Back to School

Yes friends, yesterday, I went back to bike racing school. I was schooled by Michigan, Ohio and Canadian bike racers!!!

Here's the gory details.

The Course
This course was a soup bowl. You race out of the middle up the side, 180 turn back into the bowl up the other side 180, then back down to the finish. I felt like I was on a half-pipe course instead of a crit course. Now, I'm not complaining, I liked the course. Flat courses with four corners are plain, non-fat vanilla. No question, this course was filled with challenges that made racing interesting.

The Field
Canadians everywhere!!! They grow 'em strong up there. It was the strongest cat 3 field I have seen since early in the season before all the upgrades.

The Cat 3 Race
Look, I really thought a break might succeed. On top of that, I really didn't know for sure what these Canuckers were capable of. So, I made it my job to chase these guys so if a break were to succeed we would have representation. It's a blur now but I must have been part of at least 3-4 different attempts to get away. Jean's pics of the race have me away in a group numerous times. The combination of the course and the strength of the field neutralized all of these. Some stayed out for a while before being brought back. I think Joe Lekovish was correct in his assertion that the ability of the pack to ride faster downhill brought about the premature end to these.

I flat rode my guts out while the smart ones were sitting back waiting for the finish. I gambled and lost. I gambled that the race would end in a break and others gambled it wouldn't. They got money.

On the last lap, I was in pretty good shaped just a few back. It was obvious that your placing around the last 180 would pretty much decide the top 15. The first few riders around those turns went so much faster than the back end. Zach McBride jumped and I jumped with him. By the time we got to the hill before the last 180 I was shot. The whole field road by me. So many rode by me I thought I was going to see the cat 4's and juniors next! It was awful. Rider after rider just gliding by making the turn and sprinting out. Hosed. Completely, utterly hosed.

Coming down the hill after the turn I could see any further efforts were futile. The only comfort I had was that my chief rivals were all around me, (Bart and Zach). I guess we were racing Rockford all over again.

That's racing. Sometimes you do well and sometimes you, well... stink. How's 29th place for ya'!! That is the worst placing I have had in two years of bike racing. That includes the STS with almost 70 racers lining up. 29th place!!!!! Does that make me eligible for downgrade to cat 7?

The Pro 1/2/3 Race
So now I am on the bubble. Should I do this race or just retire. After consulting with my wife and members of my team I decided to give it a try. Bottom line here is my decision making was bad yesterday from the time I first got out of bed.

This race was really fun for a while. I didn't feel overly taxed. I was way back in the pack and every time we hit the turn we slowed so much you could feel the heat coming off the road. There was no wind at all then after the turn you had to jam down gears and spring to get back on. Early on this was on problem. But after 20 minutes I developed the first hint of cramps in my vastus medialis, (quads), in both legs. It was at that point that I knew I couldn't last the entire 90 minutes. From experience, I know I have a half hour or forty minutes before shut down once this gets started.

To counter the cramps I decided to shift out of my drops climbing the hills and slide back in the saddle to recruit a few different muscle groups and after the turn I tried to stay in the saddle instead of sprinting. This just wasn't cutting it. I was loosing places at every turn. I was moving closer and closer to the back and that my friends is a bad feeling. If you are in the middle of the pack and have a fading spell, you can let a few riders go by and then jump back on but if you are at the back, you either step it up or get dropped. So I decided I just had to move up. The only places where I had opportunity was on the climbing portion of the hills. My cramping quads wouldn't allow me to sprint fast enough out of the turns to make up places but everyone slowed so much on the hills I thought that was where I had opportunity. The other option was to go wide on the turns and keep speed up. The problem was everyone was moving to the gutter to take an outside line so I really couldn't do both. I elected to move up inside. It was successful but it further exhausted me and after a couple of turns like this I started to dangle off the back. Big Ray was with me and I think he was in a similar way. He jumped to catch the field and I was dropped. Race over. There was just no point in going on. I was baked.

Post Mortem
What do you do with a day like this? At first I just felt awful but on analysis that is probably not warranted. First, I did my job covering breaks in that cat 3 race. In the end, I sacrificed myself for that purpose. If the break succeeded there may have been the glory of a top five finish and my team would have been represented and compensated. In this sense, I had a successful outing. On this course you really had to do one or the other. You were either the brilliant tactician finding your way into the break, the stealthy hideaway sprinter or the goat who did neither. That's bike racing.

As far as that 1/2/3 race goes...whatever. It was fun while it lasted. I don't know what I could have done if I stayed out of the cat 3 race. I know I would have lasted more than 40 minutes but 90 minutes? I don't know about that. Some pretty strong dudes quit that race even in the last 5 minutes!! It was nasty hot and that course was just brutal. I must say, I loved riding with that field. A big field is always fun and they are so smooth and predictable. It was so fast! There is nothing like winding it out in your 53x12 with a big field of riders. Cedar Points got nothin' on that experience.

Next week is the end of my road season and I will begin the off season then. I will spend at least four weeks in transition before starting the preparation phase in October. It has been a successful season overall yesterday notwithstanding. My season goals included going sub-60 on the 40K - I did that; getting a podium finish by August - I did that in May; finish races without cramping - I didn't do that and maybe never will. I have 22 cat 3 points for upgrade which is 3 shy but I have 7 points in the masters 45+ category. I don't know if that counts or not but, anyway, I would call my second season of bike racing a success. I don't know what gains are possible next year but it will be fun to see what happens!!