Ride Sally Ride show time

This was my first chance to get a sneak peak at what goes on behind the scenes at a bike race. Everything was totally dialed in and smooth. RP did an excellent job lining everything and everybody up. Dave and Gus also provided excellent communication and organization. We had a ton of volunteers so nothing went unmanned throughout the day. Impressive! I also really enjoyed meeting more teammates and shooting the breeze throughout the day. It was a long day, but very rewarding.

**I must throw in here that my wife, Igda, was a huge help the entire day. Somehow I suckered her into coming...and she actually did. Once I got her up to speed on the registration process, she just took over. Between her, Peggy and Roger, everything was covered. Since there were enough chef's already in the kitchen, it gave me time to just generally goof off. Well, not really, but it was a huge benefit to have her there. Thanks for the support, babe!

Personally, I was a little caught out by the number of incidents throughout some of the races. It's always unfortunate to see/hear about a wreck during a race. The first thoughts are always, "I hope everyone is ok!" Fortunately, although there were some very serious incidents, it appears non were life threatening. For those that may be reading this, word is that the young Mr King that was seriously injured during the cat 4 race is going to be ok. It sounds like he has a strong fighting spirit and we hope to see him back on the bike soon. Very good news! I'm sure this won't have any effect on future races, but I really do hope racers in the upper categories that were racing on Saturday realize that we all need to look out for each other regardless of team or affiliation. There's no reason for us to take unnecessary risks. Be consistent and predictable!

Here's my race report for the Cat 4 race:
Hmm, what to say? First 4 only race. A lot of 4’s still ride like 5’s. Not sure why people love to overlap wheels. Such is life.

Now for a little more detail. Although I’d been up early and was standing for most of the time before the race, my legs felt amazingly well during warm-up…really well. Darn, no excuses there.

The overriding goal of the race for the team was to get some practice working together, maintain an offensive presence the entire race and get a good workout. We divided up: Gould/Callahan, Pheister/Dineen, Warner/Flanagan, Sharpe volunteered to tailgun. Each duo would take turns rotating, either attacking or bridging to anything up the road. A move shouldn’t be up the road without one of us in it and most likely will/should be initiated by one of us.

(NOTE: In hindsight, one thing we didn’t discuss was how to win the race. Yes, we had some other objectives which were more important to future races, but I’ve given some thought about this. On many crit courses, a 4 race will come down to a sprint. We should have a plan for this. Heck, it could probably be the same plan for every race. The Big Red Train will rear its head soon I’m sure. We’ll get that worked out.)

Although we all lined up at the back, it wasn’t all that difficult to get up front. We planned on taking the first 5 laps pretty easy anyhow. Everyone did a great job getting up front and being on the offensive. I love the fact that our red uniforms stand out. It makes finding people super easy. Although I will admit, there are about 4 of us that are close to the same size, and in the heat of the battle, I wasn’t sure who was who at times.

Things were going well until the bad wreck at turn 2 with about ~21 to go. I was just in front of it and I know exactly why it happened because for the first time in my racing I yelled at the guy who was about to cause chaos. I was near the outside coming out of the turn and this rider one up in front of me on the inside decides to just slide/push/wtf his way over to the outside for no apparent reason. I was seeing this all play out. He was pinching the guy to my left into me and me into the guy on the outside who was close to the curb. I just blurted out “HEY!!!” REALLY loud. It wasn’t “hold your line” which would have made more sense, but it appeared to be effective because the rider stopped coming over, saving a bunch of us from disaster. It just didn’t save everyone. The damage had been done by the guy’s initial move as I’m sure he caused others behind to lose control. Then I heard the crashing noise from behind. On the next lap, I saw Adam was caught up in it but was up and walking.
photos courtesy of Jim Wilson






Then things got a little weird. I will admit, I thought they were going to neutralize once I saw the ambulance. But we did still have half the road open after turn 2, and it wasn’t a problem getting through that turn especially now that everyone should have known by now not go too wide. Ok, race keeps going. What to do? Keep racing.

I see Gould throw out a good attack. He’s caught but he’s pushing hard enough to keep it single file with about 8 guys strung out behind him. Go time. I came up the right side from about 10-12 deep and hit the gas as I approached the front. I had a good head of steam. I didn’t look back for some time because I knew nobody was going to be able to match that move. They’d have to try to reel me back. Once I got off, I just tried to keep it pegged for as long as I could. I will gladly admit that I had some serious “tunnel vision” going on. I was working hard and focused. I completely missed the IMPORTANT, unexpected change to the race lap counter as I passed the start/finish line with what I believe was a healthy gap. I remember hearing the bell ringing and seeing 17 on the lap counter, but I just figured it was a prime lap since we hadn’t had one. There was lots of yelling, but it wasn’t registering. Now that I’ve had time to replay it in my head, I do sort of remember someone saying 1 to go, but I figured that person doesn’t understand what a prime lap is. How did we go from 17 to 1?


I just kept my head down pushing a slightly above threshold effort. Before turn 3, I looked back and the entire pack was definitely gaining on me. I thought, wow, they really want this prime. After turn 3, I decided I wasn’t going to burn my entire matchbook sprinting for the prime, so I started to sit up. I also figured that this would be a good opportunity for one of the others to attack. I’ll get back in and get recovered so I can go again later. Then I noticed everyone sitting up after the finish line just a little too casual, like the race was over or something. Wait, it was! I totally missed that the officials decided to shorten the race. Ok, I will admit. Initially, I was a pretty upset. Pretty sure I could have kept the lead. But honestly, once it sunk in, I was a little more upset with myself for not paying attention. Things like this do happen and you have to learn to deal with it. It was an important lesson.

1st part of Race:
Duration: 23:45
Work: 444 kJ
TSS: 41.4 (intensity factor 1.023)
Norm Power: 353
VI: 1.13
Distance: 10.539 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1052 311 watts
Cadence: 31 141 96 rpm
Speed: 5.8 34.4 26.7 mph

Attack:
Duration: 3:27
Work: 86 kJ
TSS: 9.6 (intensity factor 1.291)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 1.55 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1052 414 watts
Cadence: 52 124 100 rpm
Speed: 22 32.6 27.0 mph



It was sort of funny. When we finally started our cool down, we headed down to turn 2 where the road was blocked off. Flanagan and I discussed doing a 20 min threshold effort, but then they were calling us back. Crazy! But cool by me. We ride back to the start- get lined up and we’re off. The officials put 10 laps up and it is game on.

I gradually worked back up toward the front just trying to get my legs back to feeling normal. I still felt pretty good. I don’t know if it was Flanagan or Callahan that put in a good aggressive move. Then Dan put in a nice acceleration and had a small group off the front. With 3 to go, I was comfortable in the top 10 and stayed there.
photo courtesy of Jim Wilson




With 1 to go I saw Flanagan coming hard up the right side at the start/finish line out of the corner of my eye and made a bee line to get on his wheel before the 1st turn. After the turn, I yelled to him, “Michael, I’m on your wheel!” He kept the gas on through turn 2 and midway up the back stretch. I never did look behind me but knew things were probably strung out. In hindsight, it would have been perfect if someone from our team was on my wheel. I could tell Flanagan was losing a little steam so I had to make a decision…either go for it and see what happens and/or most likely carry the entire field to the finish. Maybe one of our guys is close enough to seal the deal if I can’t. I was worried I’d get swarmed at Turn 3 and get boxed in. My initial mistake was probably thinking that turn 3 was closer than it was. I probably should have turned to cheerleader and barked encouragement to Flanagan to get us through turn 3. I’m not so sure others were too inclined to take over the lead. He still had the pace pretty high. I peeled off Michael’s wheel hard to the left and just went for it. I knew I was in trouble shortly after turn 3 when I saw a few riders coming by on my right. I just tried to push all the way to the finish on the inside which netted fifth. Ah, well. It was fun racing aggressively with the guys. I also enjoyed that I was able to do my first race with Flanagan. Who knew he was going to give me a good lead out! It's good to see Flanagan have the fire back. It was his first race since winning the Turkey Day 3/4 race at the end of last year. Another 3-4 weeks of training and that guy is going to be ready to destroy it. Thanks, Michael! I’ll need to repay that in the future.

Race Restart:
Duration: 13:44
Work: 264 kJ
TSS: 25 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 361
VI: 1.13
Distance: 6.235 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1135 320 watts
Cadence: 40 141 94 rpm
Speed: 10.4 34.5 27.2 mph

Finishing move:
Duration: 0:37
Work: 26 kJ
TSS: 4.3 (intensity factor 2.068)
Norm Power: n/a
Distance: 0.316 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1135 703 watts
Cadence: 90 116 108 rpm
Speed: 27.8 31.7 30.8 mph