Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

All Racing, All the Time

That's what this weekend was. Two B level races to test fitness and to try for some results. Saturday was the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival Road Race. A little history is in order at this point. The first race I ever did was a Cherry Blossom Road Race on the same course. It was organized by a group of mountain bike promoters and so the classes were beginner, sport and expert. I didn't know any fast cyclists so I thought I was the bomb and entered the Expert catagory. The plus side is that I can say I got to race with Tim Johnson who is now a European Pro and he even gave me kudos for single-handedly pulling back a dangerous break. The minus side was that I got dropped about 32 miles into a 52 mile race and most likely looked like a bit of a "fred". I don't think I've ever let that experience settle. The course is a rolling course with one short, steep climb and one long grinder to go with the constant ups and downs. It's probably no coincidence that I'm a rider that does best on this type of course. I think I've trained for three years to go back to this course and redeem myself.

On Saturday, that's what I did. I raced with the Masters 35+ group for the first time. I expected the first lap to be "piano" or soft and easy and for things to get really interesting on lap 3 or so. Right after the first climb the attacks started on lap one. Wow! I chased and attacked and hammered and stayed at the front for most of the first lap. My form felt good and I really thought that maybe I had a chance. Near the end of the lap, things settled down and I yet tot he back of the group for a rest and to plot a bit of strategy. As we went up the steep climb on the second lap I was back towards the front and ended up chasing down a couple more short lived breaks. This was crazy! If I kept this up I would be worn out by lap four so when the next break went, I didn't chase. Neither did anyone else and up the road they went. Argle-bargle! This was "the break". Once they got about 30 seconds on us I decided that enough was enough and I went after them. Four or five guys jumped with me, including the state champion. We got a gap on the pelaton but then I found that our champion wouldn't work with the rest of us. He just sat in and demoralized some of the guys who just didn't pedal hard. Once we got caught the champ wouldn't let me off the front. Finally, I eased up and he rolled up alongside to check me out. I was a new guy in the group and obviously I was riding strong and aggressive so he wanted to give me the once over. I took the opportunity to ask if he had a teammate up in the break. He gave me a sort of sheepish look and said "yeah, he's good enough to win the race so..." That made a lot of sense to me and I couldn't fault him though I really wanted off the front. Still though, I had everyone afraid of me and I liked the situation a lot. So when we hit another section that required a bit of extra effort, I set a solid pace and decided to see who wanted to try to ride with me. The answer was no one. All of the sudden going into a long, slightly downhill section of the course I had 30 meters and I thought, "let's see what happens." So I rode at a steady 75% of Max HR pace and did a bit of time trialing. I kept expecting to have the peloton pull up alongside me but they never did. Finally three other guys bridged up and we formed a four man group off the front that would last the entire rest of the race. I managed to take sixth in the race which is outstanding for this early in the year. Last year my first top ten road finish wasn't until the end of April.

Sunday was the GAP MTB race at Dauset, my home course. I wanted a good finish but I was worried about how I would recover from the previous effort. Still I had ridden the course several times in race mode and I had a good feeling about my set-up. The course had been packed a week earlier and I felt like I had found a set-up for the bike that was extremely stable which would let me take a few extra risks on the technical bits and then hammer up the climbs with maximum efficiency. Unfortunately, the dry weather and high number of riders on the trail over the course of the next week had taken the course from dry and hard to dry and powdery. I didn't take that into account and so didn't make the appropriate bike adjustments. I climbed great and my fitness was there but crashing four times in soft corners on the singletrack just killed my results. I ended up in twelfth place out of a field of 60 so I met my level two goal of finishing in the top quarter of the field but I'm frustrated that my lack of technical knowledge and skill keeps holding me back. Practice will make perfect so I'll just keep on plugging along. With two events in the book though, I'm in the top tep for the state series which may set me up for qualifying to go to the NORBA MTB X-Country nationals. I doubt I'll be able to go if I do get invited but it's always nice to know you can go to the big dance.

Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll see you out there (the weather's getting to be too nice to stay inside...get out and ride your bike, or run, or walk, or whatever...just get outside already...)

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