Independence Valley Road Race

Well the weather on the way to Chehalis area was not looking pretty at all. I rode down with Gabe who was racing Cat 5's ten minutes after me so it worked out well for carpooling. Once we arrived we got the canopy set up and all our trainers. With about 45 minutes to spare I was all registered, dressed and on my bike. I think that was the fastest set up time I have done. It was nice for a change.
Chad and I were waiting mid pack for the race to start and Erik the race director had everyone move up before the start and then all of a sudden Chad and I looked at each other and somehow we ended up at the very back of the start. We had 71 starters for Cat 4's so it was a pretty big field and the rain had stopped so that was even better. The first few miles were pretty chill and going up the first climb was ok until we got to the downhill and everyone seemed to be pussy footin down. There was a gap that opened up so we had to weave our way through and then chase back on once we got to the flats. Just as we caught back on I reached down to grab my only water bottle and just as I grabbed it we hit a bump and it launched out of my hand. Dang. That really had me stressed out for a while. The 2nd climb seemed to be a easier than I remember it and we stayed together and we (cycleu) all seemed to be close to the front of the race. Erik was a great teammate and loaned me a water bottle. Thanks again Erik. Farestart (IJM thumbprint) went on a couple attacks and they seemed to be the only team that animated the race. Again the yellow and black team with a spot of blue had huge numbers and seemed to only take up space and not do much. The 2nd lap was going to be tough and I knew I had to be at the front coming up to the first climb. The last 2 years I have raced IVRR its been the 2nd lap on the first climb that has been the death of me. It seemed to be the same this year. Everyone came by me and I was having the hardest time getting my legs to turn over and they felt like they were about to explode. Once I got to the top of the climb the pack was all blown apart with several individuals by themselves. Once I got down to the flats there were 3 of us working together a bit but we were all pretty wiped out still. I struggled and then decided I should just pull my leg warmers down because it felt like they were cutting off a bit of circulation. Sure enough when I got them pulled down my legs felt immediately better. So I have some nice Specialized leg warmers for sale if anyone is interested, size is Medium. The pack of 3 grew to 8 then the next thing I knew when I rotated off the front we must of had close to 20. The 2nd climb I had a good rythem and seemed to pass everyone that was in front of me. On the down hill I patted my butt and told the guys behind me to sit on my wheel. We carved the downhill pretty good and continued to catch guys. I could see Erik in the group ahead of us. With about 5 miles to go we caught his group.My new goal now was to win the bunch sprint. I guessed we had about 30 now in our group so I was sure it was going to come to a sprint. We came around the corner and saw the 1k to go sign and then with about 800 meters to go we could see a car parked in our lane and 2 guys picking themselves up off the pavement. We all slowed when we came by them. I was still in the top 8 and we started ramping up for the finale. All the cars were gone and it was wide open again. I moved to 4th wheel behind a Olympic Orthopaedic guy with the red and black kits. He was a pretty big and strong looking guy so I stayed on his wheel until we hit the 200m sign. I went to the right of him and then launched my sprint. I won the sprint but finished 25th!

Glad to have Chad on the podium again as he finished 3rd! Although I finished 25th I was actually pretty happy with my fitness. I show on my Polar we had an average of 22 mph and a max of 48 mph.

Sequim #2 = Podium

This was the last race for the Tour de Dung(eness) up in Sequim. Once again we were treated with great weather. It did seem a little colder than it was the weekend before but it wasn't raining and the sun was out. Chad, Shawn and myself arrived and got all set up and ready to go with about 20 min to spare on the trainers. My dad came up with the trailer so we had a nice place to change in. Your awesome dad. We lined up 10 min early to make sure we made the start. This week it was a different race official and we didn't actually start until 3 min after our start time of 9:50. Go figure. The plan this week was the same as it was last week. Get Chad to the front of the race at the end for a possible lead out. The race was ok and the slinky effect was in full force. Slow down, speed up, on the brakes, on the gas. Pretty standard operating procedure. It makes it a bit more stressful for sure. We again were doing 4 laps for a total of 48 miles. The last lap is when it started to liven up a bit. We had 4 guys last year move over to a different team. It was nice to see them again and weird to see them in different kits but good to race with them. One of them took off on a flyer about 3 miles into the last lap. I jumped and bridged up to him and we had a group of 4 that rotated through a couple times. We had a little gap but I didn't want to do any more work because I knew it wouldn't stick. So I sat up and we got caught. I was a little nervous because when I bridged up to the break I was pinging on my heart rate montitor 192 bpm. In the past when I get that high it is normally during a sprint finish. Thankfully I was able to recover once back in the group. I sat in for the rest of the lap until we were about 2 miles away from the finish. At that point it was difficult to move to the front. Chad was always near the front so he was in a good position. When I closed the break down and we got caught I went to the back of the pack. It took some time to get up near the front and then when I did everyone was real nervous and you could feel the pack and how tense everyone was. I was up on the left near the yellow line and usually that line will open up as the pack speeds up. However, the pack really wasn't speeding up much. I was beginning to get frustrated and then a opening showed itself and I just stood up and sprinted to the front. Once I got there I realized we had another half mile to go and I was already on the front pulling the pack. So I decided the hell with it and shifted to a higher gear and started to ramp it up. Chad was behind me directing me where to move to in case someone tried going around us. I moved over to the yellow line again to give us the best position for the right hand corner coming up. I wanted to atleast get us to the corner in a good spot then try and sprint out of the corner to spread the field out some more. Just as we approached I stood up to give it some more gas but the legs told me I was out of gas. I sat back down just as we entered the corner and several guys came by. I stood and pedaled in hopes of seeing where Chad was up at the front. It was close and Chad got 2nd place but was literally inches from getting the win. This was a huge turn around for both of us compared to last week. Way to go Chad.

Now on to the Pacific Raceways Series on Tuesday nights in the Cat 1, 2, 3 field. Chad and I decided to move up to this field to gain more experience and much more fitness. We are only category 4's but we hope to hang with the big guns to help us upgrade to 3's. Then down to Independence Valley Road Race on Saturday.

First Race of the Season = FAIL

The title tells it all in 1 word. FAIL. Chad Sullivan and I headed over to my parents place Friday night which is over in Poulsbo about 3 miles from Hood Canal Bridge. This was to stay in the camper trailer and cut the wake up time Saturday morning by several hours. However, we didn't plan on it raining all night. The trailer is like a tin can when it rains so it echoed pretty good and neither of us slept much. We headed up to Sequim with the beautiful camper trailer in tow. The weather was horrible all the way up to Sequim and about 10 miles away it started to lighten up and a few minutes later the rain had almost stopped. This was pretty unbelievable. They say though that Sequim is in a little circle where it doesn't get a whole lot of rain. I have decided if I don't move to Eastern Washington for the weather then it will be Sequim. We arrived and guess what.



I love this place. Our race start was at 9:50 and we arrived around 7:45 so we had plenty of time to get all set up and get a good spot.

It was going to be Chad, myself, Jon C, Chris B, and Tim C racing. It was 9:45 and all the Cat 3's were lined up for their 9:45 start. We made our way over there and I decided to hit the porta potty one last time. Came back out and the whole area was empty and Chad was on the road telling me everyone had left? It was Chad, myself and Tim. It looked like Chris had taken off a few seconds before because we saw him down the road. Chad asked what time it was and I looked at my bike computer and it said 9:50:25. We didn't here any sort of announcement saying that the Cat 4 field was starting early or anything to that nature. We were told later that they left 3 minutes early. I checked 3 clocks after the race and all 3 were faster than my bike computer. So they could have left even earlier than that. I was really upset as you can imagine. Not only did I ruin my own race by not lining up 10 minutes early I also felt responsible for the other guys too. I am the Team Captain and this should not have happened but it did.
I hung on to Chad for a few miles and then felt like I was about to throw up so I slowed down. Chad chased the whole race. I came around for the first lap and was still dumbfounded. Tim C and I waited then decided to just soft pedal until the pack came by and we would jump back in the group. The race was super fast. We came by the start line the next lap and we were cruising at 30 mph. We hit that a few times around the 11 mile lap. I went to the front at one point and put in a big effort to help bring back a couple guys then went to the back for the rest of the race.

A VALUEABLE lesson was learned. Arrive 10 minutes early to every start because you never know if the race official is on bar time. Next week Tour de Dung #2 and you can bet we will be lined up 15 min early.