Race At the Lake

What a perfect day for a bike race! Because of the holiday weekend, Savage Hill turnout at this race was pretty weak. Chris Bean and I were the only SH riders in the cat 4 race. The course was beautiful; 7 turns, good pavement, and a small hill on a 1.2-mile course. The course, 18-mile distance, and the 30 riders made for a fast ride. Our average speed was just over 24 mph.

Now on to the race. The race started out with the normal shoving' and elbowing' that all races start with. A few people tried to get away in the first few laps and didn't get far. I helped chase people down early in the race, and then noticed that I still don't have my summer legs, so I sat in for a while. As soon as I started sitting in, I saw Chris up front chasing down fools who thought they could escape.. The middle of the race was pretty much a blur of squirrelly cat 4s riding off the road and running into me. It sure is nice to have a little extra mass when you are being bumped like that. :-) In the 13th lap, things got mixed up again. There was a rider off the front!! I ended up in the chase group with a "Wheel-Sucking Leach," so I helped as much as I could. The field ended up sitting on the 2 man (one "Wheel-Sucking Leach") chase group after a very short distance. When I noticed this, I eased off a little, so someone else would do some work. By the time we got to the hill on the 14th lap, I was feeling my earlier effort. Therefore, I rode pretty conservatively and relied on my Walden School cornering expertise to give me some recovery. The field eventually caught the solo break and everyone started setting up for the field sprint. It sure is nice to finally get to play in a field sprint this year! I came around the last corner in a mediocre position, so I just went to passing as many people as I could before the line. I passed about five guys to get 10th. I really wish I had the legs to push one more gear in that sprint. Maybe next week...

After having interviewed in Akron, I ventured over to check out the Race at the Lake out which was only 12 miles from where my meeting was. Unfortunately the meeting ran late and I got to the race with no time to spare. It is only the second time I've ever done a race with absolutely zero warm up. In a strange way that took all the pressure off of me because if I got dropped I had a ready-made excuse. So my game plan was to hang at the back to see how I would be feeling not only because of my lack of preparation but the fact that this was a 1,2,3 race AND the fact that Go-Mart was present with 4 very strong riders. Braumberger, Martin, Jim Baulserri ( National Criterium champion), and one other pro whose name I never found out.

The course is a beautiful 1.2 mile road around a lake with sweeping turns and a slight uphill section to keep things challenging. We started out fast but me being at the back it was not all that bad. Final average speed for the race exceeded 25 m.p.h. so we were moving. The 5 man break formed towards the middle of the race and they dangled off the front with about 12-15 seconds for a while. Suddenly in one lap the gap went to 30 seconds and that was it for the first 5 places. There were 3 Go-Mart guys up the road with the nameless one left in the field. (He won the field sprint) At the end Paul Martin had a little gap on Jeff for 1st and Jeff had a little gap on Mr. Criterium champion & co. for 2nd. Jim B. took 3rd.

Meanwhile back in the pack it really was not too hard of a race. The only time I felt bad was when I bridged a 6 second gap on the uphill section and had to sit in and recover. At the end I managed to move up and ended up somewhere 20th or so. Aprroximately 45 riders started. I was not unhappy at all with everything considered. I definitely recommend next week's race for everybody who wants some criterium-like training.

My second race of the year with still very little training seemed to go a little better than the first. I finished this one at least. Since I am very new to this bike racing I was surprised when the pack in a Category V race started out hammering, at least to me, the pace at what appeared to be on my computer as 25-26 m.p.h. The result. I finished at the back of the pack on a twelve mile race.