What a difference a line move can make
I wasn't really excited to do the 3 Village road race today. I did the race 2 years ago (I forget why I skipped it last year). Back then it took place at the end of the racing season, and I had just earned my upgrade out of the 5s so I had lined up as a newly minted Cat 4. While I vaguely recall feeling pretty good after my first race as a 4 (I managed to finish with the pack), what stood out most in my mind after the race was the carnage that bloodied a few riders in a crash I had just barely avoided. The finish line then was on a straight-away (maybe even coming out of a slight downhill) several miles after the last serious climb.
I had assumed that the course was more or less the same today, so I figured that like last time things would likely end up in a big dangerous fast bunch sprint. I don't do very well at sprints, and I've seemingly been like a moth to a flood light when it comes to crashes, so I figured going into today's race I had to roll the dice and gamble on starting an early break and hoping for a few guys to join me, and then stay clear of the pack to the end.
I didn't like my chances with that plan as I wasn't too fresh entering today's race (lots of intervals over the last two weeks as I start building up again aiming at the end of July as my next peak), and I have yet to see a small break stay clear in a Cat 4 race in my short career. Do Cat 4 breaks ever work around here?
My whole outlook on the race changed just 30 minutes before the start of the race. As teammates Dave D and Jeff did some spinning with me to warm-up, we neared what I thought was the start/finish. With nobody in the area, I was shocked when Dave informed me that we needed to quickly head back to the start. It turns out that last year the promoter decided to move the start/finish line to a new point on the course, one that would have us ascend a decent hill on an S-turn right before the finish.
While the course was the same as it was last time, the simple change in where we'd finish completely altered my outlook on the race. I no longer feared getting caught up in a bunch sprint, and I figured my chances at doing well with a hill near the finish were dramatically better than one finishing on the flats. Now all I needed to do was to sit tight, make sure no breaks got away, and then power on up the hill at the end, and there was surely no need for me to take my chances in a break, right?
What was I thinking?
About 4 or so miles into the race, there's a short (less than a 1/4 mile?) but steep hill that usually catches a good portion of the pack by surprise. It is for most Cat 4s a small ring hill, but it seems to hit you out of now where and you end up with a lot of guys cursing as they stall on the hill fumbling around shifting frantically downward. I didn't want to get caught behind those guys, so as we approached the hill the first time through, I surged and stayed at the front. It turns out that I hit the gas harder than I had thought. Someone (maybe a buddy from CVC?) jokingly shouted something like "Hey Dennis, get back here!". I was confused as to why he said that, so I turned to see and to my surprise I found myself a good 100 yards OTF.
Rather than doing the smart thing and easing off, I tossed my revised plan to the wind and made a go of it. It turns out that I am now good enough to be fooled into thinking that I can stay away from the pack (which I did for about 3 miles or so), but I am not nearly good enough to close the deal.
Pack Position
I worked pretty hard that first lap, and then I didn't let up much as we made our way up the modest hill at the start of lap 2. I was tired but not spent, and then miraculously I regained my senses enough to realize that there was still time for me to revert back to my revised plan. From then on I found my comfy protected rest zone in the interior of the pack, and proceeded to charge up my batteries again. What an amazing difference the shelter of the pack can make -- my harebrained first lap OTF had me averaging 243 Watts, whereas at virtually the same average speed my exertion level plummeted to 153 Watts on lap #3!
One thing that I learned from my recent spate of crashes is that I can't fall too far back in the pack as I rest else you increase the risk of getting caught up in a crash. That lesson learned was burned into my memory, and it therefore came as no surprise to me when I heard some muffled scraping noises behind me mid-way through lap #3. I looked back to confirm what I already knew to be true -- a crash took out a good number of racers at the back of the main pack. From what teammates Dave J and Jeff told me ( they were caught up in the mayhem but safely avoided going down), a rider was doing some unpredictable weaving that eventually caused 10 bikes go skidding. Lot of road rash, but fortunately nothing more serious from what I heard.
Turns out though while I was resting close enough to the front to avoid the crash, I was resting too far back to make the final move for the finish. It's a shame too as I started to hear music in my head (I've noticed this happening lately when both adrenaline and a feeling of strength in my legs seem to combine at the same time) and "Possum Kingdom" by the Toadies seemed to have me ready for a spectacular finish.
As we made our way up that final hill and s-turn right before the finish, I opened things up and started picking people off. Unfortunately though each time I seemed to be gaining momentum, I had to slow down and take a new line to avoid another rider who's legs had failed them. Making matters worse for me was the fact that the yellow-line rule had to be followed right to the end, so the limited spaces for me to weave through the disintegrating pack required multiple speed-eating adjustments to the left and to the right.
As I neared the finish line I knew time had run out on me and there wasn't enough road left to pick off the final 10 or so riders ahead of me (still waiting for the official results to know just how many were ahead), but I thought I had just enough time to catch the person that Road Results lists as one of my top 5 victims (a silly name for a list of people that the website calculates as representative of the racers you most frequently finish just ahead of), former teammate & friend Don. I let out a grunt and charged to the line, but alas I was the victim this time.
Overall I'm satisfied though. A decent finish, a great work out, fun with teammates (and former teammates), and yet another lesson learned....
Final #s
- 1hr 42:17 (unofficial time from my PT, not race results)
- 40.24 miles
- 1099 kJ
- Norm Power 260
- Avg Power 179
- Max Power 910
- Avg Speed 23.4
- 12th place, same time as the winner (based upon what I counted, not official race results)
