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.

Race Report: Berry Peddler

Last week I finally decided on a cycling team to join. I am the newest member of HUB Endurance Chattanooga. So this past weekend was going to be my debut in the team colors at the Berry Peddler road race and time trial. I wanted to do well as my first team showing but also for myself as usual. I recently found out about the BAR point series that TBRA does which basically allocates points to riders based upon finishes in sanctioned TN races. BAR stands for best area rider and the rider with the most points at the end of the year in each category gets awarded the state championship jersey for best rider. Well, I am currently in first place for the cat 4 racers so the places and points at each event I enter just became that much more important to me now that I know what is at stake.

I knew the RR would be hard since there was a Cat 2 climb 7 miles into the 32 mile race, but I wasn't sure the tactics that would be employed since the climb was so far out from the finish. I raced based on the assumption that there would be a rough regrouping of the top riders after the climb so I didn't go completely all out in the climb. I didn't hold back a whole lot either though. As soon as we hit it, one BPC rider went solo up the road. I wasn't too worried because the wheels I was watching were still close by. Climbing continued and people fell off from behind. With about a mile left in the climb, the group of five I had been climbing with started pulling away, 3 of which were on the same team. I didn't want to explode, so I just continued on in a steady fashion. The gap only grew. I finished the climb and could still see them up the road a bit. I tried to close in, but it just wasn't going to happen with who was in that break group. So I rode 17 miles alone. It was a hard, lonely 17 miles, but I kept pushing on especially once I began to see some riders up the road after being in no man's land for 14 miles. I was able to spot two riders who seemed to have popped from the 6 man break. If I could catch them, then I would be back in the running for 5th place. New goal. Well, I kept struggling to bridge the gap, and I could see a line of four riders approaching from the rear that were making up ground. Edging closer and closer, I finally put in a big effort to bridge the gap to the two riders up the road. Mentally, I knew it would be better for me to get to the front group before the back group bridged the gap and I definitely didn't want to sit up, wait for the 4 man group, and have them fly by me without me being to latch on. Once we were all together, things seemed calm. We were under 10K to go and I was rotating down the line. Once I saw that the two lead riders were on the same team and not rotating, I made my way back up to them and sat in third wheel. The pace lifted as we edged closer to the finish. When I saw the 500 meter sign, I jumped. I didn't notice an immediate reaction in my periphery, but it was hard to tell. When I saw the 200 meter sign, I stood to launch my sprint. A few revolutions in, I took a quick glance around to see if I was going to have to fight it out. Nope, I was clear. I sat up and cruised through the finish line for 5th place.

I cruised back to my car and began switching wheels to my TT bike for the time trial later in the afternoon. I was set to go at 1:40: five minutes after the women and the first cat 4 racer. I went out hard and quickly found my acceptable pain level to sustain for the 7 mile TT. Going into the turn around, I didn't quite slow down enough and missed the cones. My rear wheel eventually locked up and skidded out as I tried to correct. A little scary, but once I was up and rolling again, it seemed to be fine. I buried myself and enjoyed having the wind mostly at my back now. I really dug deep over the last 500 meters because I knew how close the race in Sparta had been. I didn't want it to be that close again, or if it was, I wanted to be on the winning side and knew that I left it all out there on the course. I came across the line in 16:24 which was a 25.7 mph average: a lot faster than I was at Sparta. Once the results were calculated, it was only good enough for 3rd place here. I was 10 seconds behind first and 7 behind second.

So, overall not my best showing, but I guess I shouldn't have been expecting too much. I've been overtrained and taking time off. I'm tapering and trying to prepare and focus all my energy and time on ITU Cross Worlds. Three days and counting. The big race is this Saturday. I've done everything I can and can only hope I have recovered and tapered properly. I will go out and race my best. The top 2 from last year's national championship will be there along with a few others. It is pretty much a preview of what nationals will be like this year except it is on my home turf and not at altitude. If I can't beat them here, then I don't belong on the start line in Utah.

Bar Standings: Cat 4