North Stonington Pre-ride Feedback

Seems I wasn't the only one training on the race course yesterday.. Ran into a couple of other riders.. Had to apologize to one of them for seeming unsociable, as it's hard to chit-chat while doing one minute on/one minute off intervals in rapid succession.. Also very hard to hold watts on such a rolling course. You're either getting into your granny gear or into the 53x14 to keep it pegged where you're supposed to. Still, it was great to see the course and inspect it's surface and scope out the "hill". At only five miles around, I think I can really get my head into this event. The "hill" seems to rise about 125-150 feet in 1 km, but it's really just a series of short rises with some flat relief in between them. I didn't try it in the big ring, but I imagine that with fresh enough legs, one could power to the top and easily open a gap on the little-ringers. Beautiful scenic course.. kind of narrow, no yellow line on a lot of it, might be a little hard to gain position, or easy to lose position if you're on the wrong wheel (like mine!). Kidding. I self-depracate with tongue in cheek, of couse. I think I'll have the legs to be there at the finish, which is at the top of the climb. There's a hairy fast corner at the bottom of the descent, when we turn onto Hangman Hill Road. We'll be flying through that turn.