This past weekend I raced the Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix 2/3 Omnium Stage Race. This is a prestigious event on the calendar and the City of Wilmington along with the promoter go above and beyond to pull this off in spectacular style and flare. As my friend Pete Custer said, "If there was a day to have a good day, THIS was it!" If you want to read a full Bike Doctor team report, you can check this out now: TeamBikeDoctorBlog I'll be sharing more things throughout the week as I have time.
What I'm going to try and describe right now is the emotions that you feel when you have a glorious bike racing experience. I know I won't do it justice b/c I'm doing it in bits and pieces as I have time so bear with me here.
We all race on a team. We all want to see OUR team win. Nobody remembers second on, right? Most of us train a lot with very good friends that race on other teams. At least I hope so because cycling IS a social sport. You're missing out on so much if you stay huddled up in your own "team" surroundings. You can stop reading now if that's you because nothing else I write here will make any sense.
Sure, come race day we are all competitors, but there is a ton of time spent putting in grueling rides in some crazy weather conditions, often times with our cycling friends which aren't necessarily our current teammates. It is during these times that you develop a common bond...a fondness for the suffering...a respect for the athletes you train with. Seeing friends and training partners succeed is fulfilling. It makes you proud. Heck, in a strange way their success makes you feel good even if they aren't on the same team or in the same damn race.
I came to bike racing late in life. I absolutely fell in love with it. My first team was Whole Wheel Velo. I raced with WWVC for the first two years. A great group of fellas. This is where I met Pete Custer, another former WWVC alumnus. Pete was always incredibly insightful and helpful with a maturity well beyond his age. I picked his brain often and still do to this day! Hell, I liked Pete so much and thought so highly of him, I offered him a job at my company when we needed an IT guy. It's worked out wonderful.
I've found in athletics that you can get a pretty good gauge on someones character fairly quick. Are they patient? Are they honest? How do they handle stress? How driven are they? Do they go out of their way to help others? Are they selfish? Are they a good teammate? Do they get along with other teammates? Do teammates respect him/her? Etc. Sure, having Pete around the office probably isn't the most productive thing. Somehow every conversation always ends with some tangent related to cycling, lol.
So where is all this going? Not sure, but I wanted to share a bit of background. During the Wilmington Road Race on Sunday, Pete and I shared an experience together that very few bike racers will ever be able to understand. We raced smart and both had the same intuitions for when it was time to make our moves throughout the race. The funny thing is we never even talked to each about race strategy. Obviously, we are on separate teams, but still, sometimes a wink or a casual conversation before or during the race is appropriate, especially since I didn't have teammates in the race.
When the initial break of 10 got away, as noted on the Bike Doctor blog, I was really jazzed to see Pete in the move. When we stretched the gap to the field and everyone was working hard, I started to believe this was THE winning move. When I sensed the break crumbling and mentioned to Pete that we needed to go, he knew it, too.
It has taken a little bit of time, but I think I'm just now beginning to grasp what bike racing is all about. It's not winning. It's not losing. It's the thrill of trying to "make" the race. Now I know that is a pretty vague statement b/c it can take shape in so many forms. No two races are alike. I once heard, "it's the racers that make that race." It's so true. We either choose to make the race exciting, challenging, memorable, or we don't. And as all bike racers understand, there's never a right or wrong move. Racing is unpredictable. Maybe that's why it's addictive to me?
Now fast forward to our initial attack being pulled back by our fellow breakaway companions. There was no script. Pete and I were the only one's ready to put everything on the line. All or nothing. Maybe that's what separates the winners from the losers? I don't know. But both of us realized on our own without any spoken word that we had to TRY.
I'm going to quote my teammate Jim here because he summed it up best:
"take a good lesson from Pete's tactics...if you want it...sometimes you need to grab it, shake it, make it submit and call you uncle....winning from the front is a tactic straight from the page of the Prefontaine playbook. Well done!"
Once we made our final get away, it was deja vu. Here we are, just the two of us doing what we've done hundreds of times in training trying to put the hurt on each other. The strange situation was that we now shared a common bond - we were running from a peleton of 80 really strong riders trying to catch us. We needed our collective strength to make this happen. More than a few folks commented that they didn't know we were still out there. That my friends is a demonstration of bike race tactics. It was all part of the plan. We KNEW the field would slowly reel in the break once they were in sight. There would be a pause. I was betting that most of the field had no idea how many riders were in the break anyway. I think the only one's that knew for sure there were still riders up the road were Nicholas and DJ since Pete C wasn't there.
Now let me tell you. Neither of us had a meter, but I can tell you with certainty, we put every fiber of muscle into the pedals those last 6-7 miles. It was surreal. We were LIVING something you only see on TV during a pro race. Full motorcycle escorts on wide open roads and highways. I remember rolling through a huge intersection. Cars were halted. There we are - two jackass cyclist's furiously pedaling alone with slobber running out of our mouths. I can't imagine what folks were thinking at the sight of that!!
I can't describe the feeling when I caught the first glimpse of the city's skyline. What an adrenaline rush! I KNEW we had to be close. I had forgot to start my Garmin so I thought it was 4 or 5 miles short. I was right. When we made the turn onto Market St, I swear that gradual uphill felt like Mt. Everest. Custer started drilling it. I was like damn, "ENJOY IT!" I knew we weren't going to be caught. The last time I saw the field was about 20 miles before that.
Now this is an interesting part. Some won't understand, some may. Now don't get me wrong. I would have loved to win this race. But that's not what this whole experience was about for me. It was the thrill of pulling off something spectacular. Taking first was obsolete to me at this point. This was a rare occasion for me to take great pride in seeing someone that I care more about off the bike have something special to cherish forever. Let's get one thing straight, I wasn't gifting anything here. No deals were made. Custer rode like a champion. Plus, I've sprinted with him a thousand times and don't think I've ever beat him!!! Now if it had been someone else I was with, different story.
I know this is weird, but to see him raise his arms and cross the line meant more to me than any bike race I've ever won. This was a rare occasion where I had the ability to help him succeed. It meant more than words can describe. I guess if I had a little brother, this is what it would feel like watch him spread his wings and do his thing.
I'm also really happy to see the North-Tek-Aria team doing so well this year. Nicholas and I have a great past together as well, so there's nothing more exciting than to see them having fun and getting results. Mad respect to those guys for doing things the way they are right now.
Now that the sappiness is over, here are some great pics (Thanks Jor!!!):
Approaching the finish-
The Field for leftovers
Me getting on Podium
Happy Podium
Full Podium
More to come, but that's it for the sappiness.
