STS #4 Recap

A beautiful day for the last training race before the official season start and it was for sure the best race day of the season weather-wise. James raced and I helped coach the C-race today. Sarah Uhl, (I was going to hyperlink to a website for more info on Sarah but I couldn't settle on one...look her up yerself), was our guest coach so we were able to just hang out and help where needed. James and Alexey absolutely tore it up jumping the field and forming a break that ended up lapping them. They both looked very strong indeed. James took third and Alexey was either fifth or six. They continue to draw ooh's and ah's from folks as they watch these little guys reek havoc on the adults they race with.

As soon as the C's were done I had to run back to Saline to pick up some gear for a rider, then back to Runway, then take James to church, pick up Abby then return to Runway. So, to race the A's today I had to miss church. This wasn't my plan but by the time James was finished Pastor Chuck was into his second sermon point. Jean met me at the entrance of the church for the trade off. She wasn't pleased and she was justified. I royally screwed up everything.

Abby and I hurried back to Runway so I could get some kind of warm up in. If we had a team meeting, I wasn't able to make it.

We had a big field today. I lined up at the very back and the field was 7-8 deep filling the road. I am guessing we 50-60 riders. The field was a good one with riders from the Bissell team joining the fray. I also noticed that dude with the Hooters team who won James' suffer-face contest last year. ( Check that...it might have been Rigdon who took that prize.) Ben Renkama was there along with Bart Carlson and several other Coasties. The Wolverines were very well represented with Danny Klein, Big Ray, Tim Finkel, Kroske and a host of others.

Describing the first half of these crits is getting pretty boring. By now you are getting the picture I think. It was fast, fast, fast then a couple of breaks go, they get caught, the pace slows and a serious attack succeeds. I managed to get into a couple of these little skirmishes that went nowhere. Matches were needlessly burned but I had a lot of confidence that I could recover and go again. My chance came with about 30 minutes left. A Bissell rider had gone off on a flyer. Meanwhile, the pace slowed and I thought, "Shoot, I might as well take a shot here." So that's what I did. I jumped and rode off the front. Now, I have done this a few times in the last two seasons when riding this field but it doesn't seem to be appealing to anybody because no one will ride across to me. I can't blame them. Why should they risk missing a break with known strong riders to join up with me. After I jumped I just rode a shade harder than FTP. No powermeter today but I suspect I was pulling 300-320 watts. Enough to maintain my gap but probably not enough to make it 30 minutes. After nearly 1K off the front Ray Dybowski rode across to me and no one followed. I want to tell you, I feel like Rodney Dangerfield sometimes in that field. "Aw shoot, don't worry about those two. Ray can't make it with that guy. We'll reel them in." When I saw Ray I looked over and said, "C'mon Big Ray, LET'S GO!" And that's what we did. You see, I think Big Ray knew something the others didn't because he and I were in the most hideously painful, (for me that is), break at Ada last year. I think Ray calculated that this might be an opportunity and he capitalized on it guessing the field wouldn't feel threatened.

Well, we threw the hammer down and it was go-time. Before long we reeled in the flyer so now there were three. The riding was excruciatingly painful. After pulling too long once, I yelled as I had to give it all I had to hold the wheel of the guy in front of me. I heard some time gaps yelled out and I wasn't impressed with what I was hearing then silence. We held out all the way down to 2 laps to go. Somewhere in here an Essex Brass rider rode across to us and just kept going. I think it was Bruce Rivera. Anyway, no way I could hold his wheel as I was fading fast. I got back with Ray and we worked together to try and stay away. The field was closing fast and I knew it was going to be close. The entire last lap I was huffing and puffing the same way I do when collapsing on the graduated exercise test. The Essex Brass rider stayed away, the Bissell rider took second, Ray got third and I took fourth. We made it but by a hair's breath. It was close. The field sprint missed me by feet. I'll take it though.

Now 4th place in a training race isn't much to get excited about but finishing in front of a very strong field like that does give me a sense of accomplishment and if nothing else, perhaps others will take a chance on me in the future.

I didn't get a chance to hear about our team's work back in the field. If anyone can post up a comment on the race from that perspective it would be nice. My guess is the SLC boys were doing their best to gum-up the works back there.