Horror at Harding Hill

Looks like you had a gorgeous weekend for this classic!!

Race Results

Race Commentary

Ed Castine

This was my first race since Harding Hill '02, and my first sport race
ever. I remembered crossing the finish line 2 years ago and tried to
imagine riding another lap. I remember collapsing off the bike after 2
laps - and I was in better shape then! So I paced myself, let the pack
pull ahead and hoped to gain some ground late in the race. The course
was a blast, loved that little rock jump they added and I aired it
bigger with each pass. Was having a hoot of a ride, in the 3rd lap I
tried to play my "catch up" strategy and passed 2-3 people (OK one had a
flat) but I didn't manage the sort of comeback I had imagined.
Evidently I am worthless without Curt's wheel to hang onto... Finished
19th at 1:52, so the good news is there's plenty of room for
improvement, and a few more opportunities to work things out this year.

Michelle Wilson

I had a really bad sore throat starting Saturday night but decided to do the
race anyways. Within a mile I felt like curling up in a ball on the side of
the trail for a long nap as my body ached flu-like symptoms from head to toe.
Luckily I took a wrong turn (gee that's a shocker) and ended up on the paved
road back to the start/finish quicker than expected and layed in the grass
until Wil had completed his race. I hated DNFing but trying to ride while sick
wasn't worth it. At least it was a beautiful day.

Wil Malonson

One of my better races this season. I liked the course and I didn't have any
mishaps along the way. I felt great and rode fast. I've come to realize that
7th place is not so bad given the high competition this year. I was happy with
it.

Dan Hurwitz

What a beautiful day it was, if a bit cold at the start. Too bad it
rained so much the day before - 2 inches they said. The course was
actually in fairly good shape, all things considered, aside from the
many mud pits and the serious chain suck they engendered. Turns out my
chain was at the end of its life, anyways. (Just got my bike back from
the shop with new chain and cogset, along with new bottom bracket, disk
brake pads, rear derailler hanger and freewheel assembly. That should
solve the chain suck problem.) Too late I realized that if I stayed off
the granny ring, the chain worked fine. However, there were no
complaints from me about the re-route they did the morning of the race,
except for the extended road ride to start the race. I felt good
throughout, but I was a bit disappointed in my results. Oh well, a
mediocre day at the races is better than a good day at work.

This weekend coming up, the VT 50, and the forecast is dry and sunny on
race day. Oh boy!

Chris Smith

A perfect September day, sunny and not to hot. I messed up the
start time and arrived about three hours before my race. The course
was a short 5 mile loop. I pre-rode the course which had a nice new
section. At the pre race meeting they never mentioned the Single
Speed class. When we asked were we start he said start with your
age class, single speed is an open division, no age class. We
conviced them we should start together, so they started us with the
Vet class. I felt good for the whole race.

Tim O'Loughlin

Great weather, great course. Had a pretty good day. It was just myself and
one other clyde, the guy I'm fighting for the points series. I showed up at
8:55 thinking the start was 9:30, but it was 9:00...DOH.

Sprinted from the reg. table to the car, to the start for my warm up and
went off a minute later. Since it was just the two of us, I decided to just
stand and sprint the first 1/2 mile to put 12-15 bodies between he and I.
It worked well and I never saw him again. No endo's this time either so
that was nice.

Hans Fersebner

this is a geat race i urge all to attend next year

Abbie Briscoe

This race was fun. the course i felt was flowy and enjoyable. It was easy to
keep a decent pace the whole time. I felt good going into this race and did
well as a result. I was pleased to have a race that was sort of gentle on
tons of climbing. sport women were originally supposed to do 2 laps and I
was siked since i had been out the night before staying up late drinking
scorpion bowls for two but that quickly changed back to 3 laps. In the end I
think the scorpion bowls helped me succeed, need to do that more often!

Hank Kells

It was a beautiful day for a race and the course was mostly dry. I felt good
and cleared the big hill on the first two laps. On the third lap I felt my
left hamstring starting to cramp so I walked up the big hill. A little while
later it cramped badly and I had to get off the bike and stretch it and drink
some water. This cost me about five min. Fortunately I was near the end and
was able to coast in to the finish line.

Tom Lemaire

A nice course - not too technical, but some good challanges. No big climbs, and
the fast downhill on the gravel road deffinitely got the pulse going. I'm
becoming resigned that I'm just not very competative, so I just did my best and
had a good time.

Tom Varga

Well, I knew I wouldn't be able to do too well after slacking off on training
due to vacation and minor injuries during the last month. However, friends
convinced me to go have fun ... so I did. When this course isn't covered by 6
inches of sticky brown goo, it's a blast! It's really too bad that the turnout
was so small. I guess after last year's pigfest, many were scared that the big
rain just days before the race would make it a similar race. Sadly, those who
didn't do this race missed out on great conditions on a beatiful day.