So yet another race has me scratching my head wondering what the heck happened. After doing too much in the front half of the crit last week i was determined to do as little as possible and just hang in the back for as much of the race as possible. I also had a couple of cat 3 guys that i wanted to keep my eye on and try to stay with as much as possible. Our 1/2/3 race was 6 laps of an 8.1 mile circuit out in the farm wasteland that is west of rockford. No real hills but plenty of little rollers to keep you occupied. The main feature is the wind. Coming strong out of the south.
Lap 1: After turn one someone up front starts to drill it and we get all strung out. Somewhere during this time the rider in front of me hits a rut and almost goes down. I thought my race was going to be over in less than 5 minutes. The rest of the lap is uneventful.
Lap 2: Even more uneventful than the first. Almost downright boring until after turn 4. On the stretch with a massive cross wind from the left somebody up front throws it down and we are off. At some point i check back and i don't really see anybody left behind me so i'm thinking, this is it. I have to make this group or i'm done. So i ride like mad to stay in the group and i make it. But now i'm trashed.
Lap 3: I hang on thru the first half of the lap and start to struggle on one of the hills when one of the abd elite guys give's me a little push and puts me back on the group. Then i hear move up the side. So with his coaching i move up and almost get to the front of the group just in time to watch another attack go and the group chase. That's when i get popped. I'm toast. As the lap continues i catch a rider and we get caught by a couple but none of us really stay together.
Lap 4: I notice a small group of riders coming up from behind me and i wait for them thinking at least i can finish with these guys. There's a couple of 3's and we're together for a while until one of them picks the pace up and i'm off the back. That's ok, here comes a bigger group of 3's that i can ride home with. I sit on the back for a while and the bang, i'm off the back again.
Lap 5, 6: I ride by myself. Trashed. I finish but have no idea how far down. Pretty disappointing. What seems crazy to me is that i have the power to make that initial move but then i'm toast and then i can't stay with guys who popped way before i did. I gotta figure that one out.
This turned out to be the final race of the season. I intended to race on sunday but my herniated disc in my back flared up sunday morning so that was it. I guess i'm gonna really have to figure out this back think. I can go pummel myself on the bike for 50 miles but i can't play catch with the kids for 5 minutes. Very frustrating.
That's it for now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That was a pretty hard race when we really starting drilling it in the wind. When you were done, you were done. Look at Baumann and Waite in the 1/2s—they didn't even finish! So props to keeping it on strong. Maybe try a bit of weight-lifting over the winter and attacking a bit off the front of fast group rides next year (then recovering briefly, then attacking again) to work out being able to put out those short accelerations needed to hang at certain points of long races. It's a good sign that the endurance is there; just build on the ability to jump/recover quickly/jump again and you could have some good success at the end of such races.
Post a Comment