Although not my first choice of racing the weekend turned out to be awesome ending an unbelievable August for me. I was going into the Roubaix quite tired from the prior races and training week so I had a mind set to just go have fun knowing I could still do well. I spend a lot of time behind fast guys in the WORS races chasing all the time so this weekend I wanted people to chase me. I planned to go for sprint points, KOM's, and be the instigator of attacks.
Day 1 - Downtown Criterium
The course was new this year and in my opinion better. It used better streets, had safer corners, and was much faster. I got to the start line and it quickly reminded me why I love mountain biking. I wasn't on the line for 10 seconds before I had an official breathing down my back saying, "I should DQ you." He was saying this because I folded the edge of my number to fit my jersey. It did not cover the name or number but it did not sit well with him. He started to fix it for me and kept telling me how I should be DQ'd. I jokingly said to him, "I guess this is why I mountain bike." I don't think that sat to well with him because he quickly left my presence and brought over another judge and told her, "You can DQ this guy if you want, he folded his number." The lady looked at me and said, "Your fine. I'm not that picky." My goodness, at least some one was more worried about the race than a number. Not everyone, but for the most part road racing is made up of a bunch of snobs if you ask me. "Put your number on right, hold your line, pull through, do some work, your wheel sucker. your only cat 3?" Damn it strap you shoes on, put your helmet on, pin your number, shoot the gun and race.
Anyhow I guess I should tell you how the race went. It was a 30 minute + 1 lap. I sat in the top 10 for the first 5 minutes or so sniffing out the course, finding good lines and good attack points. The starter rang the bell for a money lap and I had all intentions of getting it. Coming around the 3rd to last corner, about 1/4 out I pounded the speed out of a corner and nobody even responded. I kept the pressure on and took the $50 prize with no problem. There were several more money laps after this and I wanted everyone of them but 1 rider broke not long after the first one and had 100 yard gap on the field so I had no interest pulling the field to him to win another $50. The win became more important at that time. With 4 laps remaining I moved up to the front to match any attacks and plan mine. 1/2 a lap before I was roaring to go another ride made a small attack and I matched right away. I looked behind and we had a small gap. I yelled to him, "lets make this happen." We shared pulls for the next 2 laps creating a larger gap. With 1 to go a rider bridged up. Coming into the last corners the rider that bridged up came to the front and made a great move around the last corner gapping me just enough to stay away during the sprint. I came flying in for 2nd. I really wanted the win but was tactically beat.
Day 2 - Road Race
4 laps for 52 miles on a pretty hilly course. For the most part they are rolling hills with no hill being extremely hard, just big enough to make you say "ouch." My legs didn't feel all that great during my warm up so I had planned on sitting in for as long as it took for my legs to come around. The first 2 laps were extremely slow and uneventful. No one really wanted to do the work and the pace showed. There were times my HR was 120 bpm, thats 2 beats away from my recovery zone! At some point on the 2nd lap everyone sat up to where one rider that was leading rode away at 16 mph, no joke! I knew this guy from the day before and he was one of the better riders. Being that he was alone at 16 mph I went up to him so we could talk with no one else around. I told him that something had to change and we at least had to shrink the field on this lap. I had also shared this with Ryan Tervo, a fellow UP rider. The plan was to get to the back side hills and the 3 of us ride tempo to shed a few bodies. Coming over the first hill it did exactly that. Starting up the 2nd one we continued tempo and when we reached the top I told the guys not to let up and keep tempo down the back side. Approaching the bottom I noticed a gap from the whole field and simply told the 5 guys to keep riding tempo to see if we could keep the gap. Two more riders bridged up and the 7 of us slowly rode away from the field. The mission was accomplished and I knew we could finally start racing. By the finishing climb we had lost 1 guy and at the top of the finishing climb we had lost another. We were down to 5 with a pretty sizable gap for the last lap. I could see some of the guys tiring by just riding tempo and I was feeling fine so attempted to keep the pace high. A couple guys decided to slow down when pulling through and I wanted nothing to do with slowing down. I pulled through before my turn and kept riding tempo as they tried to recover. It started to create a gap so they quickly responded and this response ended up dropping 1 more rider. Now down to 4 we were approaching the KOM hills again where we created the first gap. My right hamstring started twinging a bit so I knew I wasn't in great shape for an attack so I told myself just stay steady and ride a heavy tempo of both hills. I started the climb in front and by the top I had created a small gap. I kept the pressure on down the hill to the base of the next climb and continued tempo. I had now created an even larger gap and it wasn't what I was expecting. On the decent I saw 2 rider crest the top and I noticed they stopped pedaling telling me they were tired. That was my que to make this gap stick. With 4 or so miles to go I shifted to TT position and rode a pace I knew I could keep. I noticed one rider trying to bridge so I picked up the pace and pounded every little hill. I noticed the gap staying the same and knew he was not catching me. I approached final climb and rode it as if I still had a rider on my wheel. I came around the last corner and saw my dad, he started to run next to me, and this gave me such an adrenaline rush. I danced on the pedals to the finish and took every second to enjoy riding to a finish line by myself. No matter what level you ride on, the feeling of a solo win is quite incredible. The sense of accomplishment, enjoyment, and excitement rush through your blood. I wanted to win this bad and I got to cross the line with a subtle fist pump all by my lonesome, exactly how I wanted it.
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| Straight A Photography |
Hey Tyler...great job with the racing and thanks for putting the effort into your blog.Best of luck with the WORS racing.Wish more local people would try one of their races.
ReplyDeleteSteve F.