It was brisk this morning for Heather’s 8 AM start. The women’s race consisted of three laps of a  21-mile, extremely hilly circuit. We drove the course last night and realized that this was going to be one tough race! The profile seemed very similar on paper to The Cycling Classic. But after driving it we determined there had to be more climbing in this one. I think the elevation gained mentioned in the race bible didn’t account for all the small undulations in the terrain.

The women’s race stayed together until the last time up the first steep hill when a break of four went up the road. Heather had been fine on the hills during the first two laps but her hamstrings started cramping on the last lap, so she couldn’t respond. The break stayed away to the finish, but not by much. Heather didn’t have good positioning coming into the last few turns so she ended up getting 10th. She was disappointed with the fact she missed the move. The other thing that bothered her was at one point a sole rider went up the road so Heather got on her wheel to cover it. Heather didn’t understand why the pack didn’t chase, but she also didn’t want to miss a critical move. Then when the pack finally caught them she was accused of attacking during a pee-break. I guess no one told Heather that they were doing a pee-break! Besides, they should have complained to the other rider as she was the one that went, Heather just sat on her wheel.

For my race, I wasn’t able to get a warm-up since I had to get Heather’s bike set-up for me to use. Once I finally got everything dialed-in, I staged with only a few minutes to spare. We headed out for the neutral leadout through town to the start/finish line and the official start of the race. As soon as we crossed the stage the hammer went down and in no time we were doing 35-40 MPH on the rolling road out to the first hill. We hit the bottom of the steep grade and hammered up it. I had to dig pretty deep to stay in the pack but I was surprised when I made it over that first climb, with the pack.

Then there was a bit of gutterfest as the wind had been picking up all day with wind advisories out for the region. I managed to stay in contact until the next turn which put us into a headwind. There was already a break up the road so the pack let it go on this stretch and we slowed down a lot since the wind was so strong. I was able to move to the front of the pack and got a taste of the wind in my face and realized how strong it was. Then I learned why no one was really chasing…that wind was fierce! But I did see one rider attack, not sure who, but at the time I thought to myself, hmmm, that would be a good idea to get on his wheel. But I wasn’t in a good position to do anything at that point, plus I didn’t want to get in an aggressive move like that, just to blow-up and get dropped later on.

I watched the rider catch the break while I stayed nicely tucked into the main pack. Then we made a left turn up a hill, putting us in a major crosswind section…and the second crunch time came! The pace picked up and it was gutterfest all over again. We were in the left gutter and, even though we had a rolling enclosure, many of the oncoming vehicles who were stopped on the left side of the road weren’t all the way off the road, so we’d have to swerve right to get by them. It was getting real dicey out there and I would always err on the side of moving too far to the right in case any of the riders ahead of me misjudged it and hit the vehicle’s side-view mirror or something!

This stretch took it’s toll and by the time we made it to the next turn, the field was decimated into multiple echelons, with me in one of the small back groups. As riders would go by, I’d jump in. It took a while, but eventually, we’d form a small echelon. But with few numbers, there was no way we’d catch the two big groups down the road. My legs felt fine but breathing was the big issue since most of the course was at 6,000′ above sea level or greater. I could feel my teeth hurt which is typically due to referred pain from my upper sinuses when I’m breathing really hard. So my lungs were definitely my limiter today, as my legs were feeling pretty good.

When the caravan went by, I’d try to get drafts off them but the groups ahead were still putting in time on us so it was a pointless battle. I ended up deciding to call it a day and told Heather in the feed zone, which was the highest point of the course. There were quite a number of big-name pros dropping out as well. While I was still working, I saw a Toyota-United guy go by as he hung on to his support vehicle going 40 MPH! At first, I was really pissed, but then I saw him dismounting in the feed zone so I recanted my animosity. He just wanted to get the damn thing over quicker.

Me on the other hand, I decided to at least finish a full lap so I’d have an idea of what it was like for next year. Even though the rest of the course was mostly downhill it was still hard, especially by myself, since the wind was so strong and gusty. I was being blown around quite a bit and I wasn’t even using our deep-section wheels. I definitely could tell Heather’s Cannondale is a lot twitchier than both of my bikes. Maybe it’s great for crits, but I think I’d rather have a more stable bike for road races. When I came into town, I followed the course all the way to the start/finish line. There’s a really tight roundabout only 500 meters from the finish, which I’m sure would be really sketchy with a pack of 20 riders or more. After I rode across the line I quickly turned around and went to the parking area.

I had already decided that for tomorrow’s race, I’d downgrade to Masters 35+. I did this for a number of reasons: First was the fact that I couldn’t hang on today, so I probably have no business racing Pro/1/2 tomorrow. Second, there was our bike situation; since the Pro/1/2 race was right after Heather’s race, it would mean we’d have very little time to switch over her bike for me when her race finished. Racing masters would allow us to keep the bike setup for me until tomorrow morning. Then after my race, we’d have plenty of time to set it back up for Heather. Lastly was the safety factor; the crit course is extremely short and has a median on the start/finish stretch. Supposedly it’s a lot better this year since they removed 15 meters of the median on the first corner, but it’s still somewhat sketchy. So I’d rather race at the front (or hopefully, off the front) of the master’s race than be at the back of the 100-rider Pro/1/2 field and chance crashing during the last race of my season.

So I went over to the registration desk and asked to switch categories and they kindly granted my request. The weird thing was, right after I stopped riding, all of a sudden my nose started running like crazy and I started sneezing. It was so uncontrollable that Heather had to go fetch me some napkins. My eyes were watering and I couldn’t breathe through my nose. It was awful! We finally came to the realization that I must be having an allergic reaction to something in the air! I always knew I had sub-clinical allergies but never had I had a reaction like this. I guess there’s something in Colorado that I’m really allergic to. Later we went to the store to get some Loratadine. Heather already had some nasal spray so, between those two medications, I was finally able to breathe again. Before tomorrow’s race, I’ll definitely be taking my Sudafed. The only reason I didn’t today is that I only had a couple left and wanted to save it for the crit.

So I’m kind of bummed about not finishing the race today, but that wind was horrendous and took out a good number of Pro riders as well. It was so windy that when we went back to the park for the pasta feed, we learned that they shortened the men’s race to four laps, instead of five, probably due to the slow lap times. Brutal!