TdF

2011 Mileage: 2,867

Yesterday was Tour de Frankenmuth. It was way too early of a morning with a 4:30am wake up to meet with Chris out at the shop to drive to the race together. We still got there with barely enough time to get registered, ready and warmed up. An 8:15am start is really early.

I lined up with the biggest field I've ever raced with in a road race, a full field of 71 Cat 4 racers. The course was three laps for 47 miles, all relatively flat but with a really strong headwind at a few points. I spent most of the first two laps sitting up near the front in the top ten riders. I wasn't sure how the race was going to go and with no other teammates in the race I didn't want to get left out if a break actually looked like it might succeed. This caused me to put myself in the wind at the front bringing back attacks a fair amount. I realized by the start of the third lap that it didn't seem like any breaks were really going to succeed so I went to the middle of the field to sit in for a bit and try to recover. Then with 5 miles to go I worked my way back up to the front to make sure I was up there for the finish and to go with any last ditch effort attacks that might try to go. There were a few attempts but again with the size of the field nothing could get far. The end of the course was a downhill followed by a quick climb and then a left turn to a long gradually downhill finishing stretch through town. The field had been a bit sloppy all day and I was willing to put my money on a crash and I didn't want to be a part of that. As we hit the downhill I went to the front and then was second wheel going up the climb. Not sure exactly where I was going through the left hand turn but it was definitely top 5. We came around the corner and everything opened up. The finishing stretch was actually a lot longer than I realized and a bit confusing with no banner going over the line, nobody actually knew where the line really was. I just went as hard as I could towards the crowd and actually heard the inevitable crash occur right behind me. I'm not sure how bad the crash was but it definitely didn't sound good. I ended up rolling across the finish in 4th.
Not the result I was really hoping for but I guess I really need to get accustomed to the fact that I can't win every race I enter, especially as I continue to upgrade. I managed to stay upright, get some more points towards my upgrade, and walk away with a little money so I guess I should call that a success. It was a well run event and the venue is awesome with a finish in downtown with a pretty big crowd gathered for it. I can definitely see how it drew such a big field to race.

Now it is time to bury myself in books for the next week with my CFA exam next Saturday and a lot of reading left to do between now and then.

ToW and another Waterford Wednesday

2011 mileage: 2,630
Last week started off on Monday with a challenge that Simonson and I have both been trying to accomplish for a while now, the weekday workday century. Started off with about 30 miles before work and then skipped out a couple hours early to put in the rest, mostly dirt roads and a lap at Pontiac Lake for my first singletrack of the year 85 miles in to the day. It was great to accomplish something I've been trying to do for a while, and 100 miles on the mountain bike combined with an 8 hour work day actually went by easier than I expected. The dirt roads out North of the shop seem to go on forever. It seemed to take the legs all week to recover but they did just in time for Tour of Washtenaw on Saturday.
Tour of Washtenaw:
Tour of Washtenaw was a 55 mile road race with about 28 miles of dirt roads. The fields were combined earlier in the week to be a 3/4 race so I knew that I was going to have my work cut out for me racing with the 3's. The race started off slow with everyone just jockeying for position to get ready for the first dirt section. When we hit the dirt the pace surged and every little attack seemed to get brought back in really quickly simply because of the pace of field. Also a couple teams had pretty big turnouts and there were enough teams represented that no one really managed to get away for long. The roads for the most part were a lot like Cone-Azalia, except more rolling hills. Riding those kind of roads in a pack also brought the pot holes a lot more in to play. Hitting one of those pot holes knocked one of my water bottles out of the cage which proved to be a bit of a factor later in the race. As the pace surged on these early dirt sections the group of about 50 starters was brought down to about 40. Then we hit a section of dirt roads that felt like riding through peanut butter an inch deep. At this point our group grew a bit smaller and the cramps began to set in. I'm not sure what exactly it is but I seem to cramp at just about every race, and being short a bottle I'm sure wasn't helping the situation. A few people attacked but the pace remained pretty high even though you could tell everyone was putting out a lot of effort to ride through the mud. I had to tell myself to fight through the cramps and stay on, knowing that if I fell off the back my race was over. As we rolled back on to the pavement the entire field that was still with us seemed to breath a collective sigh of relief and I think our pace actually slowed for a few minutes. We went through another wet dirt road section after that you could tell that the final group of about thirty was going to stay together until the finish. The pace ramped up as we hit the final stretch of pavement with about 3k to go and I sat in the middle of the group. The sprint finish at the end was uphill which really didn't suit my 200 pound frame but I still made a go of it and finished midpack in the remaining group. Considering I was cramping for the last twenty miles of the race I'll be happy with that. My teammate Ron saved me by sparing some water in the last ten miles. I finished in 2:29:12.4 covered from head to toe in mud, my legs were cramping like crazy, and I had a huge smile on my face.
My time put me in 14th in the 3/4 field and 5th in Cat 4. Good enough to win $25, not enough to cover my entry fee but my first ever cash winnings in a bike race. I think this is the last of the dirt road races until the fall but they were fun and this was definitely a good one to go out with. I hope that with all the ups and downs the promoters had with this one they still decide to come back next year.Waterford Wednesday:

Then after a busy couple days with Kate & Andrew's wedding shower and a going away party for Kate my next race was upon me before I knew it. It was barely drizzling when I left my house to ride to the race (it's less than 10 miles away) but by the time the race started it was really coming down and I was already soaked. I chose to do the B race (4/5) to try and earn some points toward my upgrade to Cat 3, so that would put me racing an hour and a half plus two laps. I think they shortened the race a bit but nobody was really complaining about that. I mostly sat in near the front, front five taking just a couple turns at the front, until they rang the bell for the first prime (for those of you that don't know, a prime is like a mid race sprint for a prize). I took off and went hard for the entire lap and ended up easily winning the first prime with a large gap. There was still about 70 minutes of racing left though so I had no desire to stay out so I sat up and coasted for a lap until the field caught back up to me. There were always a couple attacks here and there but never anything that couldn't get reeled back in. When the bell was rung for the second prime I went to the front and pulled back the break that was just ahead and then controlled the pace until half way through the lap when I jumped from off the front. One guy managed to stay with me for a bit but I still had a solid gap to win prime number 2. Again the group stayed together with little attacks here and there but nothing that couldn't be handled, unfortunately mostly by me at this point. Then came the bell for the last lap. I was once again at the front when we hit this point and I hit the small hill (if you can call it that) about 1/4 way in to the lap a little hard but nothing crazy and as I was pedaling down the other side I realized the only guy still with me was the same guy with me at the last prime. I told him if he wanted to go with me then he had to do some work. He didn't pull through so I went side to side across the course attacking him until once again it was me rolling my way across the finish alone. First time I really won anything of any significance at a bike race so it was really nice. $61, a $25 gas card, a growler of Kuhnhenn's beer, a cycling cap and a water bottle. The 8 upgrade points are great too. I'm sure the wins won't come like this when I get that upgrade (which will hopefully be soon) so I need to savor them while I can. That's why I have such a big smile on my face.Sorry for the long rambling entry since I was way behind on posting so thanks if you actually managed to read all of that. Now I need to knock out a couple long mileage days and then next on the agenda is Tour de Frankenmuth in just over a week.

Approved!

2011 Mileage: 2,309
Recovery from Cone was basically nonexistent with no real day off the bike due to commuting and a couple mornings waking up late so I had to push the pace to make sure I was at the shop in time to open. Then my day off on Wednesday was full of yard work and mowing the lawn. After all that the legs were feeling a bit sluggish and even though I was planning on heading over to Waterford to do the local Wednesday night crit I had it in my head that I was going to do the B (4,5) race and just take it easy. That is the race that I am supposed to be doing anyways based on my current category, but not exactly the group that I feel like I should be riding in on a good day for me. Well I rode over to the course and it took about 30 seconds for my team to convince me to do the A (1,2,3) race. I'm glad I did because it was a great learning experience riding at that level and I had no problem at all riding in (and even a few times at the front of) the field. There was a break of 4 guys that finished about 1/2 a lap up on the field and on the last lap the field got a bit squirrely and I had to rub elbows a few times to make sure I was protecting myself but I finished in the front 1/2 of the 50 guys riding there so I'm happy with that, not sure exactly what place since they only post the top 15 to USAC. The goal was a field finish and I accomplished that. There was a pretty bad crash right in front of me just before the finish but I managed to avoid it so the whole day went by without any real incidents. Not bad for my first ever crit. 50 miles on the day and a hard 90 minutes of racing, followed by some Kuhnhenn's in the parking lot after the race and a few more beers with the team at The Woodshop after that.

On another note, I finally got my Cat 4 upgrade today. This means I'll be racing Cat 4 at Tour of Washtenaw on May 14th. That's next up on the race calendar, a 55 mile road race with over half dirt roads.

Cone-Azalia

2011 Mileage: 2,183

Cone-Azalia is a road race that is about half dirt roads and half paved roads that aren't much better than the dirt. The attrition rate for this race is usually about 50%, meaning about half the people who start don't finish, mostly due to flat tires from the massive pot holes and sharp gravel covering the dirt portion of the course. It rained a fair amount last week and even a bit on Sunday morning so the first dirt section was still pretty wet and the potholes were all full of water but the rain stopped before race time and it was a pretty comfortable overcast day in the high 50's.

My Cat 5 to Cat 4 upgrade got denied earlier this week so I had something to prove going out and racing Cat 5 again. I was just hoping I could prove it having put in over 200 miles during the week leading up to the race, mostly commuting. The legs felt good though despite the fairly long week.

The race starts heading out and over a set of railroad tracks and on to the worst section of dirt roads within the first mile. I had decided up front that on the first lap I just wanted to lead through this section to avoid being ridden in to a pothole and flatting, but I wasn't really going to push the pace, and then on the second lap I would probably try and break away here. Things didn't work out that way. I went to the front early and was leading as we went over the railroad tracks and on to the dirt. Water bottles were everywhere and guys from the earlier fields were walking there bikes back to the start. It was pure carnage. I snaked my way through the potholes at a comfortable pace and then after about a quarter of a mile I looked back and realized without much effort I had a good gap. I decided to just go for it and drilled it and by the time I reached the end of the first dirt road I had a really good gap. I'm not great at judging time on a gap but I knew I was going good. I pushed hard for the entire first lap and by the end of the lap any kind of cat 5 field that may have been left was out of sight. From there I rode my own race, going hard but trying hard to avoid any potholes and the mechanicals that could come with them. It worked out great for me and I was able to easily cross the line in first with a gap of over 4 minutes on second place and what was left of a field. That was quite a bit of time to put on the field in only a 30 mile race, especially riding alone all day so I was pretty happy with the result. Also I hope it proved that I am strong enough and really do deserve an upgrade.I felt pretty bad that I made Tim, Kate and Andrew hang out for over an hour to watch me stand on the podium, especially since my "prize" was a bottle opener. Oh well.
I'm really not looking forward to cleaning the bike. There is a thick layer of white mud coating the entire back/bottom of the bike.Now it's time to try and figure out how to recover quickly while still putting in over 40 miles a day commuting. Next up is Waterford Worlds on this Wednesday Night.