Cavortin' and Vandervortin'

(If Brett can pun, why not me?) With the forecast calling for rain and 50s, Brett and I almost talked ourselves into a day away from the races, but ultimately decided to go. Mike More zipped pass us on 71, making it a three-Horse race. Short drive, light drizzle, we get there and find a sweet parking place right next to registration. Rain stops. Rain picks up for a few minutes, then stops -- for the whole time we're racing. Nice.

So in the 4s, I scout the competition. Dayton has the numbers again, and Anthem and Cyclesport have their own tough guys there. I decide that I'm either going to get in the winning break, prevent a winning break from going at all, or go down trying. And that's my race: on the first lap I thought we had a good one going, with me, a Cyclesport guy, the rider from Dayton who won last week, and (I think) one more. But we didn't keep it together, and it all came back together in the crosswind/headwind sections on the backside. Lather, rinse, repeat. Each lap until the last one, I thought I might be making a break that could stick, but it would get chased down -- more than once (okay, twice) I was dismayed to have a few seconds with a couple guys, and looked back to see a teammate of one of the guys leading the chase.

And on and on. I gotta admit, I felt pretty good, but I was up against the odds, and on the fifth lap (of 6) a guy from Dayton made a super-strong move and held it to the end. His teammates did a nice job blocking, and when I did take the rightside gravel line and try to get away, every time there was a Dayton guy sitting there, smiling. A little later, Shane from Anthem and a Cyclesport rider took off right when I was gassed from covering a move; they ended up 2nd and 3rd. I settled in and tried to save something for the field sprint (and maybe a few series points). Not much left in the tank, but I did what I could. All in all, good times and a fun race.

[photos from team Bike Source]

[edited 4/22: more pix from velocityimages]

Brevoort at Vandervort

The forcast looked forboding, with lots of rain on the radar but luckely, Derek Beasley doesn't know what he's talking about. Shannon, Mike and myself rolled-up to Vandervort's corner for the third Spring Series race of the year. Props to Shannon for being the only DH to race all three.

We all expected wet conditions but surprisingly, the rain never came. There was a good turn out too, which was nice to see. I still feel like an underclassmen in the 3's, and in some ways, I feel like I'm learning how to race all over again. It's been a long winter and the faster pace of the 3's is making my poor training quite evident.

Anyway, the pace was brisk but slowed considerably on the back half of the course. The head and crosswinds in the back half of the loop were simply demoralizing. The tailwinds on the front half the course were welcome but kept the speeds high and by lap 3 of 7, I think it our avg. was hovering on the high-end of 24 mph.

There were many attacks, at least that's what I heard; because I was in pretty much in the back of the pack trying to figure out how inthe heck to move-up without blowing-up. On lap 5, I was feeling better and actually saw the front half of the pack. That's were Dan Lock tried to solicite my help in a break. I told him that I didn't look likely, but I thanked him for the warning.

The break was likely no more than 3 to 5 min off the front and if a second strong group got away, they'd surely catch them. As predicited, as we came out the tailwind-straight-away and banked a right into the hellish crosswind, those that were able to, took off, shattering the field in what look liked to me as several smaller groups...a cycling "trail of tears."

I had nothing but was able to stay with a group of about 8 men that were still holding there own and chasing. Long story short, after the hill, the course turned right into a strong tailwind. Myself and two other riders got gapped coming out of the turn. I pulled through the "S" turn and back into the tailwind. I pulled through and a rider from Dayton sprinted past me, taking another rider (I think from Ohio University) with him, bridging to the group.

I chased them in vain, only to watch the Dayton rider successfully pull himself and the Ohio U. guy back to the pack, at which point he sat-up. I passed him in a matter of seconds and I didn't see him for the remainder of the race, which turned out to be a two lap solo effort.

I probably finished near dead-last but that's okay. I had a blast, and hey, it didn't rain.

guess who I rode with?

Tank 'n' Tin!
Brett, Tank, Tinny and I set out for a nice ride on this beautiful day. Caught a few pix at the turnaound spot. Good to see the boys.

Deer Creek RR

I knew I was flyin' the DH flannel solo for the race, so on the drive up I slipped some Beta Band into the CD player and contemplated how to approach the race. The smart lone 'horse approach would be to bide my time, save my energy, let the early laps play themselves out as the bigger teams worked out their issues, and then either make a move toward the end, or try my luck in the bunch finale. Chatting with Chip on the phone reinforced this idea, since he said the hills wouldn't do much, and the real feature would be the winds. (He was right--the only Turner rider in the cat 4 pack -- a skinny kid -- was getting blown all across the road all day.)

A danger with this approach is that if the decisive move goes early, you're out of luck. And that's what happened. Sometime early in the second lap, a Cyclesport rider took off, dragging a Team Dayton rider with him. Suddenly, the strongest team and the biggest team each had someone up the road. Danger. I chatted with the Anthem boys, and Dick and I even tried a move a bit later in the headwind section, but no go -- we just hung out in the headwind section for about a mile. I tried to prolong the move with another Anthem guy, but same story. Just as I was sucking wind back in the pack, trying to recover, some riders in a crosswind section went to the front and drilled it, stringing out the group. I almost got disconnected, but managed to get back on just in time to watch a Panther rider leave the pack and attempt to bridge.

After recovering, I got to the fourth lap with the 2-man break a minute up and the Panther rider somewhere between. The pack seemed deflated, and the speed dropped. I decided that I'd rather try to make something happen and finish off the back than sprint for fourth (especially because the sprint was downhill with a cross tailwind, and was likely to feature a group of 20+ cat 4s choosing lines at 35mph -- no, thanks). So in the headwind section I eased up the left side, tapped another solo rider who'd been complaining about the lack of activity a lap earlier, and launched. Nobody came, so I buried my head and tried to dose my effort. At one point it looked like they'd given up, and if I could make it to the turn I might get a little assist from the wind. Then, head down, I discovered myself in the gravel on the side of the road; I recovered, looked back, cramped, and saw the pack getting closer. So I sat up, hung on to the end, stayed safe in the sprint (especially after my hamstrings locked up), and finished.

So, yeah, kind of a "meh" race. On one hand, mediocre placing in a race dominated by (smart) team tactics, and a day of dodging riders dealing with crosswinds. On the other, I got to race my bike in the sun, I tried to make something happen, and it was all good fun.

Spring Series '09-Hueston Woods

While I did not have the winter I had last year, I rolled into today's race thinking I was not that far off. I registered for the Cat. 4 race today, getting a couple of stinkeyes from people who thought I should have moved up to Cat. 3. Mostly young people with no kids and no real jobs. Anyway, the race started pretty tamely, then a few attacks were launched maybe 3 or so miles in. I worked pretty hard to reel them in, then Shannon took over as the reeler, as our plan was to have Bill there for the finale if it was all together. Lap 2 or 3 (it's all fuzzy) two riders went off the front with one of them, a Cyclesport rider, staying away. On the last lap, I went to the front and asked the Dayton and Anthem guys if they were content racing for 2nd. They said they were not, so we started to reign him in. Except I feel like I was the only one doing most of the work. This was probably smart racing on their part, but after 5 or so miles, I had nothing left and he was still 100 or so yards off the front. I ended up being dropped but managed to fight back on. I was at the back of the pack going up the first hill by the marina but starting to move up to help with a team sprint. Approximately 3 miles from the finish, there was a massive crash, with bodies and bikes flying all over. This brought me to a screeching halt, almost endoing. By the time I got going again, the peloton was already out of sight. I tried to catch back on, but they were too far, and that's when the cramps started. It was so bad, I had to dismount to stretch them out.
Certainly not the result I was hoping for, but that's racing.