Well, here it goes. I ventured out to Upper Marlboro, MD this morning for my first ever cycling race. The course is approximately a 1.3 mile loop in an industrial park. I was entered in the C race (cat 4/5). It’s the only race I can enter since you have to complete 10 mass start races before you can upgrade to cat 4. Bottom line, you want to upgrade as quickly as possible. The cat 5 races are a real crapshoot. You have a mix of strong riders (getting into cycling), beginners and one time racers, all age ranges.
Course (click to enlarge):
As I was registering, I hear, “Hey, Pete”. What the heck? It’s Jenn Brown! She was managing the registration tent for the Bike Dr crew. It was great to catch up with her after the race
I really didn’t have any expectations. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t crash. Do some hard pushes, get some experience riding in the pack and build some fitness. My legs felt pretty good (good sign) even after doing a solid 1.75 hr threshold workout Saturday morning. I was able to get in a quick warm-up while doing 3 loops on the course before we started. With a NNW wind on the backstretch up a slight incline, I sort of figured that this may be the best place to start a break. It would be very, very difficult to get out of sight from the group (40-50 riders) on this course. There are only 3 turns on the loop. None of which are a big deal to carry speed through. After the third turn, you head down a slight downhill where it flattens at the finish. I think there were at least 3 or 4 times where guys attacked right before the downhill. I couldn’t quite figure that one out. A lot of work for nothing. You can’t outrun the group going downhill.
The cool thing about getting outside your comfort zone is that you get to put yourself in some innocent, unaware and occasionally ignorant positions. You see, I pinned my number on in the car and I knew it went on the back, slightly on the right so someone counting #’s at the finish line can read your number. Well, stupid me. I pinned the number upside down and right before the race started I hear, “hold on. I need to fix a number!” That would be the race official as he’s standing behind me fixing my number. Hey everyone, look at the NOOB! So, everyone had to wait about a minute until he re-pinned my number. I don’t know what is going on in my head today. I went to the grocery store today and realized as I was walking into the store that I had my slippers on!
Once the race started, I just decided I’d stay in the top 10-15 for the entire race. It really wasn’t all that difficult to hold my position. There were a few guys riding erratic. I made a mental note to steer clear of those. I definitely need to get used to surging for 5-20 seconds at a time, but that fitness will come.
After 3 laps, I thought I’d test the legs and take a flyer on the slightly uphill backstretch into the wind (Power: ~5 mins at 350avg/392np). Maybe someone would come with me? That didn’t happen. I opened up about a 75 yard gap to the group, but I knew I wasn’t going to go for 10+ laps solo, so I coasted the downhill section to the finish line and got back to my position in the top 10-15. It was fairly uneventful after that. The big teams (ncvc, dcvelo, etc.) with numbers, didn’t really seem to have any strategy. They were all spread out. I decided I would just buy my time, stay smooth and relaxed. It became evident that nobody was going to go for a real break. A few riders would attack and gain a couple of seconds, but nobody attacked with any conviction.
I did find myself in one awkward position. I was sitting maybe 15 when a guy came by on my left pulling up on the backstretch. I jumped on his wheel only to get out of the wind a bit more. I’m not really sure what he was thinking. He proceeded to try and ride away from the group without an initial attack. Hmm, pretty tough to ride the whole group off your wheel. When I looked back, the pack was only a few seconds behind. He started flicking his elbow to pull through, but I wasn’t going to rocket by him. He’d totally blown. I wasn’t about to go on a break with this guy.
Here it is; the final lap. I had already convinced myself I was going to punch it hard shortly after the first turn on the backstretch. What the hell!? I’d dropped back to about 15 or 20. The wind was coming slightly from the front left, so I planned to ride up the right side. I gradually built my speed and once I got close to the lead guy, I hit it hard. I gave a quick peek back after 20 seconds and I was all alone. Cool, I guess? I just tried to drill it as hard as I could until the finish (2.5 minutes @ 436w avg). I definitely wanted to test myself. Sadly, I was caught about 150 feet from the line by 4-6 riders, just nipping me at the line. I knew I needed some time going into the downhill stretch. I just didn’t have enough today. I think I sort of screwed up. Once they caught me, I grabbed a wheel, but they all sort of let up at the same time. I thought, holy crap! Do we have another lap to go? I remember Flanagan mentioning that he did that one time and I thought I’d just done it. Nope that was it. Dang! I think those guys were gassed trying to catch me. I should have sprinted as hard as I could right when they caught me.
As we were coasting along afterward doing a warm down loop, it made me feel a little better when a few guys rolled by and said that it was a really good shot. An evo rider came up and we chatted for a bit. Nice, guy. I can’t remember his name. He said he tried to bridge solo but he couldn’t catch me and was swallowed up. I imagine he pulled that train close to me. I guess this is where cycling tactics can get a little tricky. It appears everyone was strung out. The group never did catch me. I think I finished 6 or 7? I couldn’t really tell where the line was since it was just a piece of tape across the road.
That’s a wrap. Good time. I learned some good things and gained some experience. I’ll be hitting it again next Sunday.
Power #’s:
Race:
Duration: 48:28
Work: 756 kJ
TSS: 70.4 (intensity factor 0.933)
Norm Power: 308
VI: 1.19
Distance: 18.98 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 958 260 watts
Heart Rate: 12 192 156 bpm
Cadence: 36 141 92 rpm
Speed: 8.1 33.1 23.5 mph
Pace 1:49 7:26 2:33 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 388 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1352 238 lb-in
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