Ah Bike Racing
· Jul 12, 04:20 PM
The High Desert Omnium (Road Race) … Today was my first bike race of any kind in three years (since Williams Crit) and my first road race in six. It was pretty fun. I found some muscles that I didn’t remember existed, put my legs into trouble on a few occasions, did some suffering, threw in a couple of attacks and was even around to fight it out at the end.
After last weekend’s ride with Lieto (120 miles, 6 hours, 90 degrees) I was feeling pretty good about myself on the bike and my chances this weekend. Then I picked up a little cold which put a halt to training from Monday-Friday, so all told I wasn’t sure what to expect. I figure I always have the fitness to ride with a 4/5 field, so it’s usually going to be a question of how good my biking legs are.
The first half of the race was marked by an excess of braking (with the accompanying announcements) and small accelerations, half-hearted “attacks” and general in-pack sketchiness. In other words, pretty much everything you’d expect from a 4/5 race. The early break was short lived, a group of four went off the front on the first downhill, but they came back after 10 or 12 miles without much effort (at least not much effort required when sitting down around 30th wheel). We road the only climb pretty slow, in general it seemed like people were pretty content to wait for the second half and let things shake out there.
I kept with the pre-race plan and attacked as soon as we hit the base of the climb on the way back (bottom of Three Trapper’s Road) and instantly got a gap. Wes came across to me pretty quick and I was excited to put the hammer down and go. Except when I tried to pull through for my turn I couldn’t and Wes ended up riding away from me. (My legs were plenty good for one acceleration today, but I was unable to follow up). I ended up getting brought back by Dakota (lots of skiers out there today) and one other guy right at the top of the climb, then we were joined by 5 or 6 more (Violett was tacked on to the end) as we started down the hill. We caught Wes (who was riding without a functioning rear derailleur – the cable broke about 10 minutes before the start and all we could do was dial the limit screw in to give him either a 16 or 17 to go with his chainrings – so he was very spun out) and I thought we had a group that would go to the finish.
Turns out not so much. Once the attackers (Wes and me) were brought back people were pretty content to stop racing and we let about half the field come back to us. Aside from passing the entire Masters field on the flats, nothing too interesting happened until we turned back onto the Sunriver Cutoff for the return to Edison.
There we were hit simultaneously by a massive headwind and total group apathy. Save for a few half-hearted (third-hearted) accelerations the pace dropped to between 12 and 15 mph for the run-in to the finish. Things got real sketchy with the slow speed and high winds. Dakota got his front wheel taken out when someone shifted sideways and put their pedal in it, but I think he was the only casualty. Finally we hit the finishing climb (which really wasn’t all that steep), and I wanted to go for it at once, but Wes told me to have patience. That was probably a good call, as the first real acceleration came and I was hit by instant spasms in both quads and hamstings. My hip flexors even got in on it a little bit.
That wasn’t ideal, but they subsided quickly enough (I think I was running a little too much GU and not enough water at that point). I realized we had about 7 or 8 guys stretching off the front and I decided that since my legs weren’t feeling up to a sprint to try to make the race right there. I went to the front, put my head down and ground away for a couple minutes. When I looked back Wes was on my wheel and one guy was bridging – mission accomplished. He got across, and then Wes launched his attack. Neither of us could follow, and I was struggling to claw my way onto the other guy’s wheel.
I did as much looking back as looking forward in the last 2k, but the pack was either uninterested or unable to chase. Wes took a very solid victory and I came across in third, utterly unable to contest a sprint for second (when you’re the third strongest guy at the finish and you get third, it’s hard to ask for more. If I hadn’t attacked early I might have been the second strongest guy at the finish, but who knows what the race would have look liked if we’d ridden that climb easy as well). Zach was 9th, which isn’t bad considering his excellent birthday celebrations last night. More solid showings for the ski crowd came from Paul (4th in the 3s) and Stephanie and Courtney – to whom I’m giving honorary skier status this weekend – who were 3rd and 5th in the women’s 4s. I also saw Mrs. Max out there, but I’m not sure how she finished up in the Pro/1/2/3 (that’s a lot of slashes) field. All in all it was a fun day. I think I earned some upgrade points to carry over for next spring, and my new bike continues to be a joy to ride.
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If I may throw in a little commentary though – and since it’s my blog I think I can – I was a bit disappointed by how negative the racing was for most of the day. To my inexperienced eyes it seemed like people were a lot more interested in not losing than they were in winning. It looked like the group that went away early gave it a pretty good effort, but in the 30 miles from their catch and when I went, nobody really tried to make it a race. Between the rolling terrain around Craine Prarie and the cross-winds on Century (where it was smooth and wide) there were plenty of opportunities for the roulers (or a group of them) to put their heads down and give it a dig. Instead, we were treated to a bunch of accelerations that were over almost as soon as they started. With 8 or 9 riders in the bunch, I really think the guys in the orange and blue jerseys could have controlled (or at least dictated) the race, but they seemed a little too concerned with staying near the front and not concerned enough with trying to go off the front. I know it hurts to go off the front, but if you want to hurt the people behind you (and maybe even win the race), you have to be willing to suffer a bit.
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Nice race Brayto!
— Stephanie Howe Jul 20, 11:36 AM #