June 11 2011
Wilmington NY
53 degrees light rain throughout-just special
Rolling Loop-3 laps 54.9 miles
Master 35-45 combined
Nothing like driving for 2.5 hours in the rain and knowing you are going to race 2.5 hours in the rain. Sigh. Oh well, bike racing ain't always 85 and sunny, that is for sure. I had resigned myself to 'go Belgian' on this day, ie, shuttup, put on the rain stuff, smear the legs with Vaseline and go bike race.
This is a hard little circuit with one major obstacle per lap, a climb of maybe 1 mile that can usually deal out some serious pain depending on the mood of the field. It starts with a 5 mile run to the circuit, then 3 laps, then exit the circuit to return to town and up the final steep 1.5 mile climb to the finish.
We started with a rain reduced(can't blame the no shows) field of maybe 40, 35 and 45's ride together but are scored separate. Riding with the 35's always adds a bit of extra speed to the occasion, no doubt.
Right out of town, a rider bolts the group, typical early suicide move it would seem. Another rider took off shortly before we hit the loop and now we had two out front maybe a minute gap. As the road spray began to really soak into every possible dry spot on the body, the field rode along at a steady pace as a Canadian team took up the front as one of the breakaways was their guy, and they were all about controlling things and they had the numbers to do it. That was going to be the way this race went all day. They rode hard enough to really discourage much action and went after any major break attempts. They did a fine job indeed. Kind of refreshing to see a team actually ride as a team and not just a bunch of guys in the same jersey but on different pages. They had a plan and they were executing it.
Wet roads make for nervous descents. Pucker factor goes up for sure. Lap 2 saw one guy go off and sit out front by 200 meters for quite awhile, then another guy got a gap and now we had two guys just sitting off the front for quite a few miles but not really going anywhere. That all changed as on one of the longer rollers someone really shot off hard, made the bridge to the second guy, they then caught the first guy, forming a group of 3 that began to work and move away from the field. So now we started lap 3 with 2 guys off by about 2 minutes, then 3 riders about a minute ahead, the field itself had been whittled down to about 20 riders through hill attrition and rain malaise I would suspect. I felt OK at this point, rain and cool temps are not my cup of tea however, my legs typically are not that good in these conditions, but hey, we are racing eh? So, I took a flyer and was quickly marked. Interesting. The field let 3 guys meander away without any reaction, I twitch and here they come. The good news is this seemed to ignite the pace a bit and a few other attacks and accelerations followed my attack. This set the stage for another attempt from me to go, this also was chased down in short order. The really good news is my recovery was really good, and I was ready for another go in short order. If you can stretch a field and put some fellows in distress, the odds for a chase get less and less. Off I went and this time I secured a bit of a gap. Into TT mode and off I go. Shortly a Keltic guy bridges to me and we set off together. I would love to get to the final climb ahead of the group, that was my thinking at any rate. To no avial, the Canadian boys reeled us back in shortly before hitting lap 3 hill for the last time. It got really hard pretty quickly. I was in the top 3 and holding on pretty well until one of the 35's really stomped on the gas and it went single file and hang on for your life. I was number 2 in a long line and I tell you, I was pushing the accelerator nearly through the firewall. His rear wheel bobbed in front of me, pulling a bit away, then coming back in some sort of slow motion death dance. I knew I had to hold his wheel and maybe we could get off in a small group. Finally the top came and he just kept going, he had forced a split, but just before we turned off the loop for the final 6 miles to the finish, some regrouping occurred, and the group was maybe 15 as we motored along, heading for the 'sting in the tail' on this day. This final climb is pretty nasty, maybe 10% for 1.5 miles. You either have the legs left or not. As we banked hard right and started up, my feeling was 'not'. My legs felt stiff and not up to the task. Maybe 12 of our group gapped me immediately and I went into head hanging mode of 'well, maybe 15th will be the box score for this day' mindset.
Then, two things happened. My legs came to life and the group started to split and slow. Yee ha, another chance. I just banged out the fastest tempo I could and began to catch guys one at a time, until finally the 200 meter sign came and I had only 2 left from the original field in front of me.
Stand and push push hard to the end, the line finally came and I weaved into the parking lot way over the red line.
I started to get chilled in no time, so I headed to the car, back down the hill, teeth now chattering. I went from a smoking hot overheated engine to and ice cube in about 10 minutes.
By the time I got to the parking lot, reality set in. I was dirty, soaked and stiff. Uggh. Hard day on the bike.
The Canadians rode a good race, but in the end their guy got second, they put all their eggs in one basket and came up a bit short.
Final box score-5th in the 45's.
No comments:
Post a Comment