Snitger's Classic

When setting up my training plan and goals for the year, the first event that came to mind was this race, the Snitger's Classic located in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Last year when I raced here, it was my first time racing as a Cat four and although I had some decent results in the fives, I was in no way prepared for this race as I was shelled on lap 1 of 11. This year I vowed to do better and to help get me there, I started working with Charles Howe of Velodynamics to try and plan my first peak for this race.
I should start by saying that my goal for the race was to finish in the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't enter any race not wanting to win and with all the work I've done I wasn't going to just sit in, but knowing how difficult this race is I knew just finishing in the field would be a big accomplishment and anything more than that would icing on the cake. Today racing with me in the 4 field was Tim House, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger and Don Bunker. Just getting to the start line turned out to be an adventure for me. While doing a warm up, my front tire blew. Unfortunately, I was as far away from the course as possible, so I quickly gave my wheel to Jim along with instructions on where to find my car key so he and Tim could get started working on my wheel. I looked at my clock and it said 1:45; our race was scheduled to start at 2:00 and I was a mile or so down the road. So facing a little bit of a crisis, I decided to start my marathon training a little early and I picked up the bike and started running back to the car. By the time I made it back, my cleats were a little shorter and Tim and Jim just about had that tire changed. Thanks guys for taking care of that for me. Not quite the warm up that I was expecting but I was ready to do some racing now.

Last year, I remembered the start being a sprint to the first turn. This race seemed to be the same way but knowing what to expect, I started off in the right gear and was ready to move up into position quickly. I tried to keep remembering that "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" which are some words of advice that Rick Parr gave to me earlier in the week. With that in mind, I constantly tried to keep myself in the top 10 positions in the field. This strategy seemed to be working well because as the laps ticked down, the field kept getting smaller and smaller but I was still sitting roughly where I wanted to be. Through the race, small groups of one or two guys would try and get off the front but each attempt was brought back. This race would come down to the guys in the front shelling everyone down to the last race and then fighting it out from there. Hopefully I would be one of those guys.

Turns out, with three to go I lost my place in the final selection. A small gap opened up a few riders in front of me and as I tried to get around them to get caught back on, I found I didn't have enough left in the tank to close the gap on my own. This was the product of two factors, the heat and the tremendous pace, especially climbing up the "hill" on the backside of the course. The problem with riders who get shelled are that they are too tired to work so it was left to me to chase. If nothing else, I wanted to race for my own bragging rights and not have the main field catch me, whatever was left of them. The last two laps were my own individual TT, slowly catching and passing riders who were falling off the pace up front.

Coming into the finishing straight for the last time, I thought I was clear but I had a rider from MVC who came around me at the last minute to snag 16th place, putting my in 17th.

I have mixed emotions about today's race. In one hand, I did better than my goal of finishing in the field as I finished in the top third in the race. On the other hand, I can't help but to think what would have been if only I had made that last split. Would of, could of, should of I guess, that's bike racing.

brian

Here's some data numbers on the race:

Duration: 59:04
Work: 879 kJ
TSS: 107.1 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 293
Distance: 24.118 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 939 249 watts
Ht Rate: 155 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 34.7 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 272 70 lb-in