Killington Stage Race, VT

Killington Stage Race

I unexpectedly had the opportunity of joining some of my Downeast Racing teamates on a trip Killington, VT in pursuit of filling my cup with the long running Killington Stage Race. The race in its current format consists of three stages: 

                                Stage 1 - Lookout & First Stop Circuit Race;

                                Stage 2 - Champion System Road Race;

                                Stage 3 - Long Trail Brewery ITT;

The first stage is a circuit consisting of 19 miles and around 800 feet of climbing per lap with a fast finish to the line. When I say fast we were doing close to 50mph on a slight downhill grade with a full on sprint to the line. This requires nerves of steal and really good attention to the riders in your periphery that are bleeding out their eyeballs to nip you at the line. 

The second stage is the Queen stage that is a 65 mile loop with several climbs throughout the journey including a dirt road climbing section. The second climb of the day is where the first fire works really go off and a split in the peleton is almost certain to happen. This climb comes at the 25 mile mark and hits you right away with a 10% wall for 3/4's of a mile and then drags on for another 2 miles at about 4% grade. Making it over this climb with the lead group is imperative as a couple more climbs and a certain 9 mile headwind remains in front of you. The stage is called the Queen stage because at mile 55 the course heads up Bear Creek with sustained grades of 10 to 19% taking you to the finish some 7 miles later to the base of the Killington ski resort. If your legs were not loading at this point they certainly will be 1/2 way up this finishing drag. 

The race has a setup like a standard stage race of battles within each race for the various jerseys awarded to the climbers, the sprinters and the stage winner. 

Downeast Racing put seven of their strong men out on the road on day one spread through a couple of categories ranging from P12, to Cat 3 & 4 to the Masters 40+ field. The cool thing about stage racing is you come back to the home base at night and talk the day over and really see the differences between each category's racing during that stage. The team walked away with a clear desire to do more stage racing this summer. Some due to the elated high from good results and some from the elated high of getting up to racing your bike everyday, feeling stronger and hungrier for another chance to rip the legs off your competition. The personal agony each of us endure and the team victories within a stage to the overall general classification goals one has set.  As an athlete you live for this feeling of emotion in your sport. 

We Downeast Racers all had plenty of great moments and can say that Zev's victory haul of stage wins and the overall as well as both the climbers & sprint jersey in the Cat 4's is symbolic of how we felt inside. Until Green Mountain Stage Race you will see the DER team working at the front of one day races of summer in New England.  RIDE ON!