Race Report: State Time Trial and MOAB Crit

I just got flat out beat in the time trial. Hicks is a strong rider and a very fast time-trialist. However, given better conditions, I think I would have put up a much better fight to make the race closer. I never got into a comfortable position on the bike. Early on my head and shoulders felt very heavy and were a strain on my arms just to hold my body upright. I should have spent more time on the TT bike to make sure I had my position dialed in. I hadn’t been on it for over 20 minutes since preparing for a road tri last April. I also forgot to grease up and the new skinsuit and I did not mesh very well at the saddle interface. Let’s just say I’m a little scabbed over currently. That aside, I’m still disappointed in my legs. I’m not sure if I never recovered from ITU or I was just really having a bad day, but my legs felt like junk for most of the ride. I assessed my form a few times on the course and I couldn’t pin down what my limiting factor was. My legs weren’t burning and screaming at me to stop, but I also wasn’t panting for air. They just didn’t show up ready to go when I hit it at the start line. I finally got into some rhythm over the last 10K. All the hills were gone and I was motoring. I would estimate I averaged 28 mph over those last 6 miles. I’m glad I pushed hard and thought I still had some chance of winning because if not, I would have been way down in the standings incurring no points.

Sunday I’d be given another chance for success. The Cat 4 start time was 12:35. It was going to be a hot day with a course completely in the sun. I did a little warm up on some back roads while the 3’s were still racing and only got one lap in before we were lining up for our start. The field was looking big. A lot bigger than the online registration was showing. I was starting towards the back of the pack and had no buddies in the race with me. I remained calm and new I would be able to make my way up. That ended up being the motto for the whole race: remain calm and wait. I gradually moved forward and was quickly sitting in the top 10 wheels and stayed there for most of the race with a good time spent as 4^th wheel. Harpeth cycling put in a good amount of work and did a good job protecting their rider Will Montgomery. I never could figure out what BPC was trying to do. They would send one guy off the front but never more than 100 meters. And every time we came to the 120° turn before the slight uphill, one of their guys would charge to the front which would lead to us bringing the front guy back on the incline every time. I guess the charging guy might have been trying to get to the front and slow the peloton down, but that sure wasn’t working. We immediately engulfed him and pulled everything back together. Going into 2 laps to go, I decided it was time to shift up to the big ring and get ready to do some work. I edged forward still trying to save as much as I could but by this time we were booking it around the course. 

(So to explain the course, the 120° turn led to 150 meters of flat road before a slight rise in the road 100 meters long, then a 90° left hand turn that bottle necked the riders before the open 100 meter flat straight to the finish.)

Approaching the rise, I was sitting 4^th wheel with two Harpeth guys in front of me. As we reached the top and started through the curve, Will jumped off the front and several others went to the right of me and one guy to my left. I waited until I was completely through the corner before I really started mashing on the pedals. Will’s early jump gave him a big lead once we were in the finish line straight and it didn't seem like I would be able to catch him. I still saw two maybe three guys to my right that were in front of me. I continued my sprint but couldn't really tell where the finish line was with the white lines from the intersection on the ground. I was gaining on the Nashville Cyclist guy and began overtaking him in the last 20 meters. Ten meters out we made contact. I pulled off, gave my last kick, and lunged for the line. Steven, the Nashville Cyclist guy, lost control and crossed the finish line in 3^rd in midair before he slammed into the ground and slid for several meters. As the rest of the group came flying in, Marco didn’t manage to change course and t-boned Steven in the back and flipped over his bike landing on his head. Crazy crashes and finish in Murfreesboro.  

At the line, I think I had pulled Will back to only a bike length from me. I know I am faster than him and I hate that I lost to him again. This is the second time it’s happened because he made the same early move at Aaron Shafer Road Race for the win leaving me with second. I have to trust my legs more, go early, and go hard. I’ll be doing some practice work before the crit state championships. That race is mine. 

Now it's time to rest. Legs need to recover and this upcoming weekend is the only race with an HC (hors categorie, beyond categorization) climb finish on the east coast. The Roan Groan finishes with a 9.5 mile climb at an average 6.4% gradient with 4639 feet of climbing in the race. 

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

I See Cardinals

I really didn’t want to admit it, but I think I have to face the facts and accept it. I am overtrained and my peak workouts for ITU Worlds are getting thrown completely out the window. Recently, I’ve been getting fatigued a little too early in my workouts, I’ve noticed lactic acid building up earlier in my efforts, and my heart rate has been about 15 bpm lower than normal during my intervals. This is one of the things all athletes fear, especially right before their biggest race of the year. This news sits right alongside stress fractures and, for me, ACL tears. I had this week off school too, so I had the extra time to put in the extra efforts. Well, now those efforts would only hurt me and set me back even more. My body needs to recover and rebuild. My progress and fitness for Worlds is already determined and I can’t gain any more. I just have to hope that I’ve put in enough, I fully recuperate for the race, and everything goes as well as possible.

However, some hope hangs on previous articles I’ve read about people experiencing injuries or different travel complications that required them to take off a complete week before marathons or other big races. Surprisingly, some of them set PR’s and raced extremely well. Often we forget how important and beneficial rest is. I can only hope that the results for me will be similar and my legs show up ready to race in Alabama on May 19^th. Until then I guess I just have to design a 16 day taper for an Olympic distance off-road triathlon. If it doesn’t go well at least it will be an experience of a lifetime. And I’ll have the Time Trial State Championship to race in the following week. Man that will be an hour of hell: 40 kilometers to push yourself into the pain and sustain it all alone on an out and back course. Should be fun.

Even when I combine this with all the previous bad luck I had with my bike and equipment, I still have faith in what I’m doing. I still believe in my training and my racing. Either the southeast TN region has the highest population of beautiful male cardinals I have ever lived in, or God is definitely on my side telling me everything is going to work out and be all right. I couldn’t imagine trying to count all the cardinals I’ve seen over this semester on my rides and runs. I’ve used them as a sign from God ever since my old Pastor preached about it one Sunday many years ago. It seems to still be working, so why question it.

Also, I won the Sparta time trial and took second in the road race with only biking twice a week. School takes up a ton of time and then multisport training limits me even more. It scares me to think what I could accomplish if I devoted all my focus to road racing. I’m also in the search for a cycling team. I’m trying to decide between two different teams: one local and one in Knoxville. It’s a tough decision because both offer great, but very different benefits. This will be the first team I’m really a part of too. Furthermore, once I looked back at the Xterra Ft. Yargo results, I should try to not be too tough on myself. The times say I ran a 7:17 average mile for the 5 mile run at the end of the race. That’s great for me especially compared to last year. Those results would satisfy my goals and aspirations for Worlds. Maybe everything will work out.

On another note, if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations on recovering and tapering for the upcoming race now that I’m 14 days out, I’d be thrilled to hear from you.