I set out to accomplish two objectives during the last night’s race.  My goals were to keep the rubber side down and finish in the top ten.  One objective was checked off my list.  The other one… almost.

Waiting for the start

It was the warmest temperature for a race in quite awhile.  As I pulled into the parking lot of the old Municipal Stadium I could see my teammates already working up a sweat trying to set up and get the route cleaned up.  I joined in, but am afraid I was more in the way than helpful.

Then it was time to get on the bike.  As I was spinning along I started to have some bad feelings.  I was not feeling very snappy.

You may laugh, but one of my mistakes of the day was I had a business lunch at City Range.  I should have gotten a salad or something.  No, I had to go and get a cheese steak sandwich.

By three o’clock I felt like I needed to go take a nap.  It was as though all the blood in my body was taking the oxygen away from my legs and lungs to my stomach.  Now as I was circling the course my legs felt heavy and I was still feeling lethargic.

I got up on the line as we were about to start.  There was a good sized field.  It was a mix of category 4 and 5 riders.  I wanted to be up front so I could avoid any crossed wheels and to be in position to react to any moves up front.

Then Blair and the officials decided to take the field around the course for a couple of pace laps so we could be shown the proper lines and get an understanding of the layout of the course.  I made the mistake of sitting back and letting the field pull be me around.  As we finished the second lap and stopped, I was at the back for the start.

Then we rolled off for real.  For the first several laps, I just stayed in and tried to position myself so I would be out of trouble.  After a number of laps, things began to stretch out and I could see a gap forming on the front between some riders and the field.

Trying to hold my own in the turn

I was feeling like crud.  From the very beginning I felt like I was chasing.  That feeling that you can move anywhere at anytime wasn’t there.  It was replaced with a feeling that if anyone did something drastic, I would be left sitting.

The gap was growing and I began to move myself up toward the front.  There seemed to be some loose organization to try to bring the break back.  I joined in.

We were about a third through the race and I could see that the riders off the front were basically doing just enough to maintain the distance.  Here I had a choice; I could stay where we were and launch an attack at the end of the race in hopes of overtaking them at the end, or I could work to bridge up to them and then recover before the finish.

Bridging the gap

I moved to the front and started to pull and the field stretched out even more.  It would have been nice if I could have bridged over and stayed away.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to build a big separation.  I basically pulled the field up to the break and those riders gave into field.

It pretty much wiped me out.  I got on the wheel of my teammate Matt who had followed me up to the break.  There were multiple times at that point where I felt like getting off the course.  Hearing the encouragement from spectators helped keep me in there.

Matt giving me a break

About time I felt like I could make it another attack came.  I couldn’t go after them.  There was a lot of chatter in the group about who was going to do the work to bring them back.  The way I saw it, I had done my job on the first break and those guys could fight it out on this one.

There was a point where I realized I was racing for a top ten.  There would be no win tonight.  I looked around at the riders.  I knew what was going to happen.  The three man break would stay away.  There was a particular rider that I knew would attack for fourth place.  It would be a field sprint for the rest of us.

The sad thing was that I knew what was going to happen but felt helpless to do anything about it.  I had to save myself to just hang on.  There was no chance to take control.

Sure enough, the rider I had marked attacked in turn three.  I let him go.  I set up for turn four with the plan of letting it all hang out on the climb up to the finish.  It felt good to start moving up past some of the riders ahead of me.

Digging for the line

As we neared the line, I could see that I had the possibility of getting one more spot.  I moved up beside him and he looked over.  He started to react but it was a little late.  We neared the line and I threw the bike forward to grab the spot.

A friend told me as I came off the course that he thought I might have gotten 9th or 10th.  After the way I felt out there, that would have been a happy result for me.  I would have to wait until the results were posted to find out.

As I was loading my bike into the car I discovered I had a flat tire!  I must have picked something up during the race that caused a slow leak.  Wow, had I had a flat at the wrong time out there and my objective of keeping the rubber side down might have gone out the window.

11th.  I got 11th.  Just one pass away from my goal.

The questions I ask myself are 1) Was my ride indicative of my fitness overall or was it just a bad night?  2) Will I ever learn to understand what is going on around me and, more importantly, know how to act to turn it to my adavantage?  I guess only time will tell.

Here are the numbers for the night: 28 laps around a .45 mile course for just over 30 minutes.  My max power (1094 watts) during the race happened early on the second lap.  I averaged around 1:06 per lap.  My peak 20 minute reading from my Quarq CinQo Saturn was 291 watts.  The number for the entire race was 287 watts.

The bottom line is that I was putting out about the same power as I typically do.  I just felt a lot worse doing it.  Also, what the numbers don’t show was WHEN I was using the power.  That is what I’ve got to learn.  I feel that I misuse my power – wasting it on wrong moves or doing more work on the front than I should.  What I’m saying is that with a little more intelligence, I could probably place higher without using as much energy.

There are still more opportunities ahead.  I’ve just got to put more effort into improving my stamina and my intelligence.  First intelligent thing to do?  Avoid cheese steak sandwiches the day of a race!