Prologue: Trained pretty hard this week, putting in around 250 km and a 10k run between Tuesday and Friday, despite some unfortunate setbacks, such as folding my (steel) seat post on my mountain bike, and cludging up my front derailleur on my road bike to the point where the chain was popping off, or grinding against the derailleur.
Made some minor adjustments Saturday night but came to the conclusion that I did not want to make any drastic changes right before race day. Also cleaned off my bike, but not the drive train. (Thanks to Mike and Scott for pointing that out and laughing right before the start :-p)
Well, Mike and I got their at the perfect time, as there were only about 40 or so other cyclists, and no line to register. We got our yellow ribbons (indicating category B race), and went for some light spinning to warm up.
Within the next half hour, the masses appeared, and the registration line was constantly 20 deep, and the races were delayed by about half an hour. Temperature was about 5 degrees, cloudy, and a hint of rain drops.The Race: Cat A left first, on their way to 5 laps of the ~15km course. Our race of 4 laps started 5 minutes later, with about 50 riders snuggled in close to each other in an attempt to fit inside a single lane of road.
Mike and I managed to get within the top third of the group in the start, which I though was ideal, as we could watch the front but not need to pull right away. The race began with a significant ascent, at a quick pace. The pack stayed together quite well during this climb, but apparently it did not evenly affect everyone! Following that climb was a quick twisty descent, followed by a sharp right turn onto a busy road, where the pack slimmed down to about 2 abreast. I saw Mike make a move on the left edge of the road to get closer to the front, but I was pretty hemmed in, and honestly after that quick early climb I was content sitting in for a bit. Then the road consisted of several rolling hills, which further decimated the legs, and the pack. I found a speed theory guy that was about 6.5 feet tall and broad, who was hammering the rollers, and figured I could very nicely sit in his vacuum for a smooth ride to the finish. (see oasis)
Well, the problem was that eventually the rollers got the better of big-guy, and he let a gap in between him and the pack of 20-ish riders at the front. I sped around him and tried my best to catch that group, which at that point had begun a crazy fast descent and was gaining distance on me. Another hill after that, followed by a sharp right onto chip rock and the introduction of the crazy headwind! I was soloing in a headwind trying to bridge this gap, but all I ended up doing was depleting whatever reserve I had. I was soon caught by another Speed Theory racer, Allan.Thankfully I was wearing a team jersey Scott had leant me, so Allan pulled me along through much of the next 5 kms into that wind. At this point I didn't think I could even finish the race, knowing that I still had a 3km gravel section to content with, and then to repeat that whole thing 3 more times!
But Allan encouraged me to hang in there with him. "They'll start to drop off... we can catch them if we ride together", he said. Through the gravel we tore it up, up a hill, then down. Careful to stay away from the loose(r) rocks in the middle, then avoid the huge potholes near the end on both sides of the road.
About 1.5 laps in I was feeling a little better, or Allan was feeling worse, as I began to pull increasingly more. We did end up catching several other individual riders and some small packs along the way, as we were working quite well together.
By the 3rd lap, Allan was starting to really struggle on the climbs, and I slowed a few times to wait for him to catch up, and that final lap I pulled about as exclusively as he had done on the first lap.
At this point there was nobody in sight behind us, and one guy about a minute ahead of us.
Going into the last hill before the gravel, I told Allen I was going to try to catch that guy, and took off. I really put in all I could up that hill and the gravel section, but this was not the section of the course where I was going to make up that much ground.
Through the finish line I saw nobody near me, but was very happy to be done!
Epilogue: Allan came in after me, so I'm glad me dropping him did not cause him to lose a position, and we chatted for a bit after the race.
Final time was something like 1:57 minutes, averaging ~30 kmph. Seems pretty slow, but I guess considering the terrain was not too bad.
I have no idea what position I came in, nor what the winner's time was.
Video & Pictures will be coming up shortly and I will see if I can find one of myself and post it here.
Overall, this was a very good experience for me. I learned things that will help me be better prepared for next time.
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