Poor start

     I know I promised blogs after my races but my laptop, my main blogging machine, decided to crap out on me and I haven't had time to bury myself in the old home office to write at all. Let's start with The 19th Annual Carl Dolan Classic in Columbia,MD.
     This was my first race as a Cat 4 and I had hoped to be racing side by side with my team mate Bryan, but the registration for the 4/5 race filled in about a minute and thirty seconds, and my typing (like my riding ) is painfully slow. After about a week of deliberation I decided to sign up for the 3/4 race instead. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous about it at first but I calmed myself down and decided that it would be a great opportunity to learn from more experienced riders and to get some decent racing in, I've also heard that the 3/4 races are a little less accident prone so what the hell. Granted we had a pretty mild winter but when it came time for this race it was HOT for April. My race was in the early afternoon, so temps were in the mid to upper 80's and I was not acclimated to the heat at all. I was going to take two water bottles with me but my team convinced me otherwise. after a decent warm up on the trainer, I headed over to the starting line and awaited my first race as a Cat 4.
     We received our instructions and the whistle blew to send us on our way. This race was supposed to be 25.2 miles or 12 laps on a 2.1 mile loop. The course was pretty "easy" with a tough little climb that came after the only sharp turn, a right, and ended 100 meters from the finish and some breaks in the pavement that were just wide enough for a bike tire to get wedged into and could be hazardous if not treated as such. We did a couple of laps and I was very comfortable with hanging in the pack but it also became apparent that it was going to be damn near impossible to move up in this field. This race was capped at 125 riders, and we were racing on a two lane road with riders stretched from the left curb to the right curb, from stem to stern. To give you idea of what I'm trying to describe, the Giro de Italia has 190 or so riders in it, and they get wide open roads to try and avoid too many problems.
      The peleton circled five times with no issues, it would spread apart at the turn and come back together on the climb, but we also had no breakaways and so the pack stayed pretty tight together. On the sixth lap, just before the turn, some riders got tangled up on my right and a crash ensued. I considered myself lucky and kept on trucking around the turn and back up the climb. Just as the pack was coming back together on the climb, BAM, another accident, me and about four other riders narrowly escaped getting caught up in it by deviating off the course to the left and into opposing traffic. We worked our way back onto the course and chased to make contact with the field again. Not only is that hard but it was hot and my water bottle was empty, and I was in desperate need for more! When we looped back to sight of the second accident the officials had neutralized our race because one the riders had a pretty bad concussion. As we waited for the injured rider to get the medical attention he needed they let us retrieve more fluids and get out of the sun! I have to be honest, I considered dropping out of the race and calling it a day, the heat was getting to me but I didn't want to appear weak to my team mates or our junior squad, that had raced earlier. After about 15 minutes they called us back to the starting line, they informed us due to the delay they were cutting our race short, at the restart we only have 3 laps remaining, off we went for round two.
     The pace on the first lap was moderate, on the second it was FAST and after we exited the turn and hit the climb it was unreasonable. I'm a big guy and any kind of sustained climb really takes its toll on me to keep up with smaller guys, so when the pack hit the climb they we flying and I put a big effort in to stay with them and didn't make contact until just before the the finish line which turned out to be just moments before another crash to happen right in front of me! It was about 30 yards past the finish line and I was able to lock up my brakes, stay upright, and find a small hole to my right and then it was off to the races trying to catch the field AGAIN! But it was not to be, I fell in line behind a couple of Cat # guys and let them do the lions share of the pulling until we came back around to the climb when I came around them for the finish. I finished 51st overall and was able to avoid getting taken out by any of the crashes.
     I was correct on one thing the heat did takes its toll on me I had become so dehydrated and suffered from hyperthermia. I ended up staying home from work the following day because I felt so bad. I don't think any of the wrecks hurt my standing overall, I actually believe it helped me because it eliminated a lot of competition.  This is the only race I managed to be "involved" in so far this year all the others have been colossal failures, after Months of training and anticipating some good racing this year, I have yet to post a result better than this one. There is nothing quite like a bruised ego to bring you down. I didn't expect to come out and crush the competition, but not even being able to stay with the main field, or help my team mates is devastating to me, with any luck maybe I can salvage the rest of the season. Till next time!
   

The Snowcone Training race #2

That's me in the black and green argyle! Awesome Job Bryan!

     This was Team Integrity's First race together and I had a blast! It was nearly a 3 hour trip down to Richmond, Va and we took the time to plan our race strategy. This took all of 5 minutes and our individual goals were pretty similar, don't wreck and don't get dropped from the main pack. The rest of the trip I spent getting to know my teammate, which was very cool, he is very interesting and much more mature than my goofy ass. We also discussed how we were feeling and we were on opposite sides of the spectrum before the race; he was suffering from lack of sleep and fatigue from a hard day of training for his job; and I was feeling good and slept like a champ the night before.
     We arrived at our destination just before 11am, perfect! We had plenty of time to check in and warm-up before the race start. We got our bikes together and headed over to the course to check it out and warm up. The course had five turns, with one of those turns being a 180 degree turn before the finishing straight. After some hard efforts and a couple of sprints we took a couple of minutes to take in some gel and cool off. We got to the start, listened to the race instructions, and checked our computers while Bryan prepared his GoPro video camera(video here).
      I was nervous and jittery, as usual, and with the Official saying "riders ready, GO", we were off and hammering in no time. The Boys from Richmond velo sport kept the pace hot for the first couple of laps and we ended up shedding a lot of riders early on, but I was right there with the pack. I had been so focused on staying attached to the pack, that I had lost my teammate and was worried that he was dropped, but low and behold he was right there with me (awesome).
      The first 30 minutes I spent figuring out what lines to take and who to avoid. After I got comfortable with the pace I headed up to the front of the pack to take a turn with the pace setting and to see if I could pull away from the field with a hard steady effort, but it was going to take more than that with this field(note to self, if you going to make a break for then go all in or don't go at all!), I was over taken by the peloton and I settled in to recover before the final laps. The lap after my effort, the officials announced that we had 3 laps to go, and it got a little tenser in the group. The next two laps were quick but uneventful. Just before we got the bell for the final lap, I had got it into my head that I couldn't sprint for the finish, so we passed the finish line and I found Bryan to see how he was doing, because if he said good, I was going to kill myself to lead him out! So I rolled up and asked and his response was unexpected, "I hurt my back", "okay" I said and headed on up the road. The last lap was not as fast as the previous two, but people were getting really squirley, and it was making me nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was get into a wreck in a training race where a win would net me nothing(except boost my ego), but I wasn't going to give up. With all that being said I chose the wrong line going into the 180 turn got blocked out of the sprint and captain "hurt back' finished in front of me, because quite frankly he's a better/smarter racer than me.
     We both accomplished our two main goals and I earned another mass start to add to my resume'. I look forward to the next race with my new teammates and getting some more race experience. Next weekends goals will be very similar, except maybe some more time at the front and I've got to try and make a break even if it kills me! After all it is a training race, right? What better way to try something than in a training scenario.

No Regrets

     Next Saturday the Team is heading to Richmond, VA for an early season training race. I participated in one of these last year and had high ambitions going into it and ended up getting a huge reality check. Apparently riding the trainer twice a week and going to spins class once a week is not enough to race competitively, none the less I came away with more experience than I had going in.
     This Saturday I return to this same training race with some back up. My Team Captain and training partner will be on hand and I'll also have a solid training base going into it this year. That doesn't mean I'll be looking for the win, but I definitely have more realistic goals this year. Two things I'd like to achieve: 1; Finish with the main pack, last year I got dropped early and ended up getting lapped with 4 to go. 2; Try and launch a breakaway, I think this is something I really am going to focus on in the second half of the race. With this race being a little over an hour long, if I have the will and power to do this, I'll know my training is heading in the right direction.
     Some other things I need to focus on are, staying in the peleton, like buried in it, also working as a team. That is the unique thing about cycling, even though your part of a team sometimes your working for the glory of one. If my team mate is feeling better than me, then maybe I could use one last burst of power to launch him away from field or lead him out for the sprint. The only way to work on these skills is to race and practice them in the setting that is perfect for it.

Jens Voigt the Master of Pain!

Matt Bunting the Master of Lame!