The Cazenovia Hillbender was an open race southeast of Syracuse. Seeing that Caz is my wife's hometown and the race was a good excuse to visit family, it was a no-brainer. It started bright and early with a heavy fog and temps around 50 degrees. The group was happy to warm up with a slow roll out. After 5 miles a rider from one of the larger teams took off on a down hill. I followed his wheel and accelerated when the road turned uphill. I quickly had a large gap and figured I'd work it to see if any others jumped across. The gap kept growing and I settled into a steady rhythm. I soloed over the firsts sprint line and then the hill turned upward - turns out it's called the Hillbender for a reason. A small group bridged up to me and the race was on. By the top, it was just me and one other - from the same large team as my initial break partner. We worked well together - he was a flyweight and led on the climbs while I took the flats and downhills. The finish was a slow gradient for 2-3 miles and then a steep 1/2 mile hill. I was pretty sapped by the last hill and couldn't quite hold on after my earlier efforts and ended up with a second place - with a 2 minute gap back to third. Turns out the winner is a cat 3 who has won some pretty prestigious races so that eased my pain a little. Now it's time to start winding down and looking towards the offseason. After all, it's almost time to start building for 2013!
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