After a quick bowl of Oatmeal and loading up the car this morning, I was on my way to Orrville to race at the Milk Race. This is the third time I've raced it. The first year, I was involved in a crash that left me chasing for 2 out of three laps. Last year I finished in the field but kept thinking about my wife going into labor (actually, I was hoping she would so I could pull out of the race). Would this year be any different? I didn't have any expectations with the little bit of training I've had in the past month, but after the ride I did with some of my teammates up in the valley on Wednesday, I was at least optimistic that I could hang in the field.
"You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" Augh!!!
Rolling with me in the Cat 4 field was Darrin Kert, Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Matt Turi, Don Bunker and entering his first Cat 4 race since receiving his upgrade was Frank Kolasa. The usual suspects lined up with us this morning and our field size looked to be about 35 guys strong. I knew the guys to really keep an eye on would be Paul Kinney from Orrville and Noah Gurney from Summit. After Noah's incredible performance at Zoar last weekend, I knew he was riding, as always with good form. Paul is always good. With Breakaway up front setting tempo as we rolled out of the parking lot, one of their riders road off the front to open up a decent little gap within the first few miles of the race. I never like to be just pack fill so it was very tempting to try to bridge across to him. I just kept telling myself that this is a 30 mile race and there is no way that someone is going to go solo for 30 miles. Not in a Cat 4 field. Mile after mile ticked by and this rider would be joined by others bridging up to him. What once was only one rider now looked to be five strong. Should I have tried to get across? I kept telling myself that the objective for the day was just to finish with the group so stay put and stay patient, it'll all come back. Sure enough, as we were finishing the first lap, enough riders felt that it was a worthy move that they tried to bridge up, only carrying the rest of the field with them. Ok, so I raced the first lap smart, saved a whole bunch of matches and now I was only looking at two more laps to go until the finish. Lapped two ticked away fairly uneventful with the exception of me marking Noah's attempt to get away. Fortunately, everyone was still together and Noah didn't try to push it too hard so I hadn't wasted too much energy in the effort. What it did do however was to put me up on the very front of the group. Not the place that I ever like to be, let alone when my whole strategy for the day was to simply stay protected in the group. There were several miles on this lap where I was pulling the group around. It finally dawned on me that it wasn't really my responsibility to pull everyone around as fast as I can at this stage of the race so why not sit up, pedal leisurely and if someone wants to go faster then they can come around me. It didn't take long until someone else got the message and in no time, I was back safely in the group.
Starting the third lap, things really slowed down. I heard a lot of chit-chat and I knew things were too easy, lets face it, I was still there and feeling pretty good. Looking around I saw that the whole group was essentially all together. Not sure why I didn't stick to my game plan at this point, probably because of this stinking "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" that was still rolling around in my mind but I decided to attack shortly after starting the third lap. It was my hope that maybe I'd get a shot at it but knowing that most guys had fresh legs back there, it would be no problem to chase me down. Sure enough, they were all over my move. I knew this move would probably be the death of my plan for staying with the field, but as most of you know by now, I'm not one to be content to just sit. I'd rather race aggressively and loose, then to just sit and loose. I want to say that I left it all out on the road, no matter what my fitness level might be. OK, back to the race. It was none other than Paul Kinney who came around me shortly after the field came back together. As we rolled into the right hand turn onto Egypt road, I rolled up beside him and said ..."Remember that time at the last Chapel Race where I said I didn't have enough to get around you? Well, I don't have a whole lot more today either." He just laughed. I like to play fair, he was putting in a tremendous effort and with six other teammates tucked safely in the field, I would have had no problem working with him to thin the group out. The only problem was I just needed a few more moments to recover which is something I never got as I saw the rest of the group beginning to pass me and then shortly leaving me behind to chase on my own. Well, I made it for almost 2 1/2 laps with the field. Happy for the day that I was able to truly race. I wish I could write about how exciting the finish was, but in all honesty, I really have no idea of how it even ended up playing out. Maybe someone reading this who knows can write a response letting me know more.
Thanks to Orrville for once again putting on a good race and thanks to my competitors for making it a safe one. We all finished upright which in my book makes a successful day. I hope to be back again next year, only with more fight in my legs. It was good to be back in the saddle racing again, it seems like its been a really long time.
Here's the power data from today's race.
brian
Duration: 1:19:48
Work: 1077 kJ
TSS: 120.6 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 276
VI: 1.23
Distance: 30.01 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1003 225 watts
Heart rate: 88 182 161 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 7.6 39.8 22.6 mph
Pace 1:30 7:55 2:40 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 401 73 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1405 203 lb-in
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