I can’t believe that was only my second stage race of the year,
Pretty big field this year, + most of the local pros, Health net, Priority Health, Jittery Joe’s . BMC, Rubicon, Kelley’s, Symetrics and full teams from Bob’s and HB… so this was going to be a hard race. The opening TT was windy and nobody expected fast times, but with the talent in attendance that didn’t hold true.
It was actually only my second TT of the year, and although my time wasn’t great, I was pretty happy with my performance, I paced my self reasonable well, not starting too hard, and finishing with nothing much left, the way it was supposed to be done. I didn’t let the wind get to me at all, and I felt reasonably in control the entire 6.3 miles. Ok, so I had to be a staggering 50sec faster to be in the omnium points, not this time. The big surprise, although Svein Tuft won, there were no other Symetrics riders in the top ten.
The weather was looking ok for the crit, the sun was out for most of the afternoon. During the Cat 3 race however we had out first showers. For the women’s race next, the roads were wet and slick. Kele managed to go down on the first corner of the first lap…but got up, and was ok, although slightly embarrassed. During that race the rain came was off and on, making a lot of the 1-2 to question the point of participating in an omnium crit, why risk it, with only a small chance of scoring points.
I lowered my tire pressure, drank my coffee and weighted the decision to wear legwarmers or not, sure it was cold enough, but even a small spill would probably tear the rather expensive clothing. In a wet crit like this, and with a strong field you know it will start fast, and stay that way until the end. I managed to line up on the very important front row. Well that’s were I lined up…after a number of “pro” line ups, were you simply ride from the front, turn around and back into the first row I somehow ended up in-between the 1-2-3 row…what the! Ok I’m fine with Svein doing this move, he was leading the GC, but the entire Symetrics team…yeah I don’t think so… who do you really think you are?... it got a little old when the 15th guy tried this move. The race started fast, but I managed to get up front early. Two laps in the rain started coming down hard, it was even hard to see, corner one was flooding and gaps were opening up all over the place. I was either taking the corners too easy, or not accelerating enough out of them, but I found my self struggling for any kind of draft. My legs felt unbelievably heavy and every acceleration was painful. Pretty soon I was struggling to hang on. A few laps later I was the last guy in the front group…and then I was off…I drifted back to the second, but I could tell even this would be hard. Two laps later I pulled out, 10guys in the front split that wasn’t coming back, another 10-15 in the second… which was going to be hard to hang in with legs like this… I didn’t see the point to keep going, and crashing for no reason.
I had a good start, never felt my tires slip, but clearly didn’t have it in my legs that evening, especially when I wasn’t riding aggressively enough in the corners… at least I was alive and I didn’t actually loose any time since it was an omnium.
The road race seamed interesting with new course planed, a new loop with long unprotected straights and a section of 11% grade…should be fun… well would have been fun. As we arrive Sunday morning the decision was made to revert back to the old course, but with the finish in a new location down town…not sure how I felt about that… 5 times up the climb sure is harder then 2, especially if you are trying to hold at a pace that is above your level. At least it was dry for the start of the race, and it mostly rained at the top and during the descent, for the later laps it moved down to the lower sections also.
The first climb is usually one of the hardest, at least for me, I’m not quite good enough to climb with the fast climbers, or powerful enough hang with the power riders going full boar on the initial slopes…
I started the climb pretty much up in the first 1/3, drifted back on the first two steep sections as the pace went sky high, moved up again on the “rolling” section in the middle, as much as I could without spending too much effort, that I would need for the last part of the climb. The front of the pack was still right there!, as we started the last part… before you know it though the pack is basically single file thru the feed zone and past the old finish line… I can see the lead car lights and a slight gap between the leaders and the front of my long long group. I didn’t panic, maybe I should have… by now the rain is coming down hard, and during the descent on 410 we are going over 45mph, and with the rain, spray form the tires ahead of me, I’m busy just staying alive, not realizing that a rather large group has gone of the front, with just about all the strong riders. When we turn of 410 we all realize that the race might be over, as we learn that the lead group contains 17 riders. Morgan Schmidt missed the split and spends the next two laps chasing hard… but to no avail. I wish I could have helped but I had enough problems getting over the climb without pulling the pack around. The second and third time over were the hardest, I few times I was going so hard my arms were going numb. Each lap we would loose a few riders. The last two laps were getting cold, but at least we climbed a lot more steady and at a doable pace. The points for the omnium went 15 deep for the road race. There were originally 17 in lead pack, but you know some must have flatted, dropped out or quit, so there was a pretty big chance there were some points on the line for us. The pack now contained about 17 riders, and maybe one or two had points from the previous stage, so you knew they would be going for it.
I wanted to have a go at it, as I usually sprint pretty well after a long road race, relatively anyway. Well I didn’t have a chance. As I move though the pack, getting ready for the right turn at the bottom of 410, I hear a load bang. I look around wondering if I or somebody else hit something lying on the road. A second later I realize I spoke on my back wheel and snapped, again. That is the third race in a row, with the same wheel. It’s time to get it totally rebuilt; I can’t have this happening anymore. The wheel is way out of true, but it still turns. Since there is only about a mile to go, I decide to ride it in and limp in and finish right behind the pack, no sprint for me.
