2013 Tour of Walla Walla was up next in the middle of April and would be a 3 day stage race with 4 races. It is probably "the" stage race of Washington, with teams from ID, MT, and OR making the trip. Lindsay and I rented a house and was able to fill it with SCCA/Starbuck racers! The house was really nice and also had a 2 car garage that we filled with bikes. The weather on the other hand was not cool. Walla Walla was issued a high wind warning for the weekend. Great. I will take rain, cold, hot, anything but wind.
Friday Waitsburg Road Race 42 miles (2 laps):
I did this course back in 2009 (read about it here) when I accidentally joined the wrong field. The race finishes on a climb that is about 1.5 miles long with an average gradient of 5.4%. We had a very strong team with us for the Category 3 race. The plan was to hang out in the bunch and cover any moves that went off the front and maintain for the Time Trial the next day. The worst part for me and a few others was on the last lap going through the feed zone. Let me back up a little bit and explain how windy it was. We were seeing winds from 20 mph to 40 mph. This made everyone in the peleton nervous and if you dared lose the guys wheel that was in front of you joining back on was going to be a herculean effort. As far as I know there weren't any crashes until the last 500 meters. So back to what happened in the feed zone. We were cruising up this hill that averaged about 3% to 3.5% at 28 mph. It was insane. We had a tail wind that helped us up the hill but the speed was enough to start popping guys off the back. As they blew up they created gaps that we had to fill. It was only a matter of time. My mistake was not moving up to the front of the peleton earlier in the lap. It was a hard thing to convince myself to do with the wind. The inevitable happened and I was off the back and chasing with a few others guys. We got pretty close to the pack before we came back into the town of Waitsburg but it really surprised me how a basic bicycle paceline for Cat 3 racers is a foriegn activity. I was spending more energy staying with this group than I would if I set off on my own. So thats what I did and when it came up to be my turn at the front of the paceline I launched off the front and set off in hopes of catching back on to the main field. I did and was able to recover for 5 minutes before we hit the climb for the finish. Same scenorio took place as above. A gap formed from a few guys and that put the rest of us off the back. Blah. This really sucked as the wind was right in your face and there was nobody to hide behind. As we came to the 200 meter sign prior to the finish line I went around one of the guys that had been in our small group of 3. He didn't find that very nice and had something to say about it as I went by. I am racing my bike here buddy. I didn't just suffer for the last 2 hours to be a gentlemen and let you go to the line ahead of me.
Saturday Time Trial 8.7 miles
Prior to the Tour of Walla Walla I went to Herriott Sports Performance to get a bike fit on my TT bike. Best money spent is getting your bikes fitted. I had them fit me on my road bike in March and brought them my TT bike as well and it made riding it much more enjoyable.
I'm not very good at Time Trials. I love the concept of them and the technology that goes into them but I am just not able to sustain the power that is required to put in good times. Its still fun though. My plan was to pace myself and put in a decent effort but I was planning on saving my legs for the Criterium that was happing that evening. The wind once again was brutal, and once I was over the climb I was able to get in a better rythem as the wind was not directly punching me in the face, just in the side of my face. I caught the guy that started 30 seconds ahead of me as well as the 1 minute guy. Who just so happened to be the guy that had issues with me on Friday in the road race. I thought that was fitting that I passed him. The real reason I caught him was because I was so much more aero than he was. The pictures of my pre/post fit show my head is much lower and closer to my hands which = aero. So again thanks to the boys at HSP! I came in 52nd. yikes 23:53 min
That afternoon was the Criterium. I have had some decent results in the past here with a couple top 10's and 1 top 5. My goal this year was the same as every year. WIN. After the Time Trial we had several SCCA/Starbucks racers in for the General Classification. Jeff Reed who is on my left in the below picture and Mike Foster better known as FASTER on my right.
The other Crit man that is missing from the above picture is Tony Blazejack who proceeded to win $150 in cash and a new set of Oakley's on the Prime laps and took 3rd in the crit. Great effort and results. I on the other hand took 13th. I was on Tony's wheel coming into the 2nd to last corner but was not aggressive enough to hold his wheel. My sprint in a Cat 4 field is pretty explosive but racing in the Cat 3 field its a small flame. We averaged 25mph for the whole race (45 minutes) and the last lap average was 28.5mph, with my sprint speed of 35mph. My problem is I have used up all my explosiveness prior to the sprint and don't have much left over. My early season form was good but everyone else is catching up. Top 15 out of a field as strong as the 84 competitors probably isn't so bad but I don't race my bike for top 15's. ; )
Sunday Road Race 62 miles 3500+ Ft of Climbing
I wanted really bad to help our guys who were going to be fighting for the General Classification. My legs didn't feel so great but I thought they would come around. Buzzer sounds and I get into the ring then after a few rounds (18 miles) I am TKO'd. The wind on Sunday was the worse it had been all weekend. In the Cat 4 race my teammate and friend Travis was blown literally off the road and into a barb wire fence. See pro and now famouse because of it Johnny Hoogerland. At first when he told us that prior to our race start I was like, "what really?" It was hard to believe but once I got to the area where he crashed on the course in our race I couldn't believe how strong the winds were and knew how dangerous it really was. The good part was Lindsay, Ridlee and myself got to leave Walla Walla a little earlier than expected. I only made it 30 something miles and called it a weekend. Atleast I could smile after being physically crushed. Ridlee was pretty wiped out too. Great weekend though with the team and having the family there. Next year I will focus more on doing the Tour de Bloom in Wenatchee.
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