After I blasted this stage race for the lack of organization and safety, I thought it would be awhile before I did another OVR race let alone come back for this series. If it wasn't for some teammates who were doing it and the fact that I was already down in Columbus, I would have been completely satisfied staying home for the weekend doing a little training ride and working with Nicholas on riding his bike without training rides. Regardless, I was happy to be joining Darrin Kert and Chris Smith this morning on the stages longest race, 64 miles. I have yet to try a road race this long in my short career, and in fact I only have one ride of that length all year long back in April when we were down in Boone. Although a little short on training miles for the year, I was feeling confident that I had plenty of fitness in my legs to help Darrin keep his third place in the overall GC. Darrin and Chris both brought me up to speed on who to watch and how the race would probably play out. They mentioned that the PH+B team? (not sure who they are or what that means) would most likely start things off fast but after a few miles settle into a comfortable rhythm. Sure enough, from the start line these guys lit it up and I’m beginning to think I hope these guys slow down a little bit because this is not my ideal way of warming. Sure enough, they did and I was able to recover.
Continuing to work on my positioning in the field, I quickly made my way up front to safer grounds and also to keep an eye on things. Several moves were made but it being the first lap of the race, they were destined to come back. It wasn't until the second lap of the race where things began to heat up. I had just come off the front of the field where I had been pulling them for several miles. (I don’t like pulling everyone around and it’s not that I wanted to do that much work, it’s just that nobody else was interested in doing anything. At one point I was literally riding at 16 mph but nobody had any interest in coming around, lazy bastards they were stuck to my wheel like Paris Hilton is now stuck to her cell mate. Anyway, it was just after we made the right hand turn onto the one lane road that a rider from Team Anthem made a move off the front. Being the closest, I made the move to grab his wheel immediately. I figured that the field was on us but when I looked back, we had a little gap on the field. It was at this point that I looked and this guy and made the decision not to put any effort into holding onto his wheel or making the move stick. I can’t believe that I did it because normally I’m all about the breakaways but he didn't seem strong enough to stay away for another 3 ½ laps and I didn't want to burn my entire match book trying to make this move stick so with the field only a few seconds behind me, I sat up and waited for them expecting a hearty chase effort. I expected a chase, but it would take awhile for it to develop. Turns out there were a ton of these Anthem guys in the field and the other team I mentioned (PH+B?) was working with those guys. So essentially, out of a field of about 45 guys, 10 of them were racing as one team. I suspect that there were a few others who joined into this alliance but that’s bike racing I guess. Normally being a quiet guy, I started running my mouth to see why people weren't working. One guy responded back to me with a “Why do you care?” My response was I’m hear to race to win, not for second but what I was thinking was that I’d like to know how large of a team or alliance was working together. Was it 5 guys, 10 guys or 15 guys? (As a side note, I can also be somewhat spiteful so I was happy to see that this guy would roll in to the finish at the back of the field). Not knowing where the breakaway rider stood on GC, I felt that it would probably be a smart thing to bring him back into the group. I was really kicking myself now because here I was burning matches like they were going out of style to bring him back where I really could have been burning that energy trying to make the break work if only I had stuck with the earlier move. So, with determination not to get burned by this possible poor decision, I tried to make a bridging move up to him. When I looked back to see if I had made a dent, I had the entire field on my wheel. Here I was, trying to get someone to work and all they could do was follow. It was beginning to tick me off so pulling my best Mary Ellen move, I put my head down and began hammering. If they were going to ride my wheel, I was bound to make them suffer. Darrin tells me that when I did this, the group was all strung out and working hard to stay with me. I’m glad I did my job well.
Doing that burned a few matches but I was bound and determined to bring him back. I got him back to within 10 meters and then figuring someone would pull it back since we were so close, I pulled over. Funny thing, those guys sat up as well and what was at that point only a few seconds worth of a gap, opened quickly back up to 40 seconds. So running my mouth once more, I think I said something like “Lets have some fun, lets work hard to pull him back to within a few seconds again, and then let him go.” People just stared at me. I think next time I’m going to start foaming at the mouth and sing some Partridge Family tunes so I become known as “The crazy kid” in the peloton, that way people will give me some space in the field. It took a solid lap and a half for that rider to come back. I don’t think it was that we were trying to bring him back, because we weren't, it was just because he had cracked. The rest of the race became fairly uneventful in the sense that several moves were tried; some by me but all came back. It looked like unless there was a miracle, it would come down to a bunch sprint. Rolling into the final few hundred meters, I tried making up some position as I had begun drifting backwards in my tired state. Standing up and moving forward reinforced that my legs were done for the day, I had nothing left in the tank to contest the sprint.
Although I rolled in near the back of the group, I’m really pleased in how I raced today. First off, I helped to protect a friends place on GC. Secondly, the fact that I was able to finish this race after how active I was in the group, made me feel really good about where my fitness is currently at. If how I felt physically after the race was any indication, than this was by far the hardest race that I think I have ever done. Sitting here at 9:30 at night, my legs still ache, I still can’t quench my thirst and I want to get some sleep.
Here’s the data from today’s race:
brian
Duration: 2:39:35
Work: 2124 kJ
TSS: 220.9 (intensity factor 0.911)
Norm Power: 264W
VI: 1.19
Distance: 60.516 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1240 222 watts
Heart rate: 114 185 161 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 93 rpm
Speed: 10.3 35.9 22.7 mph
Pace 1:40 5:51 2:38 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 380 65 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1309 201 lb-in
No comments:
Post a Comment