Vermont, Here We Come

By Martin • September 3rd, 2009

gmsr While many local racers are starting their much-deserved off-seasons with a relaxing Labor Day weekend, a few of us are heading North — far North — to participate in Vermont’s Green Mountain Stage Race.

Tim B. and myself will be mixing it up with the Cat 3s, while Tim R. will be taking on the Cat 2s. A few other Mid-Atlantic racers will be there too, including Drew Armstrong from NCVC, Rob Sheffield from Squadra Coppi, Brian Sacawa from Kelly Benefit Strategies, Chuck “There’s No Such Thing as an Off-Season” Hutcheson and a few of the Battley guys. We’re all looking to show Northeast racers what’s what.

The race kicks off tomorrow with a 5.7-mile uphill time trial, continues with a 70-mile circuit race on Saturday and 75-mile road race on Sunday, and closes on Monday with a crit in downtown Burlington. The theme of the race seems to be climbing — the road race covers two mountain passes, including a closing climb that reaches 20 percent in the final few miles. The race’s technical manual not only warns of how steep that final climbs, but also warns that we need to keep our eyes open for stray moose. I’m not kidding.

Since we know that Green Mountain is second only to the Vuelta in terms of updates you want to see, we’ll do our best to have a daily report on day’s stage. If we don’t update at all while we’re away, assume we ran into that one moose that loves cyclists.

Comments(3) Team News

Comments

By Andrew Bridges on September 3rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Good luck! make MABRA proud.

By Dave on September 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Don’t joke about the meese, man! My friend Craig used to live in Sunday River, ME. He was out for a trail run one evening when a moose decided Craig was either a threat to the moose’s supremacy or a fine piece of ass. Thirty minutes later Craig was battered and bloody standing by the side of Rte 2 at the base of Mt. Washington (yes, in NH), having demolished every PR he’d ever set while getting away from said moose. Also, in New England, they are properly called “swamp donkeys.”

Good luck, have fun, rubber side down.

By El Prez on September 4th, 2009 at 12:42 am

Good luck, boys. Give ‘em hell.