Category: E4 (47mi)
This was my third road race of the season and my first A-race for 2008. At Wente and Panoche, I got dropped in the middle of the major climbs, so my main goal here was to stay with the lead group on the climbs and be more in the mix for the final run-in for the finale. A top 20 placing was the stretch goal.
I did the two-lap recon ride with the Mice women a couple weeks ago and was really happy to discover then that the 3-4 min stage hills and 8-10 min Haskins hill matched up nicely with the length and profile of the Legion of Honor and Headlands climbs I've been doing repeats on once or twice a week since May, trying to build up power to stay with the surges. And I was feeling quite good on race day, having tapered down my midweek volume and intensity following my peak training week two weeks ago.
We had 75 starters head out in one of two Cat 4 groups, including Isaias, Seth, Tim, James, and me from Roaring Mouse. Ryan was in the B group, which also had 75 reg'd. The first prime sprint came as something of a surprise, and even though I wasn't planning on contesting, it's good to know where it is for future reference. Up popped the 200m sign just a couple miles after the moto sped up and released us from the initial neutralized promenade through town. We were barely cruising along doing easy tempo, so it didn't take someone more than a easy jump off the front to grab the $15 prime. The second time through someone was motivated enough to jump off the front and solo it from just after town.
The sprint did what it was supposed to, stringing us out a bit before we hit the Stage Rd climbs. Ben had said the Stage climb gets particularly fast, so I went to the front so I wouldn't have to cross gaps as they open. The first bump didn't seem all that hard, but the descent required moving around some guys going super slow downhill, opening gaps. The second bump was much harder, I was setting pace at the front for a while, but got to redline around halfway up and started drifting back a bit. That worked fine, as we hit the top before I ran out of pack to drift through.
I used the flat to rolling stretch on 84 to recover a bit. My legs were complaining a bit from the second climb, but felt OK by the time we got to Haskins. Isaias chase group (including Seth) coalesced after the bottom and we hammered in a rotating got on the front and set a strong tempo that strung the pack out at the foot of the climb. The pace felt pretty sustainable and I got on the front around 1/3 of the way up, but somewhere passed the halfway point there was a surge that I didn't have the legs to go with and 15 guys or so went up the road. I had a moment of disappointment thinking that I'd just lost the leaders and was out of the race, but kept trucking and hit the top at the scattered tail of one of the leading grouplets. I hammered at the crest to try to get on a wheel but basically got dropped in the top half of the descent. But a sizable paceline and saw the leaders within 5 minutes. We got caught behind a minivan that was trailing the pack, but eventually it pulled over and we were back in the mix. It got pretty slow and Seth remarked that we could have saved some energy and not worked as hard to chase. Something like 40 guys made it back in the pack by the time we got back to town and started lap 2.
The second time through the Stage Rd climbs didn't feel nearly as hard as on lap 1 (something confirmed later when I downloaded my Powertap). But the legs were starting to get tired, and I felt my calves started threatening to cramp up (again!). On the way down the back of second Stage climb, I heard a loud pop that was later confirmed to be a blowout, which caused the one crash of our race. When we hit 84, the group had been whittled down to 25 or 30, but basically sat up. Given how my legs were feeling and that Isaias was looking strong on the climbs, I decided to get to the front and work a bit with the intention of letting any more stragglers rejoin. The group didn't really follow when I tried to gradually pull the pace up, so I went off the front. Two guys bridged up and we worked for a few minutes. I sat in on one turn for a rest and the group stopped working. But mission accomplished, when the pack caught us, the pace was higher and the group was strung out. I told Isaias to sit in and Seth and I took turns with a few other guys at the front.
I was at the front heading around the corner and up the little hill into the feedzone, and realized on the hill that was basically it for my legs. I drifted right to the back, and worked enough to barely catch back on. After hitting the bottom of Haskins, it only took one big surge to pop me off. I didn't follow and just kept with a sustainable hard tempo pace. Ben was at the side of the road and shouted "Finish strong!" as I passed, which was great encouragement. I ended up catching and passing two guys on the way up. There was a little group of 3 guys who finished 100m ahead of me.
Done. Whew. Coasting down hill never felt so good. Spent the easy spin back to the start chatting with Tim (the Aussie in St. George kit, a frequent track racer) and the guys who came in 1st and 2nd. Overall, this was a tremendously fun race. It helped that the sun came out and everyone was in good spirits and hanging out at the parking area.
Results: I finished 28th. Isaias got 11th, and Seth got 22th.
I'm satisfied with the result. It was a lot more fun being (mostly) at the head of the race. It gives me some hope for doing well in upcoming road races with hills in the middle but not at the finish. I've got to figure out the calf cramps, as that's been a limiter.
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