Day 62: First Test

At long last...a race report!

I have been really motivated to get the race season underway ever since my first block of training back after last season. 2011 was a huge learning and building year for me, and I finished the season with consistently stronger results with each race. With some new direction and lots of motivation to see where I can take things in 2012 I have been impatiently waiting for an event to kick things off for this year.

So the first little test, or "cobweb scraper" as Coach James would say, was the Good Friday Road Race yesterday in Hamilton. After some positive feedback on my cycling fitness from the Coach Chris team, I was excited to race for them and see how my roadie legs would fare. I have been doing 100% time trial training, for a hard 90k in the aerobars, so I wasn't sure how my legs would respond to the constant power spikes of a road race. But I figured if nothing else was working I could just go solo off the front and probably TT faster than the entire field.

With the race being so close to Hamilton, Amanda and I drove up the night before and had a fun relaxing night in her apartment. I'm really lucky to have someone who completely understands where my head is at both with training and racing, and helps keep me stress free. When race morning came around the only thing I was nervous about was the weather. Clear and sunny skies but -1 on the start line.

I have made a very conscious and dedicated effort to AVOID riding in temperatures like that this year, and have done about 90% of my riding indoors on a trainer - without a fan - to get my body ready for the intense heat of St Croix...it's the only way I can even attempt to prep in Canadian spring weather. So I wasn't sure how my legs would respond, since -1 probably felt more like -15 to me...and I didn't want to sacrifice any bit of the heat acclimation I have been so diligent with.

So, on went the base layer, bib shorts, wool socks, winter tights, second pair of socks, winter jacket, wind vest, jersey, two pairs of gloves, shoe covers, skull cap...and I was ready to go! Even if it warmed up through the race I would rather be sweating than shivering at the start line. But to my astonshment there were guys on the start line in shorts and a jersey, of course shaking uncontrollably...while I was toasty warm.

Before the start I hooked up with a couple other Coach Chris riders and another guy, Anthony, who was from another team but had just come back from Chris' camp and was looking for allies to work with up front. As soon as the gun went off I went straight to the front, where Anthony and I set the pace and controlled things. Between the two of us we did probably 75% of the work over the 56km.

Things were pretty tactical as one team of 4 or 5 guys would always launch one guy over the series of rollers on the back half of the course. I wanted to instigate a breakaway before the hills, but I knew that I needed to watch for him as soon as things went up, as he was also a really strong guy. So Anthony and I would sit on the front and string things out for about 10k before the hill section, and as the attacks went I would put just enough work in to slide towards the back while everyone else covered the accellerations (start at the front, end up at the back = less energy spent) then work my way back up to the front on the flats. Between the few of us who were on the front most of the way, we must have been riding pretty hard as we overtook the M3 group about 20 minutes into our race...who started 5 minutes ahead of us, and our Cat 4 race of 45 guys was one of the fastest races all day, and one of the smallest fields.

By the last lap it was pretty clear that the group was motivated enough not to let any breaks get away, and with the attacks coming on every uphill I just sat up front and played the balancing act of keeping the pace high and conserving energy whenever possible. There were some big moves from a few strong riders on the last set of hills but everyone came together for the flat and downwind final stretch to the finish. I got caught out a little trying to stay out of the wind and found myself about 20 riders back with 4-5k to go. I tried for a while to sneak up either side but no one was budging, so with about 2k left I just started forcing my way up the middle.

There was one final turn about 300m from the finish, and as we made the turn I saw that things had strung out a lot more than I had realized. I was in about 10th place and there were guys already 50-100m up the road...I think a group of three including my old PTC buddy Derek Snider sprinted right out of the corner. So I had no choice but to start my sprint from way out. My finish was the fastest out of everyone as I passed the 6 or 7 guys ahead of me, and saw that 3rd place was not out of reach. I caught Derek who was fading after his early sprint at about 100m to go, sat on his wheel for a second and gave it everything I had left to just squeek into 3rd.

I would have liked to have won, and I know that I could have if it wasn't for the tactical mistake of letting myself slide too far down the group with about 10k to go. I made up 50-90m over almost everyone in the last 300, but I just wasn't in the right spot around the last turn. But I'm happy with how everything felt and it gave me a bit of a confidence boost with my best result in a road race. I felt much more comfortable than in either of my road races last year and showed myself that I can put in a lot of work up front to control the race and still finish strong. I was not quite strong enough to get away solo in a relatively strong field, so next time I will have to more delicately play the balance between putting the hurt on everyone and saving a little more for the sprint. Amanda was a lovely spectator and said that I looked like I was having a lot of fun at the front...while she was patiently shivering in the cold to watch me ride by every 20 minutes :)

Anyway its back to the TT bike, and back inside on the St Croix real course video unless its over 20 degrees outside. I am feeling very prepared on the bike already, with a few more weeks of specific race prep to battle the likes of Andy Potts on the hilly windy roads! And next week is my "run test" with my first half marathon. Its more to get an idea for pacing goals off the bike and a good long run workout, than actually caring what my time is. But I'm excited to find out...