Purgatory Road Race Recon Ride

Sunday, the Green Line Velo cycling team went on a preview ride of the proposed Purgatory Road Race.  The race is on the NEBRA Calendar for June and GLV will hopefully be hosting the race in lovely Sutton, MA.

NOTE: The route has changed from what is displayed below.
Please see http://www.greenlinevelo.com/purgatory for the most up-to-date information.

Purgatory Road Race Course

MapMyRide Link

The course is 21-mile loop with a 1.5 mile neutral rollout from the staging area.  After the neutral start, the rolling route heads toward Northbridge before wrapping around towards Purgatory Chasm State Park where the intense mid-course climbing begins.  The other section of heavy climbing comes directly at the end of the course into an uphill finish.  While 915 ft of climbing per lap may not make it seem like that hilly of a race, the rolling nature of the course can prove difficult for even the climber in the peloton.

The Green Line Velo experience of our preview ride was great.  We met up outside of Landry’s at 7 am and left for Sutton Elementary School around 7:30 am.  After arriving at the school around 8:15, which is also the staging area for the race, a few of us hopped into Smith’s car in a mad rush to find an open bathroom.  We returned from our quest before 8:45 and began to get ready.  We were one the road just after 9:00.

I must be cracking some sort of joke here

The group before we head out on the road

Let me just say I am never doing another team ride without a team car again.  Due to recent shoulder surgery, Keith was forced drive.  As one of the masterminds of the course, along with Butler, he drove ahead and paced the group for the first lap.  I even got a coffee feed from the car riding up Purgatory Chasm the time around, which was quite pro, if i do say so myself.  He also managed to take a number of pictures of the ride.

GLV all together coming down a strait.

Sam, Taylor, and myself on the front

(probably going too hard, yet again)

There was quite a lot of bickering before and during the first lap, from girls and boys alike.  Apparently it was too cold for some, despite the number of layers one was wearing.  To me, it was a balm 34 degrees, but then again, I had had the pleasure of riding outside up to that point for a number of weeks.  This had surely helped my tolerance of the cold, and I’m sure gave me the edge performance-wise for the day. 

A Shot from the team car.

Prior to the day, it was decided that the second lap would be no-hold-bar.  After the entire team took a break and reconvened at the proposed finish line, the race pace ensued.  Early in the second lap it looked as if Jay, Mark, Brian, Steve, Sam, Taylor, and myself were going to be along for the ride at quite the pace.  Then the tiny hills came.

I felt absolutely stellar that day, even through all the suffering.  The smaller hills close to Northbridge started to widen the gap, and I found myself with Jay, Mark, and Brian.  We decided to wait after a turn to make sure that everyone went the proper direction on the easily missed turn. From that reconvening turn all of us coasted down the hill towards Whitins Pond, where we’ve decided there will be an overwhelming amount of hay bails.  Then the big hills came.

Now Keith’s just getting artsy

Once again the Groupo Compacto was demolished by the inclines, but this time by the 3-mile climb into Purgatory Chasm State Park,  The route into the park isn’t super steep (only about a 2-4% grade according to MapMyRide) but the legs can feel it after the hills in early in the course and from pervious laps.

I was pacing myself behind Mark, and about a half-mile into the climb he and I found ourselves with a gap.  Together, Brian, Jay, and Taylor were chasing us up the hill.  The course had selected us as the five competitors of the day.  Mark and I rolled over the top of Purgatory Chasm with a slight gap still behind us before a mild decent.  One the hill quickly to follow, I made the unlikely mistake of staying paced by Mark, who was slightly slower. on this climb.  Mark faded back to Taylor at that point, and Jay and Brian were now with me drilling up the hill.

Brian set a beautiful pace up the second hill.in the Chasm.  I tend to like to pace myself behind someone on the longer hills and dictate it on the much shorter ones, so I was very lucky to have others around for the larger hills.  After the decent from Purgatory (that just sounds so cool), I have no idea what happened to Brian, but Jay and I were up front keeping a hard pace.

I forget when , but at some point Mark and Taylor caught up with me and Jay.  It was likely on the long decent through Sutton State Park where they made up the time on the small gap.  Keith had caught up to us in the pace car at that point, which was now filled with Katie, Ashley, and Devon shouting things out of the windows.  Even after the decent, I could tell that the boys were getting tired, so I decided to take advantage of the situation.  Just before a right onto Whitins Road, there was a short kicker of a hill that spun up in the saddle the first lap; I figured why not do the same?  I dug a little deeper and road away from Jay, Mark, and Taylor.

I was still feeling amazing and kept churning the pedals through what was a quite a substantial solo breakaway for about 2 miles.  Keith and the ladies were still ahead of me in the team car as I was jetting down the road at 25-30 mph.  No, I wasn’t drafting the car, so I’ll keep my 80 Swiss Francs, thank you very much.  All was going well until I heard a distant yet loud thud and then the view of a of a teammate getting a closer look at the side of a truck at an intersection.  Of course, I did the honorable thing, slowed down, turned around, and waved down Keith and the car.  The Bike Gods were with us and everyone (and the rider’s' equipment, for the most part) were unharmed.  Thanks to the very courteous gentleman driving the truck, who was more than friendly during the instance.

Breakaway Done.  The four of us still still together and off the front continued along the 2.5 miles of the course.  It was difficult to get the pace back up after the stop, which was followed directly by some heavy climbing strait into the finish.  We still had some good speed, and soon I found it to be just it was only Jay and Brian with me headed towards the “finish.”  After spinning up the last of the painful hills, it evens a bit to a slightly uphill straightaway finish through one one-way stop sign.  Brian call the intersection “clear” so we roll through, I sprint, and I “win” by a clear margin by crossing the a non-determined finish line first.  According to Brian, I unfairly rolled through the stop a little faster; I only did so after it was designated clear, however.  It was still a “race,” so I figure it was fair.

First place or not, I definitely would have won the Combatif award for the day, if we had one.  But we didn’t so all I got was a boatload of fun, which is plenty by my standards.  We all went to Tony’s restaurant afterwards in Sutton and pigged out over a discussion of the course and the day.  This is going to be a great race and I can tell there will be tons of action around the loop on race day with all the places to attack.  I love these rolling courses.

Welcome to Purgatory.