Friday was the road race for the Cat 1-2 and 3 pro's. Category 4 and 5 started racing on Saturday morning with an Individual Time Trial (TT) and a then Saturday night with a Criterium. On Sunday it would be a road race of 40 miles to determine the overall victor.
During the weeks leading up to this race I was doing a bunch of hill repeats at lunch then doing another 20 mile effort after work. I was feeling pretty good come Saturday morning.
Saturday morning TT:
After getting briefly lost as the race guide (bible) didn't indicate where the TT was located, we found the starting point. My departure was at 10:40 and I started warming up on the trainer in the parking lot at 10am. I have never done a TT before and don't have the aero helmet or the aero bars or a spare bike for that matter. There were some super nice TT bikes there.(Will have to add one of those to the wishlist). My time comes up and I get lined up at the starting gate. I learned from a teammate to not start in a big gear as it makes it really tough to get out of the box from a stand still. The ref counts me down and away I go. The TT is a 9.3 mile course with a hill that is at a 5% gradient. As soon as I got on the course my heart rate jumped right up to 180bpm. That was something I wanted to try and keep lower but no matter what I did it stayed right there. I kept my cadence at 100 and just trucked along. I caught the guy in front of me on the long hill and then on the backside of the track he went back past me. We both rode side by side to the finish line as we both sprinted to get a good time. I placed 22nd overall with a time of 24:59. 3rd place was 23:09. I was pretty happy with that. My goal was to place in the top 25. First goal accomplished. Here is my data.
9.3 miles - 452 Calories - 24:59 duration - Avg heart rate 177bpm/Max heart rate 182bpm - Speed avg 21.8 mph/Speed max 33.5 mph - Cadence avg 99 rpm/Cadence max 117 rpm
Saturday night Crit:
Our start time was at 8:40pm. This was a 1.1 mile course that we would be racing on for 25 minutes. We went down a little early to watch some of the other races and get a feel for the atmosphere. They had the whole downtown area blocked off and a big stage area for the announcer. I was pretty impressed and excited. The start of any bike race is important but as I learned at the crit the position you are in at the very beginning is even more important. I was pretty much at the back when the whistle went off for us to begin. Apparently a group of 20 or so took off and the only time I saw them was when I made my way to the front of the line. There were a lot of corners on this course and the pavement was good in areas and horrible in other. I had to slow down alot in the corners as most of the guys in front of me were taking them very erratically. I had more speed I could produce in the corners but was unable to use it. There was a Carter/Lenova rider that sprinted off the front when we went past start finish and I sprinted after him and closed it down. We talked for a minute about if we could catch the group in front of us and I wasn't sure as I couldn't even see them and had no idea how many were up there. We picked up a few stragglers from that group but never caught them. Next lap around I moved to the back of the group to rest for a minute and just as I got back there I heard the sound and saw the riders in front of me spread out. Doing 20+ mph and hitting the deck mid corner is a bad way to go down. We all made it through but it looked like there was 1 other guy that went down as well. By the time I got by the 2nd guy he was up and jumping back on. Crazy considering he just crashed doing 20 mph. The other guy didn't fair as well. The ambulance on the next lap was there so I assume he was injured. The rest of the race was fun and I was a bit more cautious. Last lap around I sat at the back again resting and then started moving up to the front for the sprint to the line. I think I waited a little late to make my move to the front and probably should have done it a few corners earlier. Out of our group I finished 5th and 17th overall. A lot of lessons learned for my first Crit.
Here is my data.
12.3 miles - 546 Calories - 31:24 duration - Avg heart rate 175bpm/Max heart rate 182bpm - Speed avg 23.6 mph/Speed max 31 mph - Cadence avg 94 rpm/Cadence max 112 rpm
Sunday Road Race 38 miles:
I was 4 minutes behind the leader and in 20th place. My plan was to try and get in an early break away if I could. The legs were pretty sore but they would come around when I got going, I hoped. Our departure time was at 11:40 so at 11:30 I headed over to the start line and sat there for a few minutes and around 11:35 we took off. I didn't even think about the time we took off. We got going and the first couple of miles were neutral and they wouldn't start us until we reached the top of the hill. This hill was pretty massive. As soon as got to the top we took off. There were a few times we were cruising on the flats at around 30 mph. The peloton was well behaved and much better than I remember other races. Usually there are a lot of stopping and going and usually a couple points where someone almost crashes because they aren't paying attention. Not in this group though. There were a couple break away's but every time we brought them back, another unusual thing that normally doesn't happen nearly as fast in Cat 5. The pace was extremely fast and we cruised up several hills at 21-22 mph. There were several times I almost popped off the back of the pack. I had the follow truck right next to me a few times waiting for me to explode out the back. I hung in there though and joined the group again. We went through downtown Waitsburg (where the road race started and finished) and got the 5k sign. Less than 4 miles to go. I thought I was just beat up from Saturday's races and was going to do all I could to stay on. Then we got to the same hill we started at. That was it. I popped off the back of the group and had no intention on trying to stay with them. I just had to survive to the top of this thing. I went across the line with another guy and he said 1 more lap to go. I was like, "wait a sec, what did you say?" He said 1 more lap. Then I asked, "what category is this?", his response was Category 3. I about fell off my bike. He told me to go home your done and good job for hanging with the Category 3's. I was a pretty upset that I screwed something so minor up. I met my dad on my way down as he was taking the amazing pictures he got of us. By the time we got back to the car I had cooled off. Overall I can't be too upset as this was my first stage race and I was the only one from my team there. It actually means I can hang with some fit guys. This actually has gotten me even more excited for the Tour of Wenatchee in May which is also an Omnium. I had a great time and it was fun to have the fam there. Lindsay and dad enjoyed the wine they sampled.
Cycle U will be racing again this weekend in Elma, WA at the Vance Creek Road Race.
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