Today was an interesting race and the two heroes from our team were Ken and Ben (pictured, left to right). The course was a lot like the Slammer race a few weeks ago; mostly flat with only a couple rollers and a little bit of wind. I was all ready to have a great race and used my super-light race bike, sans power meter. But ever since doing those VO2’s on that windy Wednesday my throat has been sore. I didn’t know if it was just a physical irritation or I actually had a cold. This morning I felt a bit run-down, leading me to believe the latter was the case.
We fielded another good-sized squad with Ben, Ken, Hugo, Kelsey, Ted and me. Of course, Bob’s was present and they had a huge squad of 9 riders! We started late so I pretty much lost any benefit from my warm-up. We headed out and at the top of the small rise only 1km into the race, I stood up and my legs felt so good that I decided to do a suicide solo breakaway! I figured, if I really was sick, I might as well spend my energy early and that way my teammates wouldn’t have to do any work. If I wasn’t sick and I got caught, I thought I have been training so well that surely I’ll have plenty of energy to go again later in the race. Yeah right!
The pack let me go as I got into a nice, low position and started to put the power down. I quickly got a decent-sized gap and was loving the speed at the time. On my race bike I have a bite more aero position and I was riding my deep-section LEW wheels. I also think I had a slight tail-/cross-wind so I was cranking along 28-29mph! I kept looking back and after about 15 minutes the gap was fairly big. But from that point on, the gap slowly decreased and once I made the turn onto Cloverdale, I could tell that they were going to catch me soon. They finally did but I did manage to stay out there for 35 minutes! I did ease up the few minutes before being caught, but until then it was a solid 30-minute time trial effort. Too bad I didn’t have my power meter!
So then I settled into the front of the group, but only a few minutes later, I hear a “snap!”. I just broke a spoke on my rear wheel! I raised my arm to alert the pack and quickly dropped back so I could get a wheel change. Ben dropped back with me, so he could help pull me back up to the pack. Jonathan was driving the wheel truck and he quickly found my wheel, which wasn’t hard since it was the only one with an orange tire! He told me that he’d help pace me up.
Ben was right there and managed to get on the truck’s bumper before I did. At that point, the truck accelerated and I had to go into chase mode to get on!? Jonathan couldn’t slow down much since Ben was right there, but Ben didn’t know I wasn’t on his wheel yet! When I finally did get on his wheel, there wasn’t much of a draft and I was pegged! It wasn’t until Jonathan pointed out that we should ride side-by-side so we’d both, get the truck’s draft! What a cluster!
It didn’t help that I wasn’t fully recovered from my solo breakaway attempt. But eventually, we got within striking distance of the pack and Ben and I made it around a couple other vehicles and reached the pack just at the turn on Poen Rd. That was an exciting first hour of racing!
So at that point, I realized that I didn’t have any top-end power and needed to just conserve the rest of the race. This wasn’t too hard to do as the Bob’s guys set a good tempo at the front. At some point Ted flatted and stopped for a wheel change while Ben dropped back again, to help. What a teammate! Unfortunately, this time it was Ted that got right on the wheel truck’s bumper, while Ben was left to fend for himself! Ted did rejoin us but Ben wasn’t able to catch back on.
The next lap was more of the same. The attacks finally started to come the last time on Swan Falls Road. The pace picked up but things were still together as we got on Kuna-Mora. Then pace really picked up when the Bob’s guys started hammering at the front. Things started to get split up as this was a crosswind section. I eventually got popped off of the front group, but I can’t remember exactly why…when my HR is pegged my memory tends to blur! All I know is Ted and Ken were ahead of me at the time.
So our group started working and I realized Kelsey was still around. Hugo had broken a spoke and dropped back for a wheel, but with the pace the way it was, he never caught back on. As our little group started rotating, we also picked up Ted who got dropped off the front. At least Kenny was still up the road!
Ted, Kelsey and I then rotated as best we could with a couple other non-Bob’s riders. But we weren’t making any progress on the group in front of us and so it looked like we were racing for around 9th place again. So with a couple miles to go, I eased up waiting for the attacks from the Bob’s guys who sitting on our wheels. They finally came and Ted and I tried to respond as best we could.
Eventually one of them got a gap, so after a Bode rider took a great pull from 1km to go, I pulled through and noticed Ted was on my wheel. So I dug really hard and tried to give Ted a good leadout. My legs were hurting—just a few minutes ago I was ditching pulls—but now I realized I had to give it my all! So I gave out a big growl and hoped Ted would slingshot off of me and catch that Bob’s rider. Well, he didn’t and some other riders came around me, so I ended up having to stand up and sprint myself so I wouldn’t lose any more placings. Ted later told me he wasn’t sure I wanted him to come around. He kind of thought I yelled because I didn’t want him to beat me?! So a little mis-communication there!
So I ended up 12th with Ted in 14th. Kenny, who was up the road, managed a respectable 7th place! Overall it was a better race as far as teamwork went, but I was still lacking in the power department. Not sure if it was the 30-minute solo effort or the fact that I wasn’t feeling 100% at the start, that hurt my performance. That’s not to say I didn’t give it my all…I did! If anything, it was a great training race and now Ted knows that when I growl, it’s time for him to sprint!
Here are the results on Spondoro.com:
http://www.spondoro.com/results/BirdsOfPrey/2007/results.pdf