Eagle, ID — Today was the first local road race of the year. It is called the “Slammer” because the course is just south of the airport by the state penitentiary. It is also the course used for the Tuesday Nighter weekly training races during the summer. So most people are pretty familiar with the course. Typically it is really windy out there but today the wind wasn’t too bad. There was a slight wind but it was nothing like last Sunday during the 2-person TT.
Yesterday, our team had a strategy meeting. We realized that we would be few in numbers and aren’t all in top fitness yet, so we’d have to ride smart. Today racing for Intermountain Orthopaedics in the Pro 1/2 field was Ted, Justin, Ken, Klaas and myself. I carpooled with Ted and we got to the race venue fairly early. We thought this was a good thing but when we drove by registration nobody was there yet. We drove past the main start area and went down the road to a turnout by the gravel pit. It was mostly sunny but cold when we got there. Ted and I went to scope out the finish line to burn some time before we could register. The finish was in the usual place as year’s past, northbound on S. Cole Rd.
After scoping the finish, we went straight to registration and by then there was a long line. Even though most people were pre-registered, the line was hardly moving. After waiting about 20 minutes, I decided to move the car closer. We had parked off towards Cole since I knew there would be more space there, but at this point we were coming up on our start time and I wanted to make things easier. By the time I got back, I was able to get my number and timing chip then setup my trainer for a short warm-up.
My warm-up didn’t feel so great and during a 2-minute push, it felt fairly difficult. Not as bad as last week, but harder than it should have. We lined up and listened to the race official. This year we did 3½ laps of the Tuesday Nighter course. This is longer than previous years. They said it was 50 miles, but I ended up recording 57 miles on my cycle-computer.
I was good position for the start and decided to take advantage of it. I attacked from the first corner and pushed it pretty hard up the hill. Two years ago I got dropped on this first stretch of road, so I figured if I attacked, either: a) I will get a break going and then can settle in and switch to TT mode, or b) if the rest of the pack also went hard from the gun, at least I will be in the front when they caught me and would have a better chance of hanging on to the next corner. So after cresting the hill I finally looked back and noticed I had two riders with me. We started to rotate but the third rider was riding for Hyde Park Cycles and explained that he wouldn’t be pulling through. So at that point I realized this wouldn’t work and started to ease up. The other rider and myself still rotated so we could at least get to the corner first.
When the pack caught us, I just blended in and recovered from that effort. If anything, that was my real warm-up, since my trainer warm-up wasn’t as long or hard as it should have been. The first lap was pretty chill. There was some intensity on Cloverdale, but as the front echelon formed, our team started a second echelon and was able to stay right on them. The next lap things got harder. There were attacks and at times it was pretty hard. Our team was riding well and always had someone up there to cover things. The third lap was when “crunch time” came. On Cloverdale I tried to stay near the front and go with the dangerous moves and it was fast. My initial jump was OK but it was hard for me to sustain my efforts for very long. When we turned on Hubbard, a group got off the front and I saw Ted jump up to them just as it formed. It looked like a good combination of riders that I thought would stay away. But I think there was already too much momentum in the pack and we caught only a short while later.
Then a break fo three went off. At this point the lead pack had lost some of it’s riders including our team. We were down to Ken, Justin and myself. Though I felt obligated to chase, there were times that I was seriously worried about getting dropped and so I wasn’t sure how hard I could work on the front without blowing. The breakaway disintegrated leaving only a lone rider off the front. A rider tried to bridge and was in no man’s land for a while, but we caught him as well. Eventually I did start pulling through, but it was too little too late.
So coming into the finish, the pack was sprinting for second place. I was in good position, third wheel in the group. There wasn’t much movement in the pack as we slowly made our way to the 1KM to go sign, then the 200M to go sign. Since I’m so impatient, it was hard for me to wait. I kept waiting for someone to jump early so I could latch on to their wheel, but that never happened. I kept looking back, hoping Ken was on my wheel, but he was further back in the group.
The road was a slight incline to the finish. Despite this, I still thought if I could get a good jump, maybe I could hold it to the line. It was so deceiving, the line looked like it was “right there!” So I jumped as hard as I could and got a gap. I sprinted for about ten seconds and then my legs just died! I couldn’t go anymore…it felt like I came to a complete standstill. It was awful! Plus, due to the hill and the wind, that line was further away than I thought so I still had about 50 meters to go. During those last 50 meters I got passed by quite a few riders. Fortunately one of them was Ken, who ended up 9th. Though it felt like everyone and their grandmother passed me, in reality it wasn’t so bad and I ended up 11th.
Justin was just behind us and then Klaas stuck it out and came in solo a few minutes later. When Ted got dropped he just cut the course so he could watch the finish so he was a DNF, but he rode strong during most of the race. I was disappointed with my performance and was hoping that it wasn’t just due to everyone else riding so much stronger. When I downloaded my ride from my PowerTap, it helped explain things. I didn’t break any CPs (critical powers) and they were all a good margin off of my year-to-date bests. I rode stronger at Valley of the Sun and during our first trip to Phoenix back in January.
Why is this good news? Well, because it shows that I wasn’t at peak fitness and am capable of riding stronger. It’s just a matter of timing and planning my peaks. Since this past week was a recovery week, I hadn’t done any high-end work and so my body wasn’t prepared for it. With a proper peaking process I should be able to elevate my performance much higher, but that isn’t planned until April. So for now, I’ll be using these spring races mainly as training and to practice teamwork.