GREEN MOUNTAIN STAGE RACE

Rider: Allen G Carr

Stage 1 was an uphill time trial. If it sounds hard you'd be right - averaging around 400 watts over the entire course brought me up to the top 10%. Considering the competition included included some Education First riders I can't complain.

With 111 miles for stage 2, my off-season might start sooner rather than later.

Nothing worse than the race vehicles going past with 3 hours left to race. Photo: Angelica Dixon

The Queen stage Sunday was a disaster. I couldn't get into the small chain ring and got dropped on the first new climb. Dropped probably isn't the best word since I eased up and shifted 100 times knowing a 10% dirt climb was coming up. I was about a half mile from dropping out since we looped past staging when I saw a racer on the side of the road who had been dealing with Lyme complications. I complained about my shifting and he made a joke of it. That's all it took to keep me in the race. Got caught by a group of 30 not long after. Ended up having a fun day in the grupetto. Fortunately, I hit a bump on baby gap that put me in the small ring before app gap.

My only victory was that I didn't double cramp with 100 meters to go like the guy to the right! Photo: Angelica Dixon

The criterium through downtown Burlington is always fun. Roadies like to complain about crits, but I've grown to enjoy them more and more.