Another weekend, another race. The theme for this weekend's festivities could be called, "The Long Haul."
Saturday's time trial was up in northwest Georgia in a small town called Adairsville. Like last week, the course was really, really great. Straight out and back with some false flats and a single small hill. It was supposed to be sunny, but it seems that we can't have a TT in this state without some form of precipitation and so it started drizzling just as I got on my trainer to begin my warm-up. It was cool and damp but that usually means that we don't overheat or dehydrate and that leads to faster times. I love time trialing. I've said it before but it bears repeating. You go as hard as you can sustain and you don't have to worry about other riders and what they can or can't do. There's no real tactics and there are no teammates. The race tells you the unvarnished truth about your fitness at whatever length and time the course is. It is the Truth. No blocking, no drafting, no marking, no soft pedaling down hills or chatting in the group. There's just the purity of power and speed. The Truth.
After last week I was determined to finish the race. I felt like I could have won last week with my fitness and I wanted to prove it this week. I had some trouble focusing during warm-ups but when I got to the start house I was ready. The start was a slight uphill which made things interesting. I could see both my :30 and 1:00 men as I went off. I was the first 40-49 year old man to go so I was racing a bunch of guys younger than me. It didn't matter. I caught about ten guys on the way out on the course. I didn't always feel like i was on the rivet but I did feel fast, especially after I got over the little hill near the beginning of the course. On the way back I crossed the gap between the 30-39 guys (yes, I caught the entire 30-39 field) and started picking off the women and juniors. On the return I was flying. I felt really strong and for the first time had the "coiled spring" feeling I get when I'm in the right position to produce maximum power.
In the end I ended up winning my field by over a minute and placing fourth overall to the three pro/1/2 riders. I was three seconds out of third overall and 50 seconds out of second. The winner crushed my by two minutes showing me that I have a lot of room for improvement if I want to win the gold at the state championships. Still, I feel like I'm ahead of where I wanted to be fitness-wise. I was hoping to average 24-25 mph on these longer early season courses and I did 26.5 which is a 56:09 40 K pace. That's over 2 minutes better than the last time I did the course the state championship will be held on. I have some work to do but I like where I'm at.
Sunday's race was in Albany in the southwestern part of the state which meant a lot of driving (with a wedding in the middle). I had agreed to race in a category I don't normally race in so that the team could have several riders together in the field so I lined up with the cat 4/5 under 35 riders. The feel was smallish with only 25-30 guys lining up and I felt like we might just avoid some of the silliness that this field is known for: lots of squirrelly riders and lots of dumb decisions that lead to more crashes than are necessary. For the first 20 miles, that was true. One of my teammates, Drew, got into an early break and so Trey and I marked all the moves to pull the break back and they stayed out for a long time. We never blocked and we never impeded other rider's attempts to bring the break back but we would sit on wheels and not take pulls. The interesting thing is that the break stayed out there and wasn't brought back until Drew popped on the KOM climb and came back to the field. Once that happened, Trey and I went to the front to bring the break back and we had them within three miles.
After that I tried a couple of attacks to try and get away but no one was biting and I got brought back before anything could get going. At that point the AVX team with one of the good sprinters in the field got to the front and set up across the road and blocked. There is nothing more frustrating that this kind of negative racing. It's legal but it's just really poor sportsmanship. "Boo!" on the AVX team, you guys should race better; race like men. Put a guy or two on the front and set up a train to protect your sprinter. That's how you race with class. Jump on breaks and pull them back and keep your guy fresh and out of the wind.
What was worse was once the riding got negative, guys started jockeying for position if a gap opened up (which it did because the team couldn't block well or because guys started jumping the centerline). This led to a bit of pushing and shoving which was completely uncalled for and I wish the official had either seen it or been more proactive in DQing riders when he did. After a particularly bad bit where I literally got shoved into another rider by a guy who wanted my spot I slid to the back to stay out of trouble and upright. I sprinted in but stayed away from the worst offenders to finish near the end of the pack.
My power numbers were good and I'm showing more improvement in m short-term power numbers which is encouraging. I won't be racing in that field again for the rest of the season so hopefully, I won't encounter that again. What I'm looking at doing is racing Masters 40+ in that series and cat 4 in the Georgia Cup until I can upgrade where I'll race Masters full time. I feel that's a much safer course of action. Next week is Rome and the really, really big climb.
Thanks for reading.