs, I was so disorintated crossing the line I almost crashed.

Stage 2, 11.3mile TT

I shanked this pretty hard. Legs didn't recover from the day before real well, was 19th, down 2:05 from the new leader, who put in a blistering time. He was 4th overall in time for the TT, beating all but 3 Pros.

Stage 3 45min Crit

Just rode well enough to get the same time as everybody else and try to stay upright. Legs actually felt really good by the end of this race, seemed to flush alot of crap out. Sitting 9th in G.C. 2:06 back still.

Stage 4 101 mile race

Supposed to be the big, grueling long stage ending with an 8 mile climb up to the finish. Woke up that morning to torential downpour and really cold conditions. They say snow was starting to fall at the top of Dooley Mtn. I suited up in my best foul weather gear ready for a day of attrition. When I get to the starting point the officials have decided to cancel the stage, and abbriviate it to a 18 mile sprint from the school to the top of Dooley.

Needless to right after the neutral roll out it went ballistic, 10 miles to the turn off to start the climb, 8 miles up to the finish. I worked to a good position towards the front ready for the real fireworks to start. I felt good and knew I should be able to stay with the lead group up to the top. 1 mile before the turn off and I feel that sicken feeling of something going soft, f@#k, front tire flat. Wheel car a minute back with another rider. one minute twenty secs later I start my individual time trial to the top. I passed @ 10-15 riders maybe, but finished well off the leaders and lost a ton of time, such is racing.

Still waiting on the final stage 4 results as of today.

Good job to all who raced and to those who Officiated/Volunteered :beer: