Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Huge Slice of Humble Pie

After getting back from Memphis I went on a few warm-up rides for my 4th race in 5 weekends, the Mt. Hamilton Road Race.  Mt. Hamilton is the largest of the 3 long Bay Area climbs (Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamalpais are the other 2 long climbs).  This race was also one of the very few point to point road races.  By this I mean that we start and finish in vastly different areas as this race started in San Jose and ended 63 miles away in Livermore.  As this was the case I carpooled with a teammate to the start location and we dropped off a car at the finish line so that we didn't have to ride back after we finished the race.

The race starts with the first 19 miles mostly uphill to the top of Mt. Hamilton (it is really 3 different climbs with small gaps in between each) and from the top of Mt. Hamilton you descend the back side of the mountain where there are a few smaller climbs before the mostly downhill finish into Livermore.  That may not sound that bad but I can assure that it is.  Our race started with a neutral roll-out before the police motorcycle pulled away and the racing started in earnest.  The pace immediately quickened as the best climbers put the pressure on the field.  I quickly realized that I would be in some trouble if I couldn't stay with the field to the top of Mt. Hamilton.

Talking with my teammate before this race it seemed that the best strategy was to make sure that you get to the bottom of Mt. Hamilton with at least a few other riders as it would be a very long ride to the finish line without anyone else to help with the workload in the wind.  The following thoughts crossed my mind as I watched the main field charge away up the road and out of sight after only the first 30 minutes of racing.  My first thought was pure frustration mixed with a few choice words for the riders who were setting such a high pace so early in the race.  The second thought was whether I was going to stick this race out and finish it or head back to the car as it was considerably closer than it would be for many hours.  Luckily the turnaround impulse didn't last very long as I had already made a commitment to finish every race that I started this year.  The last thought was that I now needed to figure out how to start the long process of finishing this race with as much dignity as possible.

I now had 55+ miles to go and still a bunch of climbing before I even reached the top of Mt. Hamilton. Luckily I had realized quite early that I wasn't going to be strong enough to stay with the real climbers in the field and therefore I had backed off to a pace that I could maintain.  As riders from the main field blew up from the hard effort I began to catch them and convince them to stay together to make our last 50 miles as efficient and fast as possible.  My group that had originally started with about 3 riders now grew to about a dozen as we started the last push to the top of Mt. Hamilton.

A quick note about riding in a group and pacing.  One of the lessons that you learn from riding in a group is how to properly pace your effort when you are riding at the front of a field.  Riders usually take turns at the front of the field and everyone has the natural tendency to ride faster once they get to the front.  This can cause major problems for the rest of the group as everyone speeds up to catch the excited rider on the front and can cause the feeling of doing interval training (not good in a long race).  Our group had a few excited riders during our climb and I had done my best to verbally calm down these guys as it would be easiest to maintain a pace up the climb instead of constant accelerations.  We had one rider in our pack who just couldn't help himself and every time he would go to the front he would increase the pace and it was causing problems for the rest of the group.  I started to pick up on this and each time he went to the front I would speed up and go in front of him and slow down to our normal pace, effectively blocking him and allowing everyone else to catch up.  He eventually went off the front and not surprising our constant pace eventually caught his over-zealous acceleration (tortoise and the hare anyone).  One last note about this, I wouldn't normally care about pacemaking in the group as this is a race and I am all for using any advantage within the rules to beat your opponents but in the scenario we were in it was quite obviously better for our group to keep as many members as possible and to stay consistent with the pace (we still had too much of the course left to start racing each other).

We crested the top of Mt. Hamilton with a group of about 15 and began the very sketchy descent of the backside.  I had spent most of the climb on the front setting the pace and I definitely wanted to be in the front on the descent as I am typically faster than others at descending and I didn't want anyone getting in the way or causing problems.  I took the descent pretty easy as I knew there were some very tight turns and it was pretty steep.  After seeing a downed rider getting medical attention and blood covering his face I knew that it wasn't worth it to race down the descent.  By the bottom I had still caught a group in front of me and dropped all of my original group.  We formed up and began the pacemaking but it became apparent once more that I wasn't going to be able to hold the pace.  I dropped off the back of this pack and waited to be joined by the next pack.

I still had over 30 miles to go and I wasn't feeling very hot about my chances.  The next pack that I was waiting for never really formed up and I learned later at the finish that after I had left the group on the descent they stopped communicating and the group quickly broke up as they began racing each other.  I was passed by many other riders from different fields (and probably my own) on the lonely road to the finish as I rode solo for the rest of the race.  With a few miles to go I decided that I should give it my all to finish as strong as possible.

By this time I need to explain another unique phenomenon of road races.  We start staggered with about a 10 minute gap between each field (generally the faster fields start early to reduce overlap).  Inevitably the fields start to catch others on the road but the rules state that you aren't allowed to draft off of riders in other fields (essentially you should only race those in your field and don't gain an advantage from others in a different field).  This can be hard to do with so many riders scattered across a 63 mile course but it is basically up to each rider to follow this rule.  As I was pushing hard to finish strong I passed a rider in a different field and he decided that he was going to hitch a ride on my back wheel to the finish line.

Not only was I tired and in pain but I was now getting angry as another rider was going to try and gain an advantage off of me.  The course started to descend gently towards the finish line and I was fuming when I realized I was dragging someone with me.  I started hammering the pace out of every corner and carrying huge speed thru each corner; I wasn't going to let anyone follow me to the finish line.  After about 2 minutes of really hard riding I had dropped the other rider and finished the race on my own terms.  I certainly didn't need to drop the other rider as we weren't racing for anything but I was angry and wasn't going to let it happen (I used the excuse in my head that at least I was racing for dignity).

After 3 hours and 40 minutes of constant riding I finished the race and as I tried to lift my leg over the top tube and get off the bike my right quad cramped up on me (insult to injury).  I had consumed 3 water bottles (picked one up on the course), 3 gel packs and 2 honey waffles.  I finished in 43rd place out of 57 total.  The official verdict is that I was crushed and completely unprepared to race 63 miles with that much climbing.  I gutted it out to the finish line but unless I improve my stamina I will never be competitive in road races and will get stuck racing crits around industrial complexes. (back to the drawing board when it comes to my training regimen)

After the race we went to my teammates house, showered up and picked up my truck from the start line.  I then went and packed up my motorcycle as I was headed up to Thunderhill Raceway for two days at the racetrack (more on this in my next blog post).  Stay tuned.


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