This year, I would make my first ever visit to the state of Vermont on Memorial Day weekend for the Killington Stage Race. The race has road races on Saturday and Sunday before finishing with a time trial on Monday. I got to the race courseFriday evening and had a chance to pre-ride the Stage 2 summit finish, a steep climb up to the Killington ski area.
I went into the race with no teammates and no real ambitions for a GC result. I wanted to try to go for the King of the Mountains jersey and get a good result on the queen stage summit finish, but mostly just wanted to experience a race outside of my normal schedule.
The first stage was four laps of an 18 mile circuit that featured a KOM point and a sprint point each lap. I was able to take five points at the KOM sprint on the second lap, but after that a breakaway of five riders formed and took all the points. With no KOM points on offer I was content to sit in for the rest of the stage. Toward the end of the third lap I noticed a building not too far off the course that was on fire. When we came around for the fourth lap there were several fire trucks parked on the road and race officials stopped the race. We waited there on the edge of the road for about ten minutes before the officials decided to cancel the remainder of the stage and award the five breakaway riders tied first place with a 1:10 advantage to the rest of the field. I felt strongly that at the pace the peloton was moving we would’ve caught the breakaway before the finish, but of course there is no way to know that for sure. We rode the final five miles of the course neutralized back to the start/finish area.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2396997627
Stage 2 is the queen stage of the Killington Stage Race, with a brutal summit finish. The final climb is two miles at 9% average before a short rolling section leads to the steep half-mile climb to the finish. There were a few short, steep climbs about halfway through the race and I planned on going for KOM points there and following a breakaway there that would go to the finish. Unfortunately a large breakaway went away almost from the very beginning of the race. With no teammates, I was forced to rely on the Kelly Benefits team to control the gap. Eventually we did form a sizable chase group, but not too many people were willing to work. Eventually it seemed that only Zach Greg (Kelly Benefits), and me were working at the front. We hit the base of the final climb with a 2-minute gap to the breakaway. Our large chase group was whittled down to three riders by the time we hit the halfway point of the climb and I wasn’t quite able to keep up with the pace. I just didn’t have the gearing to spin the cadence I like on the steeper sections of the climb. I eventually crossed the finish in 10th, which placed me 11th on GC. It was a frustrating result knowing I should have been in the original breakaway and also because I made some bad gearing choices even after having pre-ridden the final climb.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2399722472/analysis/9914/10590
The final time trial was a little over ten miles with a very gradual uphill (about 1% average) the entire way. I started off well but just didn’t have the legs at the end. I ended up in 23rd place which kept me in 11th overall, just five seconds out of the top ten on GC.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2401584727/analysis
by Betty Evans 
by Betty Evans
I have to say I enjoyed my first trip to Vermont. Of course the racing results could’ve been better, but overall I was quite pleased with my condition as I look toward the Johnson City and then Tulsa Tough
The first portion of my long road trip is now in the books. From, here I’ll slowly make my way to Johnson City, TN for the Johnson City Omnium next weekend. I’ll make stops to ride in Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After trying to race more aggressively this weekend and looking for KOM points, next week will be all about sitting in until the final seven-mile climb of Roan Mountain.
Andrew Evans 