Walkersville 35+ 4/5 (The Good)
It's nice to know when you're coming into pretty good form. It's also nice to know that you can pretty much go into a day fresh and do with your legs what you want to do with them. Walkersville was one of those days.
The race report for Walkersville isn't anything exciting for someone to read, I suppose. We set off on the course with the 20-30 MPH winds. The folks that were out there know the headwind you were getting on the long straight road. The pack was pretty content to not race. We rolled through an excruciatingly tame first lap. We rolled back into the headwind and teammate Gould was sitting on the front at a slow tempo with the pack all behind him. I pulled through and around and yanked him off the front and let some other folks feel it.
We crested the turn at the flashing light and an unattached guy (Pete) pulled up and away, not by much - maybe 4-5 seconds. Bike Rack dude and I were cruising the front side by side joking about how right about then the rider was thinking "Maybe I can take this for 35 miles to the finish?!" Hah.. right. I closed the gap with the pack on me hanging the turn to the descent, and after having given a pretty good jump to feel out what the legs would do, I figured it was time to see what was going on.
I hit the base of the stair step climbs and jammed. By the crest of the climb I was off the front by a handful of seconds, looked over the shoulder saw three guys coming across and pedaled through the descent just hard enough to stay away but still let them get over to me without crushing it.
This is where the team took over. My guys Gus and Chris were a massive force in the pack keeping the tempo back, and a lap later we were off the front by around a minute. Pete and I did the bulk of the effort in the break, but the poor fellas that were with us were probably 50 pounds lighter and the wind was just killin them. We held the gap strong until lap 4 when it came down to 25 seconds fast.
We got on the north end of the course and Pete and I dropped our teammates on the stair-step climb. We sat up and chatted to let them back on and planned some cooperation to the finish. The plan was to give it the go on the turn out of the headwind and take it to the finish.
The situation changed a little, but the plan stayed. The pack was on us coming off the long headwind stretch and when they were 2-3 seconds off my wheel at the flashing light, I attacked again. Once again, my teammates (all two of them) did the work to make the rest happen. I crested the stair step climb with 15 seconds and a Bike Doctor guy coming across the gap. He latched on at the descent and we rolled with what we had. I was spent 500 meters from the finish and told him as much. He pushed on the front and I wheel sucked my way to the second place. 72 minutes in the break according to the power file, and a great day on the road.
OVERNIGHT REST, CARBS, PROTEIN, BED EARLY
I woke up Sunday feeling remarkably fresh. Benefits of big hours means back to back hard days aren't well.. so hard.
Tyson's Cat 4:
(The Bad) 3 laps of the Cat 4 race and we're sitting at the start/finish neutralized because people make bad decisions with good intentions. I hope the guy from HPC is okay and look forward to hearing as much.
Down side of big hours is that I've always found my legs cool down remarkably quick and take a long time to get going again. Add this to a now 30 minute Cat 4 race that was full on from the go and I suffered for this race. I ducked and dodged the fodder that got popped to get myself into the pack. I gave what I had to make up some places at the end toward the finish but found myself on the wheel of a lapped rider when the two guys in front of me went left/right to avoid him. Only took a tap of the brakes and a quick dodge left to lose momentum. They really should have pulled lapped riders with 2 to go. This little bit sucked.
Three more guys got totaled sprinting for 20th (The Ugly)
Tyson's Masters:
This race was SO drastically easier - not because of power requirements, but because it was so drastically smooth compared to the earlier 4 race that the "dreaded" Turn 3 was taken full speed. I barely had to think about having brake levers in this race.
At this point I was riding for the workout. It was a pretty stacked field so I was just riding to get the pack time. About halfway through the race I realized we'd whittled down a good chunk of the field and what I perceived as middle of the pack was now "tail end." I moved myself up and got in one good push off the front with what I thought was a bridging group to a breakaway. That came for naught and we got sucked in pretty fast.
I really felt like I was opening up at about 50 minutes into the 60 minute race and that sucks. I need to find ways to get that 50 minutes of warm-up in pre-race without burning matches I'll need for the race. The reality of MABRA racing is 60 minute races, and I have to be able to show up at minute 1 ready to roll.
Free advice from the successful taken gladly. Doubled up racing for Syn-Fit and Carl Dolan in two weeks. In between I'm going to take some serious Tyson's frustration out on the bike and roads (and companions at Wakefield).
Cheers,
VW
It's nice to know when you're coming into pretty good form. It's also nice to know that you can pretty much go into a day fresh and do with your legs what you want to do with them. Walkersville was one of those days.
The race report for Walkersville isn't anything exciting for someone to read, I suppose. We set off on the course with the 20-30 MPH winds. The folks that were out there know the headwind you were getting on the long straight road. The pack was pretty content to not race. We rolled through an excruciatingly tame first lap. We rolled back into the headwind and teammate Gould was sitting on the front at a slow tempo with the pack all behind him. I pulled through and around and yanked him off the front and let some other folks feel it.
We crested the turn at the flashing light and an unattached guy (Pete) pulled up and away, not by much - maybe 4-5 seconds. Bike Rack dude and I were cruising the front side by side joking about how right about then the rider was thinking "Maybe I can take this for 35 miles to the finish?!" Hah.. right. I closed the gap with the pack on me hanging the turn to the descent, and after having given a pretty good jump to feel out what the legs would do, I figured it was time to see what was going on.
I hit the base of the stair step climbs and jammed. By the crest of the climb I was off the front by a handful of seconds, looked over the shoulder saw three guys coming across and pedaled through the descent just hard enough to stay away but still let them get over to me without crushing it.
This is where the team took over. My guys Gus and Chris were a massive force in the pack keeping the tempo back, and a lap later we were off the front by around a minute. Pete and I did the bulk of the effort in the break, but the poor fellas that were with us were probably 50 pounds lighter and the wind was just killin them. We held the gap strong until lap 4 when it came down to 25 seconds fast.
We got on the north end of the course and Pete and I dropped our teammates on the stair-step climb. We sat up and chatted to let them back on and planned some cooperation to the finish. The plan was to give it the go on the turn out of the headwind and take it to the finish.
The situation changed a little, but the plan stayed. The pack was on us coming off the long headwind stretch and when they were 2-3 seconds off my wheel at the flashing light, I attacked again. Once again, my teammates (all two of them) did the work to make the rest happen. I crested the stair step climb with 15 seconds and a Bike Doctor guy coming across the gap. He latched on at the descent and we rolled with what we had. I was spent 500 meters from the finish and told him as much. He pushed on the front and I wheel sucked my way to the second place. 72 minutes in the break according to the power file, and a great day on the road.
OVERNIGHT REST, CARBS, PROTEIN, BED EARLY
I woke up Sunday feeling remarkably fresh. Benefits of big hours means back to back hard days aren't well.. so hard.
Tyson's Cat 4:
(The Bad) 3 laps of the Cat 4 race and we're sitting at the start/finish neutralized because people make bad decisions with good intentions. I hope the guy from HPC is okay and look forward to hearing as much.
Down side of big hours is that I've always found my legs cool down remarkably quick and take a long time to get going again. Add this to a now 30 minute Cat 4 race that was full on from the go and I suffered for this race. I ducked and dodged the fodder that got popped to get myself into the pack. I gave what I had to make up some places at the end toward the finish but found myself on the wheel of a lapped rider when the two guys in front of me went left/right to avoid him. Only took a tap of the brakes and a quick dodge left to lose momentum. They really should have pulled lapped riders with 2 to go. This little bit sucked.
Three more guys got totaled sprinting for 20th (The Ugly)
Tyson's Masters:
This race was SO drastically easier - not because of power requirements, but because it was so drastically smooth compared to the earlier 4 race that the "dreaded" Turn 3 was taken full speed. I barely had to think about having brake levers in this race.
At this point I was riding for the workout. It was a pretty stacked field so I was just riding to get the pack time. About halfway through the race I realized we'd whittled down a good chunk of the field and what I perceived as middle of the pack was now "tail end." I moved myself up and got in one good push off the front with what I thought was a bridging group to a breakaway. That came for naught and we got sucked in pretty fast.
I really felt like I was opening up at about 50 minutes into the 60 minute race and that sucks. I need to find ways to get that 50 minutes of warm-up in pre-race without burning matches I'll need for the race. The reality of MABRA racing is 60 minute races, and I have to be able to show up at minute 1 ready to roll.
Free advice from the successful taken gladly. Doubled up racing for Syn-Fit and Carl Dolan in two weeks. In between I'm going to take some serious Tyson's frustration out on the bike and roads (and companions at Wakefield).
Cheers,
VW
on April 6, 2009, 5:07 pm
Pete
Reply to this comment