Minuteman Road Club

I didn’t really want to write this race report, but I need to get it out of my system, fast.

I’m a bachelor all week with the family in FLA so I decided to kill the whole day and drive 2hrs for a 1hr crit. I was going to do the Cat 3, and then most likely the P123 later in the day for bonus suffering. The course as Stefan explained is a bike specific track, flat as a pancake and very exposed to the wind. This was easily the windiest race I’ve ever done. There were maybe 50 guys lined up for 25 laps, I was hoping for a top 10 and see what happens. The race was very hard, attacks were flying left and right, which seemed stupid since the wind made it almost impossible to get away. I tried to avoid the temptation, anticipating attacks and responses and trying to stay in the top 20.
About ½ way through the field was strung out, like most of the day, when the guy in front of me let a wheel go and next thing we knew 15 strong guys had 100 meters. Not good. I bided my time but no one was closing it down, we cut the deficit enough so I attacked to get across. About halfway across I see I’m towing the whole field, but frankly I was invested so I stay on it until we connect. Many matches burned. 6 laps to go I think I’m mid pack and we are heading into the wind tunnel and I look back and there is only 1 guy behind me. Oops, burn some matches to move up. 5 laps to go I’m 4th wheel, mission accomplished. 2 laps to go and I’m focused on staying top 15, we come around to the finish straight and I move up on the right. The headwind was coming from 11 o’clock so there was “some” relief on the right, perfectly positioned. Suddenly some dipsh$t on the front left decides that was a bad spot (which it was) and violently swings off to the right, taking out the 3 guys right in front of me. I skid to a stop and somehow avoid crashing, but then 3 guys crash to the right of me and fall on my rear wheel. Dude’s jersey is caught in my rear brake. I rip to off and start sprinting with a glimmer of hope to jump on the back of the reduced field, until I notice my back wheel doesn’t want to turn. Jump off and fix brake and unskewered (word?) skewer but by then I’m screwed. Mild repair but still rubbing, limp around to finish solo when the real kick in the nuggets happens. Some dude in a kit with flames on it (I think he got it out of a cereal box) who had gotten dropped sprinted past me on the line. I have 1 word for that guy: D@*che Bag.

P123 race report you ask? No thanks I didn’t need another 30 laps of the wind tunnel.

That course looks about as simple as you can get. No excuse for Violently changing your line.

This course isn't actually that simple: 7 corners of various sharpness and a stiff wind that can significantly affect the race. It's pretty wide, though, and there are no curbs, so there's no penalty for making a mistake on your line choice (you just ride on the grass for a few seconds), so it's a great place to practice crit skills.

And I realized mine were a little rusty. In the first few laps especially, I found myself taking turns wider than necessary and losing wheels in the process. I got better as the race went on, but still made occasional mistakes especially when pedaling through turns (that's foreshadowing, kids).

With the stiff wind and no teammates, I made a point of sitting in for the first half of the race. I stayed farther back than I usually would, as being anywhere in the first ten wheels meant lots of unnecessary time with your nose in the wind. A few people tried to go off the front, but it was way too early and they were pulled back with little drama.

I skipped the chocolate bunny prime entirely, but moved to the front for the beer prime that came at about halfway. I tacked myself onto the back of the Bikeworks team, who were obviously setting up their guy for the sprint. I wasn't really that interested in sprinting (frankly, my legs were tired and didn't have a ton of snap), but I figured that the prime sprint might be a good platform from which a break might roll. Sure enough, the sprinters went, and right after they sat up, a guy went off the front.

The pack looked at each other, but nobody really responded, and the guy (from Ten Speed Spokes) got a 5"-ish gap, largely because his teammate rode a nice false tempo on the front, allowing him to settle in. I and a few others pointed out that the guy on the front was blocking, a couple of people rolled around him (NOTE: sometimes pointing these things out to others is a much more energy efficient way to get people to pull through than to do it yourself). I could tell the guy up front was strong, though, and when he didn't come back to the field AT ALL through the stong headwind section, I began to think that he might be a good move to follow.

I wasn't the only one with this idea, as a Bikeworks and a Green Line rider both started bridge moves at about the same time I did. I, however, was the stupidest of the three of us, making my attack on the windward side of the cross/headwind section. So instead of being with the other two trying to bridge, I was a couple of bike lengths behind them by the time we got clear. What I should have done: dig deep, catch their wheels, recover briefly, then go to work OR give up and go back to the pack. What I did: mentally hem and haw, look back at the pack, think I'm about to be caught, realize I've still got a gap, try to catch the wheels, almost make it, but now the two other guys bridging aren't working well together, so I sit up a litle, another guy comes past, so I start working again, but I don't catch the wheels, so I sit up and finally get caught. Basically, I spent 5+ minutes pushing 320 watts while being indecisive.

Predictably, the guy who came through while I was waffling made it up to the front guy, they started working together, the pack sat up, and we were racing for third. And now I was tired, so I drifted back to try to get some rest. After a lap of rest, with 4 laps to go, I knew it was time to start moving up, but I was still a little gassed and didn't have quite the energy to fight for position. So going into the final lap, I was farther back than I needed to be, we were racing for third, and I was kicking myself for having wasted all that energy. I made up some position on the backside of the lap, but kicked out wider than I should have pedaling through the second to last turn, losing the wheel in front of me. So I had to dig hard to close the gap to the front guys. Being a few wheels back in a headwind sprint isn't a bad thing, but I was TOO far back, and even though I made up a couple of spots on the final stretch, the best I could muster was 12th.

Lessons learned:
- I need to practice pedaling through turns - these were the ones where I tended to kick wide
- Be smart about the wind when attacking, especially crosswinds
- BE DECISIVE - either get to the break or give up, but don't spend energy on the "chasse patate" (http://lechassepatate.wordpress.com/about/)

I raced the Cat 4 (my first cat 4). Finished 2 behind Stefan. My dad took some pictures of the race and there is a pretty good one of you cornering, I'm behind you. You can check it out here: http://www.strava.com/activities/131955532

I went down to do the Cat5 race, and I'm glad I did. It was good experience for me, and the wind hadn't picked up yet.

Most of the race was pretty tame. My goal for the race was to practice the Pare strategy of always staying in the front in preparation for races to come. At this, I think I succeeded. It was a small field, but I never fell off the back, and was usually in the front 10. Three guys tried a breakaway after the prime sprint, but I didn't worry too much and did a small part to help bring us back to them. Cut to last few laps - there was a crash after the final turn, fault unknown. Luckily I had just moved right and missed having to run into it. The pace, even on the final lap, seemed pretty tame. I guess I got agitated and took myself to the front to press forward into the last two turns. Too long to pull though. I eased up to let someone pass so I could grab a wheel. It was a futile attempt, but I gave it what I could on the sprint. Came in somewhere b/w 5 and 7 in a bunch sprint, but they listed me as N/A because their camera was screwed up. Kind of annoyed me, and I hope they fix it, but seems doubtful.

Note to self - don't pull going into the final stretch, or if everyone is riding that tame, make an honest effort to break away.

That's a great effort!

Another note to self: Be clever. in that situation make sure you know who the strong wheel is, or freelance off another team's leadout. Make sure you know which direction the wind is coming from on the finishing straight. Obviously you want to come around on the protected side, but also if you get caught taking a pull make sure you pull off so as to force the train to come around to the windy side. (The opposite of what you would do in a breakaway, unless you are trying to torch the legs of a sprinter or a hangeron). You should know exactly where your sprint "jump point" is before the race (pick out a landmark) and don't jump before that point. You should know exactly how many pedal strokes it will take you in your sprinting gear of choice to travel that distance, eg 200 meters. Ride the course backwards from the finish line (obviously to the side) before the race and figure it out. By practicing sprints -- a dedicated sprint workout at least once a week is a good idea consisting of 10 to 20 x fifteen seconds sprints -- you'll figure out what your strength is.

That'll be $100:)

Thanks for this. I'll be sure to break out the monopoly money to get you paid up I also just saw they posted me at 10 of 15, which I know isn't exactly right, but whatever.

I will definitely take your advice on learning how I sprint and then gauge my jump point in races based on that. Right now I don't have much idea of how many strokes and how much time I can really sustain. My sense of distance in this area is definitely a little bit off.