Tour of Tuscaloosa-Road Race (State Championship)

Sunday March 25, 2012

This morning I rolled up to race the Tour of Tuscaloosa road race, which was just made last week the state championship race for Alabama, in less than great form, cough cough.  It’s tough to complain with my results so I won’t but you could say I was feeling a little fatigued.  The course was a 4 lap 10 mile loop with very little climbing except for the last 2k to the finish.

However the weather was awesome with mid 70’s and sunny skies and plenty of racers.  I think the field today was near 70 and with the motorcycle cops being extremely strict on center line, a hard race to make spots in.  I rolled from the start sitting mid pack and quickly found myself 15 or so rows back of 4 wide riders.  The first two laps I found myself just trying to make up spots and get to the front of the group.  Riders were packed 3,4 and several times 5 wide and it was just a nightmare trying to squeeze a line, needless to say there was a lot of pushing and rubbing those first two laps. 

Once I was able to make my way to the front 20, where I joined up with Alan, he was able to pull me up to the front 8 where we stayed most of the 3^rd lap.  A break of 3 had gone early in the race and had a minute plus on the field and no one would work to pull them back.  So in the end they were able to hold off because of this.  I got on the front, even thought Alan told me not too, and began pushing the pace for several miles trying to close down the gap but when I realized no one would work or pull through it became moot and I said screw that and dropped back to around 10^th wheel.  I sat nicely the rest of the 3^rd lap and when we passed for the final bell lap the field finally kicked up the pace.  Well for half a lap and we were able to spread out to a single pace line and push the pace until we approached the last 5 miles where I think we honestly averaged less than 15 mph.  It was crap but no one would work and the teams with numbers up front just sat up waiting for attacks.  I got to the front and began pushing but not doing much work.  I just wanted a good position for the final 1k, which was all uphill.  I rounded the last turn at the bottom of the hill with about 2.5k to go sitting 3^rd wheel and slowly we spread out and made 4 wide on the front as not to let an attack through.  I was able to catch my wind and prepare for the attack, but it came too soon.  Dude on my right got up and kicked at 500m and I chased, bad idea for me.  I held his wheel for about 250m then began to get dropped slowly.  As I watched him ride away I just looked down at my front hub and strained to put as much power down as possible.  He got about 10m on me and I stood to attack knowing I was only 200m out but just didn’t have it.  At 150m to go I got passed by several riders and inside 100m I lost a couple more spots.  I ended up 13^th on the day and 3^rd place for Alabama so I got the Bronze medal for the state championship but lost out by one spot for the money.  Like I said it’s tough to complain when I got a medal on the day but eh. 

Next weekend I will be at Dothan Cityfest for their crit on Sunday, no road race but I’ve heard good things about the crit and look forward to racing there.  

Here is my Garmin from the race.

 Me on my trainer

 Max and Me getting ready to warm up

 Mick getting his warmup in on the rollers

 Alan getting in a quick stretch before the race

Tour of Tuscaloosa- Crit

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Today I raced in my first crit ever at Tour of Tuscaloosa.  I raced in the cat 4s and the field was 65 deep.  The course was a non crossing figure eight and was about 1.2 miles long with 2 up-hills that made things tougher than they should have been and one long downhill with speeds hitting mid 40’s every lap.  The wind was pretty bad for our race and kept the flags in fluttering squares every time I saw them. 

I was able to get a good start and get to the front 30 by the second turn on the first lap but from the start it was a hammerfest.  We hit the first lap hard and were running a double pace line for the first two laps with no respite.  On the 3^rd lap I was finally able to catch a breath but in just a few pedal strokes found myself off the back chasing to get back on.  Learned that lesson the hard way, there is not rest in a crit.  I got back on and made several attacks through the turns and worked back to top 20.  On laps 5 or 6 I got on the front and began looking to see who was up there and could contend and who was just sucking wheels.  I marked my guys to not let get away and began sitting in top 10-15^th, staying out of the wind and limiting my work at the front.  It was constant jockeying for position to stay in the top 20 because every time you would get a wheel, 3 or 4 guys would come around you then force themselves back in line.  So it was kinda like musical chairs, but in a 4 or 5 wide pace line at 24+mph 15 to 20 rows deep.  Needless to say I bumped a few handlebars and rubbed a couple wheels but no one was listening to anyone and everyone was racing way too aggressively to stay out of the wind so whatever.  No one went down but there sure were some squirrely riders in that pack. 

The first time I looked down at my computer to see where I was at in the race was at 25 mins in.  We were suppose to run 30 mins plus 3 laps but I think ended up running closer to 35 + 3 with an overall time of 42+ minutes.  I knew the 3 to go would be coming up soon and no one in our group was strong enough to ride away from the field in that wind so I sat in and tried to recover and save my legs for the last couple laps.  Then it came, 3 TO GO 3 TO GO 3 TO GO!

It was like clockwork, we passed the finish line and the first attack goes.  I was able to stay top 5 for lap 3, which was a mistake, I ended up doing too much work pushing the pace and fell off with 2 to go.  Most of the field had been pulled by that point with only about 40 riders remaining and I found myself with 1 and a half laps to go sitting about 30^th.  I attacked hard turns 4 and 5 and was able to get a couple spots back but was way in the red and we still hadn’t heard the bell for the last lap yet.  I held my bars as tight as I could, kept my cadence high, and just did not let myself get a gap from the riders in front of me.  I was able to hold that wheel until ½ a lap to go and that’s when I made my move.  I attacked on turns 5 and 6 this lap and moved to the top 10 and was chasing hard.  A gap had opened up and I had to real in about 25m on my own, which really hurt, keeping this PG by the way but it was very very painful.  My legs were burning, my hands were numb, my neck was cramping and I was seeing stars.  I caught his wheel just as I dove into the second to last turn which I railed at close to 30 mph.  I came out of it hard and got a couple spots and could see the leader about 10m in front of me.  I came hard into the last corner with the finish 150m away and swung wide to the outside, carrying every last ounce of momentum I had.  It was a mistake because I rode the last 150 in the wind by myself while the 3 guys I just jumped tucked in and pace lined it right past me to keep me out of the top 5.  8^th place on the day out of 65 and I was really pleased.  I stayed upright, had no mechanicals, and was able to get a top 10.  Those were my pre-race goals so nothing bad I can say about my results there. 

Overall on the day we had a great turnout of team members and a lot of support for the first race of the year.  I think Alan and Mick have put together a great group of guys racing for ST3 Cycling and I look forward to having a strong year with them. 

Here  is my Garmin from the race.

Here are some videos of the race John Soto managed to get for us.

Sumatanga Training Race #3 Race Summary

Sunday March 11, 2012

What a day, after riding hard yesterday and going in a break of 5 to hold off for a 2^nd place finish in the Ronde Von Grant Race, I anticipated keeping things simple today and sitting in most of the race.  Well that was my plan at least until I started the race.  Mick and Alan were down in Louisiana today racing in Rouge Roubaix so that left Max and Chuck for teammates in the race.  Max started out well with several strong pulls at the front then had a mishap mechanical on the start of the second lap that left him chasing the field the rest of the day.  Chuck did well with his first race of the year and rode strong with a pack finish on the day. 

I went out with the plan to keep things easy, stay to the front, and to go with any break of 3 or more.  On the first lap Cahaba Cycles sent a guy off the front and no one wanted to chase, so he was able to stay out for a while before getting caught but it made for an awkward first lap.  Cahaba and Spring City were probably the best represented teams there today with 4+ riders in the field from each so I knew Cahaba wouldn’t chase their own guys down and there were not many people stepping up to do work, other than a core group of riders.  I did some pulls up front but knowing I had no teammates that would counter an attack if one of the other teams went, I rode with the mentality of never pulling harder or longer than needed if someone was to counter.  I did manage to get with Larry from Cahaba and said I would help do work for them if they promised to not attack me after pulling and they held true on the day, which made me feel better about racing stronger on the front.   

Around the end of the last lap I began cramping in both my hamstrings so I immediately went from the front 5 to off the back.  Chuck was kind enough to drop back with me to make sure I was okay only for me to put in back in the big ring and do several big ring pulls to help stretch out my cramps, and in the process leave him to get back to the group on his own. 

The finish this week was at the top of a steep mile+ climb several miles from last week’s finish.  Over the next several miles until we reached the climb I hung on the back of the pack, which was now an easy pace with everyone saving up energy for the climb.  On the last lap a Steel City guy had launch an attack and held it so far so at the bottom of the climb, as we rounded the corner we heard, “One Minute, One Minute to the leader!” So having never seen this climb, I arrogantly dropped down and attacked at the base to go from mid 20’s to 7^th or 8^th wheel.  

At the first hairpin turn I dropped to the inside, which was a good deal steeper than the outside of the turn, and hammered hard out of the saddle to jump 3 guys and get a gap.  I slowly could see people in front of me and knew I had to suffer if I wanted to podium.  The next hairpin I went wide to the outside and got another rider.  I slowly worked to reel the next couple riders in while constantly going from standing to seated, back to standing to seated, and so on because even thought I was completely anaerobic, I was still fighting my cramps and it was all I could do to not move a certain way and have my legs knot up.  I was able to pick off every rider and then I saw the Steel City guy so slowly rolled up to him and got within about 10ft before I stood and hammered hoping to get a gap so he wouldn’t give chase.  Then I saw the 1km sign, I knew I was close so I regrouped and focused on breathing and began anticipating someone attacking because I could hear chain noise behind me (by the way this noise is probably going to haunt me for a while because when you are anaerobic, seeing stars, a little delirious, and fighting cramps in both legs while climbing a hill at 10%-14% gradient, that noise was about the only thing that kept me going.)  I never once looked back the whole climb but I knew they were there. Looking back over my Garmin results I noticed that from the base of the climb it took me right at 7 minutes to the top and I went between 191 and 196 bpm the whole time.  I only looked down at my hr monitor once the whole climb because I knew seeing something like this would have mentally sent me over the edge, good thing I didn't. 

I would go from my smallest gear, 39x26, to one bigger and then listen to see if the chasers would gear up or if they would just maintain.  I knew if I didn’t hear anyone shift then they were cooked and I was safe.  To no avail, every time I shifted, Kyle would shift, and in most cases instantly so there was no chance of sitting up a bit for a quick rest, it was suffer more and then they will have to suffer more mentality at this point.  In the end all my suffering paid off and I was able to roll across the line taking 1^st place.  Kyle and David were wheel to wheel crossing the line with David taking 2^nd and Kyle from NSAT taking 3^rd.  

Sumatanga Training Race #3  Here is my Garmin from the race.

And since I'm tired and don't feel like writing a summary of yesterday's race in Grant, AL here is my Garmin from that race as well, I was able to hold a break of 5 after one of two laps and attacked on the final climb of the day to get 2nd by over several hundred yards to a hill top finish.  

Ronde Von Grant Training Race #2