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.
No comments:
Post a Comment