Race Report: Berry Peddler RR & TT

If you're wondering where the race report for State TT is, it's pretty simple. It was raining. It was cold. I had to sit up and check through all 16 turns in the 19 mile race. I pushed and did what I could on that given day. It worked out for me and I won the State Time Trial Championship by almost a 1 minute margin. Nothing too exciting, it's a time trial. As soon as it was over I had to load up my car and head for Memphis to start my first rotation of the summer the next morning at 8 am.

It does feel really good to get one of these jerseys.

I viewed the time trial as the first big test of my fitness. I was going to be able to compare my times against all the cat 3's and see how well I would actually be doing if I upgraded. The next test to my fitness would come the following weekend at the Berry Peddler Road Race. This race includes a 4.6 mile cat 2 climb at 6 miles in. Last year I got dropped from the lead group with about one mile left in the climb. I then solo'ed for 17 miles on top of the mountain before catching two guys in front of me and grouping with 3 guys from behind. Anyway, I'm a big guy and I don't climb well, so this race was going to tell me how much I have actually improved.

The race started off calm as I figured. I made my way up to the front and out of trouble within the first few miles. Then the climb started. It pretty much started hurting right from the bottom. I was climbing with the top 5-6 guys for a while. We started going through the switchbacks which really hurt. By this time it was starting to rain a little bit and wheels were losing traction and spinning out in the turns. One guy spun out and dropped his chain or something because he fell over and made another guy turn horizontal and come to a stop. I had to weave way out into the other lane to get around them. I'm not saying that really caused the separation between me and the front guys, but it didn't help. Once Michaelee attacked midway up, I was pretty much on the ropes for the rest of the climb. I thought I was keeping everyone within a safe distance that I could quickly make up once we topped out, but I didn't realize when we topped out. I was watching my computer and was expecting another mile of climbing. The lead up to the climb must have been subtle and considered part of the climb. As we crested, I saw the lead guys start moving away and leaving me behind: just like last year. I tried pulling through and forming a chase group. I had 6-7 guys on my wheel, none of which were willing to help the first 6 minutes of riding on top of the mountain. I finally got some to move through and offer some help. We could still see the lead guys so I knew we should be able to bring them back. Then I found out what I was working with. One guy jumped off the front of our group. One guy was a really strong junior (he made the climb with us), but just could keep up the pace once we were on flat ground. The others were just overall disorganized, letting gaps open, and not strong enough. After about 3 miles, I dropped everyone but two VW guys. We were still holding the lead group to only a 20 second gap, but it never seemed to come down close enough. I drug these guys around the top of the mountain doing about 65% of the work in our group. I kept battling with myself if I should just drop everyone and go for the lead group or depend on them to help and relieve me every once in a while. Well, I made the wrong decision. I continued to doubt myself and continued to let the lead group stay away knowing every minute they were up the road it would be getting harder and less likely for me to pull it back. I know I have the power and should have just stood up and buried myself for 2 minutes as soon as we peaked on top of the climb and bridged to the front group. But it never happened. It was just not my race.

The lead group of 6 shelled one guy somewhere along the way. As he dropped back to us, I told him to hop on and help us bring it back. He didn't have anything left just like the other guys though. Around 7 miles left in the race, we finally gave up as I could see my average power from the chase start to drop to the low end of zone 4. At the 10k to go mark, I was on the front and would drive it in from there. No one would come around and take a pull at that point. It was pretty crappy, but smart racing on their part. I was obviously the strongest rider there and there was no reason to help me and lessen their chances of a good placing. However, as we went under the 500 meter to go mark and I could see the guys starting to spread out behind me getting ready to attack me at the line, I was a little upset. Pretty unsportsmanlike to let me drag you along for the last 20 miles and then try to sprint past me at the line. But if I was really worried, then I wouldn't have led the last 10k. As riders started to come up on each side of me and we closed in on about 150 meters to go, I stood up and laid down some strokes to create a separation so I could cruise in for 6th place. Very hard fought race and not exactly smartly executed. Props to those lead guys, especially Michaelee, for doing exactly what they needed to do to get away and stay away. They raced a very smart and hard race. I'm happy for Michaelee for taking the win.

I was able to get a little redemption from my subpar road race showing in the time trial later that afternoon. Despite a pounding headache, I think from prolonged high blood pressure, heart rate, and dehydration, I put up a solid effort in the time trial winning the cat 4 division and beating all the cat 3 times. That felt good and made the trip more worthwhile.

The road race also gave me a new 20 minute max avg, 15 minute max avg, 10 minute max avg, 45 minutes in zone 4 on top of the mountain, and followed it all up with a 1,500+ watt spike to create the finish line separation. Now back to training and rebuilding.