Things looked bleak heading west on I-84. Ominous thunder clouds barked in the distance and the further west you drove, the harder it rained. Somehow the clouds began to break and revealed a pale blue sky just before Southbury, Connecticut, home to one of the most challenging races on the New England circuit. With a steady heat building and the mists of the early morning rain floating above the pavement, the humidity level was approximately 10,000%.
Race organizers decided to change things up a bit this year, removing a bumpy flat stretch of the course along theHousatonic River by adding what was just the finishing climb up Constitution Hill to every lap. Instead of churning up this mini-mountain one painful time at the end of the race, competitors had to do it to lap through. To showcase this hill, fields began their races in a neutral start up the climb. It was immediately visible who hadn’t warmed up as grunts and moans replaced the usual jocosity that one expects to encounter in the beginning of a long road race.
The Housatonic Hills course is comparable to a rollercoaster: Lots of ups, downs, and sweeping turns (and some upside-downs, if you were unlucky to have crashed). Halfway through the first lap, a group of six took advantage of the course’s many poor sight lines and quickly gained a gap, the riders’ thinking out of sight, out of mind. After cresting a diabolically steep wall, Scott Dolmat-Connell sat fifth wheel, working very well to make sure he was in any other threatening move. Realizing that Scott was MetLife’s only well positioned rider at the time, Charlie swept up the right side of the field and a minute later found himself going with Artemis Racing’s Nate Coleman. Another couple of minutes speeding down a twisting descent, the duo caught the break after making a hard left turn onto the KOM climb. Charlie wasn’t quite sure what he felt about the group: Two CCB riders, two Targetraining riders, two other ferociously pedaling foes, and approximately 65 miles to go.
Heading up Constitution Hill to begin the second lap, the break maintained a quick tempo, although some of the riders were urging the others to “keep it steady.” Once at the top, SRAM neutral support was giving time checks which indicated the peloton was starting to pull the break back. The pace quickened again. Finally, on a long and deceivingly difficult hill, the peloton was so close to the breakaway that the majority of the escapees sat up and waited. Charlie threw caution to the wind and ramped up the speed just enough to get away from the remainder of the break, taking Coleman with him. The two urged each other on as it wasn’t clear if it was worth the attempt having been so close to the peloton just moments before. The two riders convinced each other to go for it and to get out of sight as soon as possible.
About two thirds into the second lap, Targetraining’s Matt Baldwin bridged up. Matt, the powerhouse, worked the flat stretches while Charlie and Nate set the climbing tempo. Beginning Constitution Hill for a third and final time, however, Matt faded back and it looked like the break would retake its original shape of two until Empire Cycling’s Alex Bremer paid a short-lived visit. He was dropped on the next climb, however, and Charlie and Nate kept cranking over the pedals, though with much greater difficulty than a couple of hours prior.
Within less than 10 miles to go and following a warning honk from the neutral support Volvo, a dozen of the event’s best road racers blew past Charlie. He simply didn’t have the energy to react to the speed at which they passed. Watching the group spin its way steadily up the next few climbs, Charlie met up with Jason Baer(Kenda/Raleigh), a former collegiate teammate at the University of Vermont. Together the two nursed their egos and tamed the burning in their legs until the Southbury Training School came into view and a slow-motion sprint ensued between the two unlikely sprinters. An exhausted and cramping Charlie crossed the line in 18th place, not the result he had hoped for but, then again, the 60 mile breakaway wasn’t part of the plan, either. Thom Coupe and Ryan Fleming came in seconds later, the remnants of the field nearly catching Charlie at the line.
The upcoming weekend will see the team split between the Giro D’Jersey in Ringoes, New Jersey, and the AT&T Austin Criterium.