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

Sunday, June 01, 2008

This weekend was the Union City Mayor's Race. The municipality of Union City is one the southwest corner of Atlanta and has, for the last several years, hosted a two day, three stage race as a way to show off the area and support the sport of cycling. This event has historically been pretty good to me so even though I had just finished a hard long weekend racing the Tour of Atlanta, I decided to do the entire thing.

The stages consisted of a rolling 10 mile individual time trial, a long criterium and this year's edition of the Georgia State Road Race Championship. This combination made for an interesting group of racers at the event. The three stages were scored as a stage race as well as individual events based on overall time. Since many racers in the area opted to focus on the road race at a mostly vain chance at the state championship jersey, there were only about 35 of us vying for the overall stage race victoy as you have to do all three stages to qualify.

I did OK on the opening TT with a five place finish which, once the one stage guys were removed, placed me fifth in the overall. My lead over the fourth place rider was huge so all I had to do was finish with the pack and I couldn't lose any places. The guy who won the TT didn't race the ToA so he was fresh and thus he crushed the rest of us in the TT so there was no way for me to catch him. So the other two stages where protecting a place but also trying to see if I could ride aggressively.

The crit was at 5 pm in the afternoon on the same day as the TT as the weather was super hot and windy. IT made for a sufferfest riding around the access roads of the local mall there in Union City. I had decided to ride hard to see if I could get a break together and had talked with a couple of other guys about joining me to see if we could do something. The problem I have in these races is that no one will let me get a big gap because they know that I'm a pretty good time trialist. What I was hoping is that if I got a couple of other teams' riders with me, maybe they wouldn't chase. When I went, I got a great jump but no one came with me so after a lap and a half, I was reabsorbed into the group and spend the rest of the race riding around at the back of the group for a pack finish.

For today's road race we had a full 75 rider field. Almost none of the guys racing had a chance at the jersey and it was pretty obvious that several of them had no idea what they were in for. The race was a 70 mile course over a moderately rolling course that wasn't very selective. My team had worked out a deal with a couple of other large teams to each put a rider in a breakaway and then not work any more to bring them back. The plan actually worked pretty well except that the leader of the overall wanted a shot at the jersey. He almost single-handedly brought the break back after it was away for 45 minutes. My team mate Bill C. was in the break and did a huge amount of work but it was pretty much for nothing in the end. Still, he raced to win instead of racing not to lose as did my teammate Robert (who won the ToA) in attacking the field six times. Everyone was happy to pull them back but no one was willing to risk going with them. In the end, the race came down to the expected sprint which left it to just a few guys who are genetically gifted with a lot of fast twitch muscles. The biggest stress for me was the crash early in the race that had the rear wheel of a bike bounce off my right shoulder. I stayed upright but it was a bit unnerving.

A couple of notes are in order here at the conclusion of this racing block. I can't begin to express how great it is to actually race with a team that cares how I do and remembers to include me in discussions. I've been racing for six years and this is the first time I felt like I had something to contribute to the team. I didn't do much this weekend but I received a call from a teammate after the crit to see if I had held onto third and telling me that the team would support my goal of finishing on the podium. Hanging around the Security Bank tent has been a great experience. Being included in the kidding around and teasing, getting the well-wishes of my team and congratulating my teammates when they have done well makes the racing so much sweeter. Related to that, a shout out to my teammate Trey who raced his first race back from a hip broken on a training ride and who hung with the first pack and motivated the race. Also, if I'm going to contend for anything this year, the races have to get harder. I don't have the top end to make an attack stick if the racing continues this way. I guess I'll focus on time trialing as best I can and starting training to create a 30 second and 1 minute burst that'll give me a way to separate from the pack on an attack and hang with the strongest riders when they go.

As for me, the racing schedule of the last eleven days finally caught up and I had no high end. I could motor at time trial pace for the whole race but I couldn't go with the really fast moves. I finished 30 seconds back from the main group but managed to hold my spot in the general classification and take 3rd in the race overall. So in the last eleven days I've stood on the podium twice in stage races, once for a TT and once for a Team TT. Not a bad couple of weeks. Now I get 4 weeks off to first recover and then train for the Rome Georgia Cup event. There's a team time trial there and hopefully we can go out and dominate that again and put in a good team performance in the races. Rome is hillier than almost any place we've been so maybe the racing will get a bit harder and the sprinters will be taken out of the equation.

For the next week, recovery rides. I'll download all of my favorite podcasts and spin around the area listening and maybe snapping a few more shots for you all.

Thanks for Reading.

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