Tour de Ephrata 2009

Tour de Ephrata 4/5 category
Results

I headed up with Tom around noon on Friday so we could run a few loops of the road course that afternoon. Now that was time well spent! It’s a really fun course with a nice mix of terrain and somewhat technical turns/s-turns. Riders sitting mid to rear in the pack were going to get hurt at the tricky sections due to the accordion effect. On Friday, the wind was fairly stiff, but on Saturday the wind was hardly noticeable. The element of wind would definitely have a major impact on this course.

After the recon, Tom and I discussed the various spots to get away. One was at the small climb. If that failed, the second spot was before the little bridge with a technical chicane followed by a short power climb roughly 1.75 miles from the finish. There was one more sharp s-turn a little less than a 1/2 mile before the finish which definitely favors a solo rider or the front riders. I’d imagine that if you’re not in the top 10 going into that turn, you won’t be in the top 10 by the finish.

I had a good plan throughout the week to get me to the line feeling fresh. It worked. My legs felt great for the entire weekend. Honestly, I had put a little pressure on myself. There was no reason why I shouldn’t try to dominate the 4/5 race and win. I really wanted to be active in every race. Make guys hurt, take some chances, ALWAYS stay at the front and go for it.

Road Race (Saturday morning):

I wiggled up to the front within the first 3-4 miles and stayed there. With the yellow line rule and lack of a shoulder, it was hard to move around. BUT, once you got the front (top 10) it was SO easy to stay there.

During the first loop, I just tried to inflict as much pain on the pack as possible by hitting the technical sections pretty darn hard. If you were on the back, it would not be fun. Going up the main climb, a guy drops his chain midway up while sitting relatively close to the front. I think he eventually fell over and took out a bunch of guys. I hit it to the top of the climb and carried it hard another mile or two. I’d guess the pack was cut by a 1/2 after that.

Fast forward coming into the climb on loop two. I made the mistake of getting stuck about 3 rows back going into the climb. Guy’s Racing dude (Calvin) attacked with the help of his teammate at the front. Between the yellow line rule and the front riders collapsing, I couldn’t get to the front until about 2/3 of the way up and proceeded to take off in chase. The tip of the pack caught me after the downhill, but I picked it up after the hard left turn and pulled another two guys off the front with me. We got to within ~5 seconds to Calvin, before the pack caught us. I decided to buy more time. I felt confident I could close the gap after the bridge where I would attack.

Tactical Error #1- I let a rider bridge the small gap up to Calvin when we almost pulled him back. Tactical Error #2- I didn’t see the move as a threat.

The Spinners team had like 6-7 guys still in the pack and they acted like they wanted to chase, but never really did. I watched the 2 riders stretch the lead to around 20-30 seconds. At one point, I lost sight. Tactical Error #3- I should have got the pack excited and started closing the gap getting the front guys involved in bringing it back. Just doing more cheerleading would have probably done it. Maybe not.

Right before the bridge chicane, I attacked with everything I had from about 6 back going up the right fringe. I flew through the tight 4 turns and punched it hard up the power climb after that for about 30 secs before looking back. Nice, gap is big enough that the pack isn’t catching me. Now, chase down these two!

Here's a cool photo of the 1/2/3 race at the bridge chicane with ~1.75 miles to go:





I blew by the rider that had bridged before the final turn. But Calvin was still ~ 8 seconds ahead going into the last ½ mile. Regrettably, I just ran out of real estate to close the gap finishing 5 seconds behind and 8 seconds ahead of the pack. Props to Calvin though. He executed his plan and his team did just enough to help him to stay away. I spoke to him afterward and he said he realized that he needed to drop his companion in that last mile and half if he had any hope of winning.

Power #’s:
Road Race:
Duration: 1:03:28
Work: 1034 kJ
TSS: 100.3 (intensity factor 0.974)
Norm Power: 336
VI: 1.24
Distance: 25.499 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1038 272 watts
Cadence: 34 141 94 rpm
Speed: 2.9 39.3 24.1 mph


Tom and I chilled out and watched the rest of the races that afternoon. After the 1/2/3 race ended, we headed over to the TT course to do some recon. VERY GLAD we did! Great idea, Tom. We pulled the TT bikes out and we rode the flats and practiced taking the turns at speed staying aero. We even practiced the one foot down start. Uh, we drove the climb. It didn’t look too bad from the car!

Pain Mountain Time Trial (Sunday 7:50 a.m.)-

Tom offered up a lot of good insight in prep for this event. I can’t thank him enough. In theory, the plan was fairly simple for me. Hold 325-330w avg (comfortably hard) through the first 4 miles. Keep cadence high (95-105). Start to pick up to the 340w (Hard) range when the climbing starts and carry as much speed as possible through the rollers until I get to the climb. Once at the climb, let it rip and keep the pedals turning. Well, that’s essentially what I did. The only thing I think I would have done a bit different is not hit that first climb quite so hard. For almost 2 minutes I averaged 441w, but for the following 1.75 minute gradual uphill section I was around 325w before a good solid push to the end. Finish time: 24:29. Good enough to win my category. Power wasn’t super great for that duration, but I think there’s something really deceptive about that course. It’s not a course you’re going to set power records on. I think the residual fatigue from the RR really catches up to you when you hit that last mile and half climb.

















Photos courtesy of Linc BrookesOn the flat before the real climb started (immediately before the intersection of Forest and Cocalico roads)

















I also was pleasantly surprised to see how my time stacked up to the 3’s and 4’s. I think it would have been good enough for 7th in ¾ race and 3rd in the 4 race. Since I’m a little on the bigger side, I think that bodes well for me in future courses which won’t have crazy climbs at the end.

I would also add that this TT course is probably the only course where I actually felt like I didn’t leave anything out there. That last mile and half really hurts. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if you went out too hard in the first 4 miles and had to suffer up that beast.

Pain Mt TT:
Duration: 24:24
Work: 492 kJ
TSS: 41.5 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 348
VI: 1.04
Distance: 8.007 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 686 336 watts
Cadence: 38 124 97 rpm
Speed: 2.9 36 19.7 mph

1st 4miles to turn up climb:
Duration: 9:09
Work: 180 kJ
TSS: 14.3 (intensity factor 0.968)
Norm Power: 334
VI: 1.02
Distance: 4.015 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 686 328 watts
Cadence: 38 118 104 rpm
Speed: 2.9 33.8 26.3 mph

Middle Section (Interestingly, I was able to sneak in a little bit of recovery here and there on this section at the backside of a few of the rollers):
Duration: 7:01
Work: 135 kJ
TSS: 10.9 (intensity factor 0.964)
Norm Power: 333
VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 2.446 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 605 321 watts
Cadence: 68 124 102 rpm
Speed: 11.4 36 20.9 mph

Final Climb to Finish:
Duration: 8:04
Work: 175 kJ
TSS: 16 (intensity factor 1.092)
Norm Power: 377
VI: 1.04
Distance: 1.482 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 147 661 362 watts
Cadence: 58 118 84 rpm
Speed: 6.2 21.3 11.0 mph


Crit Race (Sunday, 11:15 a.m.):

I managed to get in a 25-30 minute warm-up prior to the race and the legs felt pretty good. I caught up with Calvin during warm-up and we chatted a bit. TT results hadn’t been posted, but I had a strong feeling I was first. Calvin said he was around 25:40 in the TT. Somehow, he got some information that he was second at the TT so that meant this crit was for all the marbles between him and me.

I decided to stick to my plan by being active, stay at the front and make the race as hard as possible for guys wanting to sit in. I really didn’t want to win by sitting in. Plus, I think overall that I race better when I’m pushing it. I don’t know. I think it gets my adrenaline flowing. I loved this course. You could fly through the corners as long as you were on the front. After a couple of laps in, I just started hitting it. Without too much effort, I was off the front for 4-5 laps solo. After that, I just stayed within the top 3 or 4 coming to the front to punch it hard through some of the technical sections where I knew the accordion effect would be the greatest. About 2/3 through the race, I noticed Calvin was just sitting on my wheel with the field well strung out.























Here's the shot with 1 to go:









My thought process was this. With two to go, I was going to up the pace again and see if Calvin would stick on my wheel. If he did, I was hoping the two of us could rotate a few pulls and have the finish come down to just us two with the field well behind. Coming down the stretch with one to go, we had a good enough gap on the field to go mano-e-mano, but he wasn’t about to pull through and do any work. For some reason, I just kept stomping on it. I thought he was going to try and jump after turn two, but he didn’t. I hit it pretty hard to come barreling through turn 3. He jumped right before turn 4 and gapped me. I should have known better. I couldn’t close it down that fast finish stretch and ended up second.

Tactical error: I was talking to Tom after the race wondering what I could have done different. He brought up a good point. I should have let the field catch back on and tried to get someone between my wheel and his. If we could have got mixed up in the front of the pack, I think I could have gotten away. Either mark Calvin if he goes, or go when/if he was boxed in. Oh well, good learning experience overall. I’m actually glad Calvin was there to make it exciting. We exchanged pleasantries afterward. Good guy and I hope to see him do well in the future.

Power #’s:
Ephrata Crit:
Duration: 25:37
Work: 485 kJ
TSS: 46.3 (intensity factor 1.041)
Norm Power: 359
VI: 1.14
Distance: 10.683 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1143 316 watts
Cadence: 53 141 99 rpm
Speed: 6.5 33.1 25.1 mph


So, that’s a wrap. I finished 2nd in the GC. I got some great racing in. Gained some valuable experience and had a great time traveling with Tom. I definitely look forward to doing this race again next year. Fun weekend!