Tour de Millersburg 2010

About midway through the season, Ken and I talked and we decided that Tour de Millersburg was getting a big old bulls eye on my race calendar. The one thing I really enjoy in being coached by Ken is the periodization we go through during the year. Going out and trying (thinking) you can win every race you enter just isn't realistic. You can't have great form all year long. It leads to massive burnout and the inability to attain a true peak in fitness. I've put total faith in the plan from day 1 (October 1) and followed my marching orders. I KNEW I was going to be on some special form for this race.

I did the race last year and had a blast. But this isn't just a race; IT'S AN EVENT! The entire community goes above and beyond to support the race and racer's. Really, I've never been a part of something like it. A smattering of emails between teammates and my coach throughout the week had me fired up to pull off something special.

Saturday morning was the first event. A hair under 10 mile Time Trial. I REALLY wanted to win this. I wanted that Yellow Jersey. I knew there was some stiff competition and it was going to take a near perfect ride to pull this off. I got in a perfect warmup. Got to the line ready to roll...er..sort of fumbled the start (see video below- good lesson on how NOT to start) but once I got rolling, the power was there and after about 5 mins I knew this was going to be a special ride. I just kept it pegged until the turnaround. Looked down at the time and knew I was faster than last year. I hammered the return and just emptied the tank the last two minutes. 20:15. Ended up 2nd. Close, but I needed that damn jersey and I wanted it bad.

Millersburg TT start from Peter Warner on Vimeo.

The crit started at 12:30 so we had a little downtime to chill out. It was fun hanging out with teammates and friends, just shooting the bull. The team got together and we hashed out a strategy. I need to make special mention here because the entire weekend wouldn't have resulted in the outcome it did without the devoted and motivated support from my teammate's; Nicholas, Rusty, Joe, Chris and Andrew. Everyone played their designated role to perfection to assist me with my GC aspirations. In a competitive stage race, it takes a team to win the GC. To be real though, you need to throw in a little bit of luck, too.

I get a callup for the crit so I get to stage right on the front. I wanted no part of being anywhere but the front for the first few laps with 97 guys towing the line. Right from the whistle I go hard. First through turn 1 and just stay on it. Crap, I'm actually off the front a few meters but the legs felt great so I went with it. I wanted to be safe for a bit longer. I scared my teammates a bit there, sorry about that! And then I hit a hiccup (see luck above). I flatted on lap 3, but thankfully, I was right next to the wheelpit. Jumped in, got the wheel changed and the ref told me I can go back in where I was at in the field. Cool. He told me I could jump back in at the front. Got going, grabbed Nicholas' wheel and pretty much stayed tucked in at the front the rest of the race. Nicholas was doing great work keeping me up there. I just kept repeating to myself every time we went up the climbing portion that I was going to murder this section on the last lap. Andrew was riding super strong as well. He'd make guest appearances here and there. A C3 rider snuck off the front and ended up getting about a 30s gap. Impressive.

With ~5 to go the attacks started. I saw Kevin (DVR) go with another guy, but I thought it was a little too far out. Kevin is strong as a bull and I didn't know who the other rider was that was with him, but the field started chomping at the bit. It was brought back after a few laps and then two others went. Hmmm, I still didn't think it had legs since they did get a gap but it wasn't growing. I reattached to Nicholas' wheel with 2 to go. Nicholas roared up the climb on the backside passing the two off the front. I looked back and saw the field strung out and that we had a small gap. I yelled at Nicholas, "We got a gap..GO,GO,GO." Nicholas just slammed it down the backside, through the S/F and through turn 1 and 2. I knew I had two guys on my wheel that I had to get rid of on the climb. I jumped right after the soft left turn leading to the uphill. Out of the saddle, all out effort. My lungs and legs were about to explode. I just told myself to get the hell to the top of the hill without anyone else. As I neared the top, I looked back and saw I had gapped them, and they were looking back for the field. I knew I had them at that point. BUT, wait, the C3 rider was now in sight! He was going backwards at the top of the climb. But once I hit the downhill I realized there was no catching him at this speed. I hit the final turn hard, looked back and was able to coast in for 2nd. Hats off to the C3 rider. Great ride. But most importantly, I now had the YELLOW JERSEY! The winner of the TT took 5th so I had a small 4pt GC lead on him with a few other guys not far behind. The RR was going to be a battle for sure.

Nicholas' charge with 2 to go was a PERFECT setup for me. I needed it to be fast and hard before I went. For him to get the separation from the field was unbelievable. And as far as teammates supporting a GC rider, Rusty did something very cagey. When he saw me flat, he drifted back in the field thinking he could help me move up when I got back in. Thankfully, I didn't have to start at the back, but it pretty much destroyed his race because the accordion effect was just insane at the back of the field. Extremely smart racing though. It's the little things and details that all add up throughout a stage race that make a difference.
Here's the video Igda shot:

Millersburg Crit 3/4 2010 from Peter Warner on Vimeo.

And here are video's Ben Reynolds (focusedcycling.com) took with his badass helmet cam:

2010 Tour of Millersburg Criterium Cat 3/4 Part 1 from Ben Reynolds on Vimeo.

2010 Tour of Millersburg Criterium Cat 3/4 Part 2 from Ben Reynolds on Vimeo.

We had a fun dinner at Wayne's (highly recommend this place..thanks Grayson for the tip) with Jenn Rist, Igda and Emi. I even had a few beers just to relax. We got to bed rather early, but honestly, I didn't sleep all that great and woke up at 5:00 a.m. Oh well. I was amped to get this Road Race going.

Oh boy, what's this? As I went out to put the bikes on the car, it started raining. Great! Well, sort of. Seriously, I race way better in cooler weather. I suffer in the heat. The nastier the better but not necessarily with 90+ guys who haven't had any results so far and all think they can win the road race. Yikes!

I didn't really get much of a warm-up in, but the legs felt super good. I'd use the first 5-10 miles of the race to warm-up. We all wrote the numbers of the GC threats on our arms. All I needed to do was stay out of trouble and let the fellas mark any threatening moves. I could sense everyone was excited and motivated to work as a team. I casually mentioned to a few other rider's that weren't a threat in overtaking me on GC that we wouldn't chase a break as long as it didn't have any of the top 5 GC riders. All I needed to focus on was beating the top 5 guys sitting on GC to the line in order to secure the overall.

stay tuned for RR report. I'll just say now that it was a wild adventure for sure...