As planned, I headed over to the Waitsfield, VT area for the prologue stage of the Green Mountain Stage Race – a 7-mile climb up Appalacian Gap. I took off about half-an-hour before the first group of the day, and rode up the course. It wasn’t quite as bad as I was expecting, but man, that’s still a serious climb. Even while I was trying to spin up it, there were plenty of out-of-the-saddle, grind at 50 RPM moments…. It would no doubt be a tough day for the racers.
I positioned myself at a nice place near the finish, and soon, group after group were zipping past me to the summit. A few looked really good, and a few had completely cracked – the rest were somewhere in between…. seriously drained, but still fighting with all they had. It was so cool to watch – these athletes laying everything out… emptying the tank to get up the hill as fast as possible. I hope the pictures below convey some of what happened out there:
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