At the end of the 2009 season, I decided to call it quits. I had been racing in the pro/1/2's since 2005, on the road since 2002, and competed in my first mountain bike race in 1994. It's been a long, amazing, un/productive, memorable, incredible ride.
In 2008, I felt like I reached the peak of my fitness and the zenith of my interest in the sport. I basically limped through 2009, distracted by work and looking forward to grad school. About three months into school though, during one particularly warm November day, I was sitting at my desk in the office, which has a window view of route 125, aka Middlebury Gap. The low afternoon light provided just the right amount of illumination to make the three bicycle riders on their way up the mountain look like glowing apostles. I suddenly realized how much I missed racing. I mean, really missed it. Perhaps it was the twelfth paper of the semester in front of me, or maybe it was just that if it had been any other year, November always meant time to get back on the bike. But there I was, static in my office, an early winter's beard slowly taking over my face, my cycling clothes hanging dry and a little dusty in the closet, the bike tires deflated. I wanted back in.
Last summer I started thinking about my future with cycling. I took a long look at my strengths, and I examined my weaknesses. Despite all the pain and suffering that cycling produces, there has always been one area of the sport that, for whatever reason, I think I'm just good at: climbing. I'm no Contador or Danielson; I certainly won't break the Mt. Washington record. I think, however, that I can hold my own against some of the region's best and would like the opportunity to prove it.
Last year, the directors of the various hill climb races around the northeast got together and created the BUMPS Hill Climb Series. "The BUMPS (Bike Up the Mountain Points Series) is the only series of its kind in America – a series that recognizes the talents of riders who do the hardest thing in cycling: climb steep hills. The series comprises nine races on eight mountains of the Northeast, on courses of varying lengths and pitches. Any rider who enters a BUMPS event will automatically be entered into the overall series points standings. There is no need to enter a separate BUMPS category. Riders will be scored according to their accumulated points in up to five races, and the totals of riders who enter more than five races will be determined by their best five scores." -hillclimbseries.com
I've raced the Burke climb twice and ate Anthony Colby's (two-time Mt. Washington winner) dust at Okemo last year, but here was an opportunity to focus on my cycling strengths, probably to do pretty well, not to have to travel too far, and not to commit an entire year to training. This is my kind of bike race series. So, in 2010, I've left MetLife Cycling, put together a very small program with the help of my sponsors, The Bike Center, Lynskey Performance Designs, and Edge Composites, and have set my sights on winning the overall points in the BUMPS series. I will also compete in a couple of USCF races, too.
Here's my schedule:
May 22 Lake Sunapee Road Race Sunapee, NH
May 31 Cape-Able Bike Race Arundel, ME
June 12 Whiteface Road Race Wilmington, NY
June 19 Whiteface Hill Climb Wilmington, NY
June 26 Okemo Hill Climb Ludlow, VT
July 11 Newton's Revenge (Mt. Washington) Gorham, NH
July 17 Mt. Ascutney Hill Climb Brownsville, VT
July 18 Yarmouth Clam Festival Yarmouth, ME
August 7 Mt. Equinox Hill Climb Manchester, VT
Sept. 3-6 Green Mountain Stage Race Waitsfield, VT
Sept. 11 Mt. Greylock Hill Climb North Adams, MA
October 3 Allen Clark Hill Climb Waitsfield, VT
In addition to the races, I hope to participate in several centuries and hope we can get a crew together to tackle the 6-Gap ride...maybe more than once this season.
Stay tuned!
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