Race for Alex

When I made the decision to run the Columbus Marathon this fall (and be competitive in it), I knew I would have to cut short my cycling season to achieve some of the goals that I set. I barely seem to have time to train for one sport, let alone try to train for two so something has to go and it won't be family or work so I guess that means I'm voluntarily letting my CTL drop a bit until later this fall. With the shortened season, I picked the Race for Alex as the event to say goodbye to my 2007 season. I raced it last year and remember having a lot of fun on a course that really suited me.

Sunday morning I lined up in a field of 54 riders in the Cat 4/Cat 5 field, by far the largest group that I've raced with in awhile. Joining me from Stark Velo was: Matt Turi, Tim House, Chris Smith, Don Bunker, Greg Banic, Bill Fletcher, Tim Graichen and James Votaw. With such a large group of teammates racing, we should hopefully be able to do something productive for the day as we certainly had the numbers. With such a large group and a strict yellow-line rule, moving up was going to be difficult so I did my best to get myself in the top 20 places as we rolled out of the parking lot. Being even this far back would prove to be disaster for the day. It was nice from the sense that I always had someone to block the strong winds, but difficult to move up into any better position. I always like to keep an eye on the front and make moves when necessary. Sitting pinched in the middle of the field sort of makes that logic impractical. A prime example came when Turi took a solo flier off the front on lap 2. I was doing my best to move up in the field to the front to try and slow things down but it was impossible. There were only three ways to do it. Flagrantly breaking the yellow-line rule, take my luck riding in the gutter or be stupid/dangerous and try to squeeze through riders in the field. I decided I'd try to ride near the gutter in hopes that enough openings would happen on that side that I could jump into and leap frog my way to the front. Unfortunately, after almost a lap of Matt being out front, I was nowhere closer to helping him out and he was quickly moving back to us.

The race was fast but I was able to notice some things along the way. Firstly that there was a rider who was walking back to the start line (opposite race direction) who was pushing his bike with a severed handlebar. Wow, wonder how that happened and where. Two, the railroad tracks on the course are absolutely horrible. I still need to take a good look at my Zipps but on one outing over them; I heard a nasty crack when I rolled over it. Hopefully, it was the guy next to me and not my fine 303 hoops.

Starting lap 4 and I'm finally feeling better. It had been a few days since I had an opportunity to ride and I needed a few minutes of high intensity to bring my legs back. I knew with only two laps to go, there was no way I was going to get dropped and hopefully I could find a way up front to get competitive in this thing. After all, it was my last race. So we roll over the track on lap 4. Guys do like they always do on every lap and try to bunny hop them at 35 mph. Something happens and all of a sudden there are bodies and bikes everywhere. I slam on my breaks hoping nobody behind me crashes into me and I safely navigate my way through the carnage that lies on the street. The field moves away from me at that point. I pretty much stop to see if anyone who was involved in it is really hurt or not. I notice that there was a follow vehicle that is there and decided that I can try to catch the main field which at this point was probably down to 25 guys or so.

Well, the wind was too strong and/or they were too fast so I never could catch them. Rode the last lap and a half by myself but nobody ever caught me...for whatever that's worth. Riding solo did give me an opportunity to reflect on that crash though. My thought was that the Race for Alex is a race that was setup to benefit a recovering spinal cord injured racer. Why is this race trying to setup future injuries? I know that may seem a bit harsh and you can call me a p#%ssy if you like but let's face it, bike racing is inherently dangerous as it is even on the safest of courses. Throw in things like crappy, rough railroad crossings and the risk level just gets raised that much higher. I haven't found too many races that I feel are worth the risk of racing and boycott from (Medina Twin Sizzler is the only one right now), but I think I'm going to have to add the Race for Alex to the list that I'm going to avoid from now on. I hate to say it since MVC is a good club, it has great organization and Bob seems to have a lot of passion for this race, but there are better things I can be doing with my time than risking my life.

So, not the way that I wanted to wrap up my season, but I can’t control those things. If I could, I would have won every race that I’ve ever entered. I look forward to really getting into running here this week. I’m hoping to keep riding, at least with commuting to work and maybe the occasional team ride in hopes that I can still race the Chapel Series. I need something to blog after all…..

b

Here's the data for the day's race:

Race for Alex:
Duration: 58:14
Work: 877 kJ
TSS: 98.2 (intensity factor 1.006)
Norm Power: 302
VI: 1.2
Distance: 21.978 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1057 251 watts
Heart rate: 94 205 169 bpm
Cadence: 31 141 97 rpm
Speed: 2.6 35.8 22.6 mph
Pace 1:41 22:59 2:39 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 345 79 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1165 220 lb-in