I had my breakfast, loaded up the car, and headed out to find the parking area for the first race of the day. Pulling in I saw my teammate Ben which was going to be nice to get ready alongside a familiar face. Since it was wet and still drizzling a bit, I decided to scrap the carbon wheels and just put them back in the trunk. Best decision of the weekend. I changed out my brake pads and put my aluminum wheels on in the parking lot before heading out to registration to pick up my number. This is when I realized I left my wallet in my clothes bag which was back at the house. After the trip to fetch my wallet, I made my way to pick up my number and finally had it pinned on my skinsuit with about 20 minutes to race start. I dressed in a hurry, not evening changing socks due to lack of time leaving me racing in the rain with cotton socks. With 13 minutes til race time, Ben and I departed the cars and headed for the start/finish area. So much for a warm-up before a crit. About this time I was realizing my breakfast was not substantial enough and I was already getting hungry. I also didn't have my coffee or bring an energy gel for the race. Everything was just looking up for me at this point.
We waited on the sidelines as the race before us finished. The official said we had time for one practice lap before the start if we wanted. Not having warmed up or seen the course, I decided to go and ride a lap. I was the only one. Bad decision. When I came back around, I was at the very back of the pack of 50+ racers. Walking my bike, I started to move up close to Ben for a better position when all of a sudden the race had started. I couldn't hear the official up front and had no idea we were about to start. I hopped over my saddle and onto the bike. The rider to my right leaned over into me causing me to rub wheels with the guy in front of me. I saved the fall, but was unclipped and on my feet again. I hopped on my bike again and was off for the race. I looked back and there was only one racer behind me and the motor bike with a lot of ground between me and the peloton. There was going to be a lot of chasing.
I think after two laps, I was finally up into the field. Around this time, there was at least a two man crash in corner 4 as I saw two bikes fly into the air on the inside line of the corner. I was behind the crash and had to come to a standstill before we could navigate around it. I was then chasing the peloton again, this time up the hill to the finish line. Another lap down and I moved all the way up to the front for a one lap pull and to see the best route around the course. I was swarmed and started dropping back again after this, this was the very common in this race. There were definitely some sketchy racing going on and several times I got pinched in corners by some juniors who verbally responded to me announcing my presence with sheer class and safety in mind.
I had noticed one rider earlier in the race who's carbon brakes sounded like a kid's animated machine gun fire. Going into corner two, I watched as this racer would brake, front wheel would skid out an inch or two, brake, skid out again. I watched this happen 3 or 4 times in corner two before the apex when my attention was switched to the rider behind him who was now on my inside hip and going down. I could see his front wheel launching into the air and "pedal faster, pedal faster" screamed in my brain because I knew he was sliding out and would soon hit me if I didn't get out of the way quick. I made it out safely, but like any smart peloton, the front group was attacking again with a crash occurring behind them. Time to chase again.
I think with 2 laps to go I had made my way to the front again trying to make sure I was ready for the sprint. However, it didn't last long. More bunching and swarming and I was down the line again. I was really starting to count myself out of this race. I was never able to hold position up front and always got strung out in the corners. I had been having a mental fight with myself all race. On the back straight of the last lap, I told myself, "Well, this is where you find out how good you really are at finishing a race." The group was starting to spread across the entire road and I was surrounded by racers. Coming into corner 3 on the last lap, I was sitting outside top 10 but under top 15. I figured that was it for me. Every time we had come through corner 4, the race got strung out. I would have been 20 meters back from the lead rider this time with where I was sitting. That's a lot of ground to overcome, especially on the uphill finish. But, as they had done almost every time coming out of corner 4, the group went to the right side of the road. The road had a slight left curve to it 10 meters out of the corner. The left line was the shorter and better line. The line I had taken in my warm-up lap and when I led the field earlier. So, coming out of corner 4 sitting 8-10 wheels back, out of desperation I pulled off the group and darted to the left line and started spinning with all I could. Being so far back, going from the corner, at least 200 meters out, was my only option. At this point, I still wasn't thinking this was a winning move, but a move that would place me close to the leaders to make a last ditch effort as we neared the line if I still had anything left. For a minute there in the race, I was questioning whether I would make top 10 and advance to amateur finals or not. But as I launched up the left side of the road, I had at least an 8' side-to-side separation between me and field which limited their vision and their ability to grab my wheel as I came by. And I came by with force. I tried to watch out of my periphery if anyone responded and jumped out of the line as I came by. I didn't see anything. As we came up to the last rise in the road, I passed the lead guy still 75 meters or so to the finish. I started fading once the road flattened out 20 meters from the line. I was praying I was going to hang on, but still expected to see flashes of color out of my right eye. Had the finish been much longer, I would have been toast. But it wasn't. I beat all the odds that day and came away with a win. It was one crazy race.
On to the big show: Twilight Amateur Finals
This is the race I've been looking forward to all year and been afraid of for the past week and a half. When you combine the predicted rain, field of 100+, $2,000 payout, elite talent, and screaming speeds in front of 20,000 spectators, things are bound to get very intense and risky.
I lined up super early since all the advice I had been given was get there early: start position won't win you the race, but it will definitely end it in a hurry. After sitting at the line for almost 40 minutes, I found out they were going to be doing call-ups and I could have been hanging out wherever I wanted for the last hour as I was going to be recognized as a morning race winner and be given a spot on the front line (See picture above and below).
The race started and it was a sprint for corner 1. So fast. I did a pretty good job of holding my line and keeping up with the pace the first 3 laps sitting in top 6-7 wheels. At 9 minutes in, I was starting to fall down through the pack and it always seemed to be on the back side hill. I was trying to stay in the saddle, but that was the wrong move. You had to get out of the saddle and sprint up that hill if you wanted to stay with everyone. I found that out too late and was only able to implement that on my last lap with the group. I actually advanced a position on the hill when I got out of the saddle. I remember one time heading into corner 2 I flinched and was immediately scolded and made a new enemy.
Tons of screaming, fast paced racing came to an abrupt halt when around 16 minutes in a huge crash occurred in the field. It was on the front straight mid way between the Sram neutral support and corner 1. Being in the back half of the group at this time, I saw something happening in the field and soon realized it was people going over other people. I grabbed my brakes for all they were worth and still came screaming into the pile. For one quick second, the crazy thought of "Can I jump this or ride over the top of this," entered my head. Then I was flying over the handlebars crashing into half the field laying on the ground. I rolled out the far side of the pile of people and frantically started looking for my bike. In the mix of bodies and bikes it took me probably 10 seconds to find my bike. Think about that for a minute. I hopped back over the pile and pulled my bike out from under someone. I checked the rear brake and put the chain back on making sure it would spin. I hopped on the saddle and took a few pedal strokes when I saw that everyone else was running back to the pit and neutral service. So I pedaled back that way and soon found out my saddle was crooked. I got a mechanic to mostly straighten it out and I was lined back up on the edge waiting for the field to come around so I could re-enter the race. It took me a second to get going since I was behind other racers. The field was already around corner one by the time my bike was moving and I was out on course. I tried chasing back on and encouraged some other riders falling off the back to get on my wheel so we could work together, but after 2-3 more laps I was pulled. I just couldn't ever make it back on the group. That race really puts some perspective on what crit racing is like at the next level. I now have something to work for.
On another note, I was asked why I wasn't using my carbon wheels for amateur finals. My response was I like them and wanted to keep them working. I expected it to be a sketchy race. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was going over my bike Monday, I found out my front wheel had gotten eaten by a chainring. The rim had gouges in it along the brake track. I had to file it down with a drimmel and then smooth it out with some sandpaper. Another reason putting the carbon wheels back in the car was the best decision of the weekend. The second best was not racing Roswell the next day. I was in no shape to race and it was pouring rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment