To the prospective members of the team, welcome! I’m an alumnus of the team, and I concluded my last year of collegiate racing this past spring. I joined the team four years ago, not really sure what bike racing is about. Coming from a running background, all I knew was that i was tired of running loops in Central Park, and I guess i had this vague sense that it’d be “neat” to upgrade to cat-3. During the four years on the team, I realized that the journey was more memorable than the goal, and I had some great memories along the way, starting from the first team rides where the more experienced riders taught the new riders bike handling skills. Hopefully, you’ll get to cherish the time you spend on the time.
Below are four race reports from races I did this summer.
Race 1. Cat 4/5 Tour of Tucker County in WV. 2nd of 31.
I was originally on track to getting my 20 points for cat-3, but an improper sprinting set me back a bit. This was a mountainous road race in WV that really suited me, ending with a 3.6 mile climb at 8.2%, with the first 1.1 miles at 12%. I woke up way early than i intended as I had wanted to sleep in until 6:15 but couldn’t stay asleep starting around 5am. The race required a 3-hour drive out to West Virginia, and it started with a neutralized descent down the finishing climb. This was rather sketchy as I was basically braking the whole damn time and was concerned what effects that may have had on the glue holding my tubular tires to the rim. I finally said eff it and walked the last half a mile.
Anyways, right from the start someone blew a tube(s) and crashed. 20 minutes into the race, we start the first climb, except something was wrong as i expected a rather shallow climb (should avg 14-15mph here), followed by shallower false flat, and ending with a 7-8 min long kicker. Instead, we were going quite slowly, yet strenuously, up this hill and it seemed interminable. What i thought we were doing was: 2 laps, each lap containing a 7.2 x 3.3% climb, and the finishing climb. Instead, the organizer changed it to one big lap with a few climbs thrown in and the finishing climb. I, of course, was oblivious to this until 6-7 miles from the finish.
Back to the race, the long-ish slog was taking its toll on the field and quite a few people got shelled. I stayed up near the front and moved up as others popped. One quick glance at my computer showed that i was doing 330W. Crud, but i need to press on. We were eventually down to 12 people, and that’s the final group. All this time, i was preparing for the second loop to come around, but more than 90 minutes passed, and i didn’t recognize the roads and was wondering where I was headed. Thankfully, i kept an eye on my computer and realized that we were going at a decent clip, and there must have been a course change, but i had no idea what else to expect.
Most of the course was uneventful, though there was a somewhat fun descent, and i really got to test my tubular gluing and descending abilities on a 3.2mile, 7.5% descent (labeled as 9% to scare the truckers). The only other noteworthy moment was when i almost crossed wheels. Luckily, there was only a very faint touch of wheels and nothing happened. I must have been following the wheel too closely when the person in front decided to “switch lanes” without looking.
Finally, when we hit the bottom of the climb, i had no idea what to expect. Two people actually tangled, but didn’t crash. Right when where the gradient kicked up to 11%, someone attacked and took off. Others set off after the guy, and i tried to limit my effort as i knew that the winning move couldn’t put in more than 330W (at my body weight) on this stretch, and that everyone else was gonna blow his gasket for going too hard. I caught a few in the first 3-4 minutes, and pretty soon it was the first guy and another rider in front (let’s call him 2nd rider), with no one else behind. I did my best Wiggo/Cadel Evans impression and marched on to the tone of the power meter, and soon enough i caught the 2nd rider. I sat on his wheel for a while, though it’s not as if i was getting much benefit on a 12% grade. The guy OTF started to struggle and was zig-zagging across the road. At the part where the road leveled off a bit, he had 15 seconds.
After a brief respite, the last part of the climb was 2 miles at 7.5%. I traded pulls with the 2nd rider, but i soon realized that he was struggling and i took off trying to catch the first rider. I pulled out a pretty good gap over the second rider, and the gap to the guy OTF was constant at 15 seconds, but i wasn’t gaining on him. A mile from the finish, my legs were dying and i was afraid i would blow up if i kept pushing. I was losing power, and a look back showed that the 2nd rider was having a hard time gaining on me despite the fact i was going slower. So i soft pedaled a bit, thinking that if he catches me with 500-700 m to go, he’d be too gassed from the bridge effort to sprint it out. So with about 500 to go, he caught me, and I lined up with him, side-to-side. I tried to pedal out of the saddle to anticipate a jump (hands in the drops, of course), but i didn’t like the fact that i was pushing such a heavy gear, so i sat back down and spun. Right past the 200 to go point, i knew the road would flatten a bit, and this is where i launched, seated. I got a decent gap, and that was that. 6 upgrade points and I just earned my cat-3 upgrade.
With 400m left to go in the race. Photo credit to Fred Jordan
Race 2. Cat-3 criterium race in Leonardtown, MD. 2nd out of 22.
The criterium takes place in the downtown of a small town, with noticeable feature being a 70 degree turn that starts downhill and finishes on the uphill; otherwise, nothing too noteworthy. I got there with 45 min before the race, but couldn’t find parking for a while. I then spent another 10 minutes changing and when it was all said and done, it was 5min til the start of the race (mistake #1 of the day). Instead of warming up, I decided to get to the start early and line. It was for naught as i fumbled the clip in and had to start chasing. The accordion effect got pretty vicious right from the start as i didn’t pre-ride the course (mistake #2 of the day). For the first 12 minutes or so, i was yo-yoing off the back and sprinting out of the 70-degree turn. I finally had enough and moved up during a lull in the race. Much better after this.
Around the 15th minute, people started attacking; when i saw that two or the largest teams had representation, i followed and soon found myself OTF with three other riders. We rotated relatively well, though one of the riders didn’t look too good. I did 15-20 seconds of pulling, knowing that there’s a good chance things will come back. As we went along, few others joined, and some time during this, the lead group swelled to 10-12 riders, with one team having 3 riders at one point. The task of driving the break fell onto their shoulders, and a lot of goofing off ensued. I threw in a turn here and there just to keep things moving, but not many were interested in working. Thankfully, it didn’t matter as there was a 35 second gap.
The promoter threw in a beer prime (Delirium!) at 8 laps to go, and one person wearing a state champion’s jersey (last year’s cat 4 champ) took off for it. There were about a good 10-15 minutes left in the race, and i didn’t feel like going after him just yet. OTOH, the chase was pretty unorganized, but it was obvious that he was coming back as his advantage hovered at 10 seconds. Somewhere around 4-5 laps, people got more serious and the rider OTF was soon absorbed. With two laps to go, there were still about 10 riders left, and i knew that it was time to do something. I took a longer pull so that i could get into first position going into the 70-degree turn, and attacked from there. One rider came with me, and pretty soon we got a gap.
I wasn’t sure how much i had in my legs, so i offered the other rider the first place if he drove the break with me. Though for some reason, i was soft-pedaling when he was doing his turn; perhaps he realized that we had a large enough gap that it didn’t matter, but it worried me that he didn’t seem to be going all out. It didn’t end up mattering as we had a good 5-10 seconds on the chasers as we crossed the line, and i held true to my promise and didn’t contest for the win. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have made the deal, but I was happy to get a podium position in my first cat-3 race.
Heading out of the 70-degree turn
After this race, I was technically on very good form, but my bike fit was off and I spent two weeks off the bike recovering from a pulled muscle. I had two more races left in the season. The first one was strictly for training purposes, and the second one was the district championship race.
Race #3. Giro di Coppi in suburban Maryland. Pack finish.
This is a mostly flat race that had two climbs in the 1.5-2 min range; otherwise it had a lot rollers but not many places where a selection could be made; the race was 4×13 mile laps. I got to the start late and took a good two laps to move up to the front. 2nd time up climb 2 (4 miles from finish), someone strong took off but i was too far back (20th wheel) to respond effectively.
Afterwards, it seemed that a few people wanted to ping off of the front, so i went with the surge a twice and probably burned two matches that i shouldn’t have done. I thought i was just putting in a slight surge to follow wheels, but i really have no idea in retrospect why i did what i did. It also seemed as if every time i bridged up and started rotating, the person behind just wasn’t interested in working anymore. All in all, i wasted valuable energy here.
At the start of the third lap, the said lone rider still had a 30 second gap, and while i was at the front, someone else took off. Took me a while to respond (he attacked on the downhill), and it took me about 2 minutes to bridge up to him in the ensuing uphill at the start of the lap. Eventually, i caught him, rotated, and pretty soon caught the guy OTF. We had a good rotation going, but it was obvious that someone in the group wasn’t happy about it and wanted to shut it down. Two more people were able to bridge up, and at this point, the five of us got somewhat disorganized on the downhill portion of the course. A van also pulled in front of us, and that put an end to things (perhaps for the better). My legs weren’t feeling too good at this point, and i gave up spots in the pack, but overall, things weren’t too bad as we finished the third lap (and i found myself near the back of the pack).
At the start of the fourth lap my legs were feeling quite sore. Still managed to stay with things, but i was really just looking forward to the end of the race and finishing with the front group. Three people went OTF on the last time up the climb that tops out with 4 miles from the finish, and i was mid pack at this point and couldn’t respond even if i had the legs, not to mention that the moto-ref was slowing down a few people who went over the imaginary yellow line and slowed down everyone else. Magically, it seemed as if half of the field were gone by this point, and i just sat at the back and didn’t contest the finish. Actually went past a few people who blew up on that last hill, but overall it didn’t go as well as I would have liked. Par for the course when coming back from a long time off of racing.
Race 4. Page Valley Road Race in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. 13 out of 45.
This was the last race of the year. It was a 5 lap circuit totaling 75 miles, with each lap having Climb 1 of 1.8 miles at 3.3% (last 0.5miles that kicks up to 6.5%) and Climb 2 of 0.5 miles at 5.8%, which is also the finishing climb.
I showed up to the race in perhaps my peak form (68.6kg on race day and having set a few PB the previous weeks). It started drizzling before the beginning of the race and would continue so throughout the day. I started at the very pointy end and basically sat in the top 5 on the first lap. Things were mostly uneventful and no one tried to get anything going, and laps cards basically ticked down. I sat near the front on most of the climbs, however, the rain made me lose confidence in my handling through corners (i’d usually rail these things), and that would lead to me lose positions on the few corners on the course. But again, i had no issues surfing to the front.
The penultimate up the first hill, i saw two people launch OTF, and as i know both of them were dangerous, i bridged up. We had 25 seconds by the top of the hill and 35 seconds by the corner into the finishline. It was here that i carried too much speed and slid into a ditch. No hard landing, but i did basically came to a complete stop and needed to re mount. I spent basically the next five minutes trying to catch back on, only to realize that the field was now only 10 seconds behind (how they got so close, i don’t know). So i sat up and tried to save up enough for the last lap.
The field sort of exploded on the final time up the first hill. I was in the top 10 at the start of the climb and basically followed wheels to the front. I didn’t feel very strong on the climb, but probably crested the hill in the top 10 and a few wheels behind the leaders of the front group (one guy was OTF). We hit the finish with 20 people, and as i knew that i was running on empty, i followed wheels as well as i could and then just tried to spin up to the finish. Got passed by two riders right before the line. Oh well.
One of the racers who was in the break with me took second place, and a friend (Steve Francisco of University Delaware/VeloQuip) took third. After the race i had a beer with Steve and then got some gellato (2 large scoops, how scandalous!) on my drive back home. And with that, I concluded my race season on a good note.
Sitting on the front of the field on climb 1 of the circuit.
