stalking fitchburg

I drove out to Fitchburg on this sunny memorial day to try and figure out how to survive it this year. Those who were there last year will remember me limping to the top of the access road after riding two laps on my own and missing the time cut for the next stage of the race.

The big goal of the summer, on my quest to cat 4 domination of NE cyclocross, is to do well at the road stage and be a useful domestique in the crit at fitchburg. Im hoping that we again have a GC rider who can place in the race, and im hoping that to eventually be strong enough to help that guy (Nick? Gary?) win something.

Despite my efforts to get teammates to join me on a scouting ride i ended up out there alone. I felt like i remembered the course pretty well from last year. typically im pretty dubious of "pre-riding" a course. But in this case im glad i did it. My memory of the loop was definately a little bit off and riding it alone gave me a chance to sort out the sections of the course and understand how to ride it.

I feel like i mostly hear about the climb through princeton as the key part of the race. Today I felt like that was definately a dramatic part of the race, with some pretty steep sections, but I think its just where you see the race split, not where it actually happens.

Starting at the ski lodge, the course is pretty fast without anything especially challenging for the first few miles. A little ways after turning right at a "captain bobs" dairy bar you pass a soccer complex and thats where the climbing starts. The Princeton climb, where the feed zone is, is just the last part of a 8-9 minute grind, that starts just past the soccer fields. There are 2 shallower climbs with brief flats on them before making the turn on 62 where it really starts to hurt. I think that getting up that first section is key to staying with the race and getting in position, once you turn into princeton center and see the feed, your about 2 minutes from the end of real climbing. The steep pitch on 62 into princeton and the turn killing speed and then the final pitch past the feed are the final straws for a lot of riders, they were for me last year. but it was the climb into those sections that put me at the back of the field chasing.

After the princeton climb you get about 5-6 minutes of rolling hills, and even a short downhill grade before hitting the second section of climbing. The grade is deceptive, its not a killer, but the lack of good visual markers make it seem shorter than it is. This section is about a 6 minute grind of varying pitch, with only one real flat section to rest briefly. There is a good reason that the end of this climb is the KOM point. Its also a nice setup that will help thin out the climbers on the final lap before hitting the access road on the last lap. On the first three laps you get a nice long fast descent just after the KOM, past the ski area and back down to the flat section of the course. and about 15-20 minutes until you have to do real work again, assuming you hung onto the group.

Sadly the access road is under construction and also being guarded by a ranger, so i couldn't ride up it. Im going to try and go back once that is ridable again. Im pretty confident that knowing the breakdown of the course is going to help a lot this year. Id like to have a sense of how long the final climb is and how the pitches come at you.