First, Tour de Millersburg is a fabulous event. It has almost everything you could want out of a PA stage race. The only challenge to the weekend was finding a hotel nearby to stay in. The race organizers did enlist the help of the locals in their “Adopt-a-racer” program, but I’m thinking I was going to have a hard time finding a family to put up me, my wife, and four kids.
The volunteers were fantastic. The community really made me feel - as a racer - like I was wanted there. Most races I go to, I get the feeling from the community that they’re doing us a favor (which they are). Millersburg folk make you feel like you’re doing them a favor (which.. well - we are. It’s called $$ for businesses)
If my impending 2010 move happens late enough in the summer - or keeps me close enough for the drive, I’d be anxious to go do this race again. This absolutely is one of the best races I’ve done all year, even if it didn’t pan out like I wanted it to. And with that.. the race reports.
Stage 1, TT:
I like the TT first format. It gives a good change to the weekend’s tactics. I was so stoked for this TT. I drove the course the night before and it lived up to its “flat and fast” advertisement. I fixed some things on the TT position last week that changed the leg sensations a lot, and I was really looking forward to putting some race proof to it.
I flatted - front wheel puncture - 4 minutes into the TT. I rode the snot out of the clincher front until I couldn’t any more without jeopardizing bike, carbon rim and myself on the busy road. Suckage.
Stage 2, Crit:
This crit course rocks. It’s like tabata intervals in a race. You climb for a minute and 10-15 seconds, and descend for a minute or just over through the turns.
Going into the crit, we were sitting 1st and 3rd on GC. So, my task was to keep attacks down and deliver my guys to the descent on the last lap. After we hit the descent on the first lap, I rolled to the front and started moving the pace. The word from previous years was “this always comes back together on the descents.” My mission was to not let that happen.
For the first 8 laps I kept the pace hot on the climb, letting the pack stay within spitting distance of me so they kept their tempo up and then stay on the front for the descent to get my own line through the turns and back to the hill. Carnage ensued immediately on lap 2, and by lap 7-8 we were a seriously smaller field than the 52 starters. Post-race video shows us down to ~20-21 riders. (Thanks to Igda for taping and Pete for editing!)
Tour de Millersburg 3/4 criterium 08/15/2009 from Peter Warner on Vimeo.
The rest of the race was keeping attacks from happening. I certainly got my share of dirty looks from riders when I got on their wheel trying to get away. A couple guys got some distance and looked for me to work, but unless they were going to drag me 15-20 seconds away from the field, I needed to be prepared to get Pete to the front at the end. As a guy who relishes in some seriously suicidal break attempts, it took some serious restraint staying back. For the guys that looked at me to pull through, sorry guys - but for another day or a day I don’t puncture on the TT.
The final solo attack attempt lasted until the base of the final lap’s climb, and we were hauling up that hill. I gave everything I had to get Pete to the top in position in the pack and made it about 3/4 of the way up before hollering to the field “I’m blown” and dropping anchor. I had barely enough to latch on near the tail end of the “peloton” and finish in… well.. not DFL - because I was 18th of 52 starters. I was, however, the last guy of the finishing field.
If you’ve never pummeled yourself for the sole intent of making others suffer and the defense of your teammate’s position, you should try it. It was way fun.
Stage 3, Road Race
I woke up with good legs, and happy for it. I recovered well from an excruciating crit and planned to find the right break and make it stick. Word on the course was “nothing ever stays away.” But, I was sure we could get the right people in the break with the GC standings the way they were and get something away.
I knew Lance Anderson/Bike Rack was feeling good (we dropped him in the crit yesterday – which came down to cornering skills). Racing Lancaster two weeks ago was a huge plus because some of the faces of the strong riders I recognized.
We rolled out of the “neutral” start and got a move on. A little bit of little stuff got going and when Anderson went, I went across. We had a group of 5 or 6 at one point early in the first lap but the pack was still too fresh and the leash was very short. Too many people don’t get the notion of committing to the break. It takes a long time to break the will of the peloton. They’re going to stay in sight for a while. Just put your head down and stinking work.
We settled back and waited for the next chance. I lost count of the number of break attempts that tried to get started, and to be honest – I was burning matches with a quickness.
Early in the second lap, we managed to get Pete into what I thought would be the break that stuck when he had a break of 7-8 guys going. Each team was represented and we started working to slow the pace of the peloton. We got the break numbers up to 10 (all solo representation) and I thought for sure this had legs. Unfortunately, some of the teams started getting greedy and tried to get two guys up into the break and that caused a sizeable chase again, and that break came back fast.
Second lap coming to a close and Gould moved up the road when Lance Anderson rolled off the front to join an existing two up break attempt. Anderson’s climbing put Gould over the limit coming back into town though and we caught him back. Now Lance Anderson was off the front with 2 others heading into the start of lap 3. When we came out of the town for lap 3, I got the sense the pack was going to let this thing stick, so I took off to make chase. They let me go and I started to bury myself to make the break. On the rollers I saw the break kinda peeling apart – one of the riders was going backwards already. I debated sitting up then. But this video was coming to mind: (Particularly from 1 min 20 sec -> 2 min 10 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UncELpyKQLU
My body was saying “I must quit now!” But my mind said, “No, no body! You must keep going.” So push on I did. I made the bridge and after a couple rotations sitting on to recover, we got moving. We were well out of sight of the peloton and I thought for sure we were good. Rider #3 was skipping rotations really often. I assumed he was just suffering cause we were working hard. I was in some serious hurt and yesterday’s crit started to catch up.
Coming back to the flat, long stretch back to town the pack was coming back to us. I gave Lance Anderson the nod and we sat up. As soon as we did, Rider #3 jumped to attack. Uhh… dude? Teammate Flanagan was coming across fast, so they went up the road. Reality was that they were never going to get more than 5-10 seconds now. The pack moves too fast on that road. You need a good minute or so from the turn onto the main road to make it to the finish ahead of the chase.
If it hadn’t been Flanagan in the new 2-up break, I would have shut that friggin attack down fast. Had that knucklehead been rotating through with us with that kind of energy, there’s no telling if we could have made the break stick to the end – but it sure as heck woulda had a better chance than the two-man effort Anderson and I were putting out. (*rant over*)
We did catch them as the pack “rolled” through the hills and they were working hard. They came through the pack fast and I tossed the comment over to Rider #3 “Maybe you shoulda worked harder earlier, eh?” I mighta thrown an expletive in there – I don’t really remember. I was pretty ticked off at such a bone-headed move.
From there it was basically a pack chase to a 1 man solo attempt that was doomed to failure. They let him dangle till the climb back into town and we ate him up fast there. We started the descent into the right turn into town and guys were getting all sorts of crazy, so with blasted legs, I sat up and grabbed the tail end of the peloton.
End of the weekend:
This was not how I planned the weekend! My legs are blasted and this was the first race of the year that I had my wife drive most of the way home from. I’m toast.
Church Creek is my TT redemption next week, with a little Wakefield angst in between. This will be a recovery week of sorts because I can feel some crazy exhaustion setting in.
