So, Saturday the 14th a buddy and I drove to Sparta, TN for the Aaron Shafer Memorial race. The Cat 4 road race took off at 9:30. Unlike the collegiate race, I was at the start and ready to go on time. That always seems to make for a better race. The course was 40 miles with a supposed climb around mile 17/18 and then an uphill spurt about 700 meters out from the finish. I tried to race conservatively while still keeping myself up close to the front of the 55 man peloton. Approaching the climb I got into second position because I know climbing is a weakness of mine. If anyone jumped I wanted to be right there to attempt a counter and loose the least amount of ground if I started going backwards. Nothing ever happened. I think it wasn't steep enough and still too far out from the finish to launch a productive attack. Either way, I was glad. Coming over the top I went off the front because I was tired of using my breaks sitting behind slow people in the group. Those break pads aren't cheap! So I coasted down the hill without ever pedaling and put a pretty good gap on me and the field. It wasn't an attack, but it was interesting to see how much faster I roll than everyone else. Nothing exciting really happened for the next 15 miles or so. I didn't know what the run into the finish was going to look like, but I knew we were approaching. Once again I tried to position myself right in the front of the group. I ended up making it a double pace line and stayed right in 3/4 position going under 5K to go. Now I was just waiting for this slight uphill that was supposed to signify the last 700 meters. I didn't see it coming, but I did see the two guys in front of me launch an attack as we came to it. I knew I had to go with it, so I threw down the hammer and jumped on the back guy. I realized we were on the climb and I began looking for the pavement to change colors which would signify completion of the climb and when I was planning on launching my attack. Well it came and I easily moved past the guy in second, but the lead rider had built up a good little distance. I made some advances on him, but I was out of gears when I stood up to sprint. Looking back I'm not sure if I was all the way down in 53-11 or not. I closed the gap to about 10 meters, so I settled for second place. The locally hand-crafted mug and $95 made it a little better. I do wish I had been the winner in the tent autographing all the posters though.
A little relaxing, some food, and wheel changing on the side of the road and it was time for the afternoon time trial. I made sure to get a warm-up on the trainer and make it to the start ramp on time. (Once again, both are improvements over the Dalton State Collegiate Race.) I took off hard on the TT, soaring into the first turn laid out on the bars. Quickly, I noticed I wasn't going to make it. The turn was sharper and descended more than I remember. I sat up and started to grab some break just narrowly missing the ditch on the opposite side of the road. Now that was scary. I'm just thankful there wasn't a car coming towards me in the other lane. After I calmed down from that, I tried to get back on pace and to racing. Quickly my throat became dry and I was hurting. I kept pushing and taking the inside line on every turn possible. I caught my 30 second guy before I went into the turn around. Half-way back on the out and back course, I caught my 1 minute guy. Approaching the base of the climb to the finish, I caught the 1:30 guy. I was hurting and didn't feel like I was doing that awesome, but passing these guys was telling me differently. I came into the home stretch exhausted and focusing all my attention on proper pedal stroke and not dropping my head. It paid off. I won the time trial by less than one second. I'll throw that in all the faces of the people that criticize us for shaving our legs, wearing teardrop aero helmets, and riding on expensive aerodynamic wheels.
Overall, I was happy with my performance for the day. It proved to myself that my performances last year weren't just a fluke and it taught me some more things about road racing. It does make me question what I could accomplish on the road if I were riding more than just two days a week. Between school, gym time, and training for the run and swim, that's all I've had time for. Now it's time to head to Atlanta for the first Xterra race of the season and then off to Pelham for some more training on the Worlds course.
Race results can be found here.
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