A teammate sent me info on this race back in July, when I was in my mid-summer slump, i mean break. Not really feeling it especially after a lack luster showing at Brownstown I sort of dismissed it and was looking at doing Tour of Millersburg instead, since it had a TT, crit and road race.
But the more and more I looked at the elevation, distance, etc. I began to see the light. This was designed for my type of riding style, long climbs, two of them, rollers in between and nearly 60 miles to boot.
Just a forewarning this is probably going to be long, how long not sure but here is an abbreviated cliff notes version
c/n
Started dead last, let them pull, got to the first major climb, caught the 3 leaders and descended past them. thought i would get caught, but they let me go. I was solo for the next 1:25, or pretty much the rest of the race. got caught on the last climb and passed by matthew phillips of haymarket. I caught and passed in the descent doing some crazy speeds, being a junior his gearing was limited and drafted me. I had nothing left the for the sprint finish, and got second.
Real Version:
Ever since I was a young adult entering the military I always wanted to learn from my elders, and be sponge trying to absorb as many life lessons as possible. This eventually has passed on to just about everything I do in my life. From my job, being a father, husband, and now a cyclist. Many people before me have gone the exact same route, or if not, very similar so why not take a minute pick their brain and listen to what they have to pass on that could possibly make your journey better, faster and smoother.
Ever since I joined the team I have tried to learn as much about cycling as possible through other team members and racers. This was especially key at training camp. I remember one evening during one of lecture sessions that Bill gave on climbing, and he mentioned being able to carry the power through for the descent, that has always stuck in my head, especially since I enjoy climbing so much. So if you can get a lead or catch people on a climb, why sacrifice all that work, continue to push and work harder as others generally rest.
Another lesson learned was reconning the course. This worked well for the last day of training camp as we rode out to the start Luis and I paid close attention to the very roads we would be finishing up the final ride on. I also had the chance to do this quite a few times during the season to drive over the course to get a feeling of what to expect, and oddly enough the ones I have done it on I seemed to do well at.
I also like a little function on my Garmin 705 that I have found to be very handy. The course display. David Millar of Garming / Transitions once said he favorite thing about the Garmin 705 was the ability to have the course displayed on his TT bars so he knew where he was going and knew all of the turns ahead of time. Ever since I was directed off course in a road race in PA, I have since mapped out the course on www.ridewithgps.com and then transfer the map on to my Garmin. It works great in time trials, or when you have been dropped by the pack and you need to know your way back to the car.
Onto today.
The course: 59 miles, 5000ft of climbing i think or close to it.
I am a planner, and if a race is 3.5 hours away I like to have as much of the details worked out as possible as early as I can. I had the car packed up last night, and my plan was to leave the house at 6am, get to course early enough to drive the 59 miles and see exactly what was in store for us. Driving the course it started pouring rain, and with the roads in WV and descents we were going to have to do this had the potential to be very dangerous. I made some notes talking to myself, noted when the climbs start, when they ended, lots of rollers, the feed zone, the gravel, to rough spots, etc. To me it was a valuable experience and it paid its dividends.
I reg'ed got the bike ready as it started to rain on the start area, it took a lot of people by surprise but I knew it was coming. I took my time and got the bike to make sure everything was working properly, and then on my way to the start area.
As we lined up I noticed that there werent that many people there with their teams, a lot of individuals, in the past this usually means no one will let a break form. They will chase everything down, but it also means the pace can be higher as well because everyone wants the win. And sure enough after the whistle blew we set off at a pretty high pace. My stroll on the bike earlier wasnt enough to be considered warmed up by any means, and soon enough I found myself in the back. Not dropped off the back yet. . . but the last rider still with the group. But with slick roads and braking surfaces I was able to see how the field would play out. But I was comfortable doing my pace, I knew I needed to warm up and hell we had 59 miles to go, but some was insistent on hammering away, and I let them. I stayed in the draft, not once taking a single pull.
As the risers approached and we went over them I took them at a modest pace, Z3 for me, they werent long and some had some descents afterward that ground could be made up if there was a gap. But other insisted on sprinting up them. Of course these risers were before the first major climb which was about 7 miles long and over 1200ft of gain. Our group began shrinking rather quickly. I am not sure what mile or how long into the race we started the first climb but it was definitely a fitness selector. A grade similar to that of Mount Weather from Rt 50 up to the bridge, I just sat in. Floating between Z3 and 4 in power, I took my time, nothing to prove here, plenty of race left. But as we got further up the fewer were with us, maybe ten tops, with three or four of them being about 20 meters in front. I kept my eye on them watching to see if they would just pull away.
Well as they crested the top I knew the descent was going to be pretty technical, and luckly the rain had stopped and these roads were getting dry. Now this is a tough course, the toughest I have ever ridden, let alone raced. For a break to go off at about 1:20 into the race that could be up to 3 hours, the odds of that surviving were slim, especially with most Cat 4 racers fitness levels. I was hoping that maybe we could get a group of 5 of us to pull away. By that time we had a good gap on the rest of the field. Well I dropped two gears and accelerated to catch these guys so we could work together.
Now most of the time getting Cat 4s to work together in a break is about as useful as nailing jello to a tree, it just isnt going to happen, especially if some or most of them are riding unattached they just dont understand the concept of it yet. But as the events that unfolded right now I didnt think were ever going to happen. There is something to be said about being a great climber, hell always KOM points, but what good is that if we have so few hill top finishes, without being a better descender.
I am not sure how this happened, but it did and well I couldnt believe my eyes. As I accelerated up the front three or four guys, I just flew right by them. Not planning this one bit it just happened. This descent had some turns, a couple wet spots, similar to descending Blue Mountain or parts of Naked Mountain, nothing too crazy. I couldnt believe I just got as low as I could and pulled away. They never chased.
This descent was about 8 or 9 miles, it was fun, and going solo was even more so, no one to worry about screwing up you line, no one to brake for, for all the right reasons you. In disbelief I kept as low as I could doing what I do. I thought for sure any second now they would work to pull me back. But as we turned on to another road nothing. I knew I had some rollers coming up, there was nothing flat about this race by any means, you were either going up or down at any point. I kept my position low and just TT'ed, had lots of practice with last weekends unfortunate events, but none the less I have had plenty of time to perfect it.
Hill after hill I was take at a steady pace keeping mind what my friend Chuck Hutchenson had told me about breakaways. Dont kill the uphills, save it for the flats and descents, becuase the group will try to make up group sprinting up hills and have nothing left for the rest. Turns out he was pretty much correct.
I started passing dropped 1,2,3 riders, looking at my map for the up coming turns and every now and then peaking back. The final 20 miles or so were the hardest, probably some of the hardest miles I have ever ridden on a bike. The final climb peaked 7.6 miles from the finish, it was a shorter climb, only 3 or 4 miles of really climbing but there was a long nagging ascent to the climb.
I started getting tired, but still focused on my pace, the moto ref told me they were 1:15 back. I had no idea if that was closing or not because I never saw the moto ref before that point. But I kept going started the final climb at a good tempo. The as the pitch got higher I could see some riders bridging up to me. I just kept my pace, hoping they would blow up. Most did, but about 1.5 miles from the summit Matthew Phillips caught me and passed me like I was standing still. This kid was hauling, no one else though. He was gone before I knew it, but I also knew that he didnt take many risks descending, so if he doesnt gap me too much I had a shot at catching him.
Well the misery ended, by the time I got to the top I experienced something I had never had before, actual muscle cramping. My left hamstring and right calve were cramping some kind of bad. That made climbing even more fun, but I had to push through the pain and keep spinning. For the first time on that climb I dropped it into my 39 and had to spin. As the descent began I still had to keep pedaling as my legs would cramp if I didnt.
Now I have done some pretty stupid things on my bike before, most of which I wont admit in an open forum but some of the risks on the descent today definitely tops some of them. I left it all on the line. I had almost no gas left what so ever. I was exhausted, at this point I had been riding solo, strike that, racing solo for nearing one hour and fifteen minutes. My only saving grace was being able to descend like an angel from heaven. Climb like a bat out of hell and descend like an angel, the best of both worlds.
This descent was the most technical I had ever done before. It made the hairpins on 211 near Skyline Drive stroll in around the block. This had complex hairpains after hairpins, some banked, switching from being on the outside to the inside. Honestly it is pretty indescribable, but to me I had nothing to loose. I began catching Matthew, and eventually made the catch. As I rode by, he yelled something, I had no idea what it was.
After the descent we had about 2 miles or so before we finished, still some rollers. As we were going he was just sitting on my wheel and I couldnt figure out why. He then spins up to me and says he is limited by junior gearing. Well shit if I didnt pull on the descents third place, which was about 25 meters behind me at the start of the descent, no clue now, was going to catch us.
Well we made our final turn, and I was still hammering it making sure we didnt get caught, as I saw the 1K spray painted on the road, and began looking for the 200m sign, I thought to myself this is going to be longest 1k ever. I eventually saw the 200m, we got up to sprint, well attempted to. As soon as I tried anything like that my legs just cramped up and I had to sit back down, as Matthew edged me out in the final meters for first.
I am not mad, it would have been nice to win, but I feel by being out as long as I was that in of itself was an accomplishment to me. Being able to have the internal fortitude to keep pushing yourself even when you know that the odds of it lasting are slim to none.
Two weeks ago on a ride with Chuck I told him something I believe in. That if you push yourself and try as hard as you can, you will be rewarded, it has happened to me many of times in races, my best races are when I have to dig deep to really give it 100%. To which Chuck responded in a mellow tone, some times your only reward is sore legs. Oddly enough he is right. After last weekend when I was bumped, edged, pushed or what ever off the road and had to chase back the entire race, racing pretty much solo, and finishing 27th. I got nothing but a pair of sore legs. But today, heh today I got the points to upgrade to Cat 3.
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