Burnt Toast (Ault Park 4, A Race)

This report will not take long as my participation in last night’s race was not a lengthily ordeal.

At the start line, I noticed that the field felt a little lean, like it was missing a few key players, although I couldn’t put my finger on any specific person that wasn’t there. I did notice that Huntington had a full squad there and Mike House was there as well. I knew that was not a good thing because the last time Mike House raced at Ault Park was several years ago and he lapped the field by himself. On the 3^rd or 4^th lap, the first brake got away. It had 5-6 people including House and Pete Bauer, so I know that was bad news, but I also knew that it was early and it would be difficult for any break to last an hour… be patient, Nick. Then a few laps later, a second break got away, also about 5-6 strong, including Eric Knight of Huntington Bank. Now things were ugly. Multiple folks were throwing half-hearted attempts at bringing back the breaks, but w/ little to no progress. I started to get a little nervous that we would be lapped, and the general demeanor w/i the pack was one of a wounded gazelle, just biding our time till we are put out of our misery. I hate that feeling. The sands of my patience hourglass ran out and I decided that I needed to either pull that break in myself (at least initiate some cooperation) or die trying. I got to the front on the back side and started ramping it up as though I was leading out a teammate. I drove well past my redline and pulled through the finish line w/ no one coming around to share the burden. I continued through the chicane and gently pulled off to the right to find a nice place to die – I was toast, burnt, crispy toast.

I rolled around a few laps only to find that the break(s) were brought back in, trying to take some solace in my effort somehow triggered that sequence of events. I am still sulking; hopefully I can focus that energy into the Blast this Saturday.

Ault Park #4 (B Race)

My race was over before it began. At work, we escorted the Special Olympics Torch from Downtown to Springdale today, 32 miles in 4 hours in 95 degree heat. I had no legs tonight, the first time I tried to sprint on the middle lap, I was on Matt's wheel but just couldn't get anywhere. I was maybe in the top 25 (out of 25 :) I tried again 5 laps later on the 15th lap and got 3rd, good enough for 2 points. For the last lap, I got some great help from Shannon Smith (thanks!), who brought me toward the front, right next to Steven Hughes and Geoffrey Reynolds. As we reared up for the sprint, I noticed that guys were passing me right and left so I just sat up (safely) and limped in for the finish. Fortunately, Matt decided to show what he was made of and blasted off the front of the field and easily took 1st on the last lap, great job!

Ault Park#3, A race #1: aka Pack Fodder 2008

Last Wednesday I gave the A race a try for the first time. I got to Ault early to warm-up with the guys in the B race and I was excited to watch and root from the sidelines. They had a strong representation with Alex, Matt, Brown, and Moore mixing things up. Alex scored enough points for the night to take second place overall. They showed some real team work out there and Matt Bell gave a strong lead-out on lap 5, rocketing Alex into 1st place.

By the time the A race started, I was a ball of nervous energy and couldn’t wait to get this thing over with. It started out fast and pretty much stayed that way. It wasn’t as smooth as I was promised either and there were countless gaps that would open, causing lots of surges (herkey-jerky) in the pack. Chip later concurred and said that he didn’t think that was typically how things play out. Anyway, I was feeling pretty gassed and praying for forty laps to feel more like twenty, but without much luck. I was also oblivious to all the usual questions: what lap, who’s in front, was there a break? What I like to call my “race situational awareness” was totally absent and my only concern was staying in the race.

And like an answered pray my rear tire blew on the back side of the course on lap 8(?). I hurried (walked) back to the start area, only to be berated by my many supporters (sarcasm). Alex shouted, “Check his tire…make sure it’s really flat” and Bill Lorenz just stared at me and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be in the 20K?”

Matt, who interrupted my sign language and incoherent mumblings, hurried across the course and gave me his wheel (funny back-story: his rear tire got a flat during warm-up and I gave him a tube…and he later lent me the same wheel/tube. Now that’s teamwork).Thanks Palerider!

I rejoined the group a lap or so later (on the sprint lap) and before I did, I was given strict orders by Bill not to contest the sprint. Right! No chance in Hades, I promised. I managed to reintegrate without any problems and eventually settled in. A couple times I tried to get behind Chip or Dan but that was ridiculously harder than I imagined and forget about getting in front of Dan, that man is strong. So strong in fact that I later learned Dan got into a break and stayed away for some points, while Chip made a valiant effort on the front, to slow things down. I on the other hand, had no idea what Chip was talking about a few laps later when he was telling me all about it.

That was pretty much the story of the race. I sat in and got a really good interval work out and about 10 minutes after the race, I rode to the back of the course (to pick-up my water bottle) and threw-up the entire contents of two water bottles and multiple sport gels. I only say this as a cautionary tale: hydrate the day before the race and several hours prior to the event, not the hour before.

Newmark

With an hour and half to start time, the rain came down in sheets. I was already nervous about entering a 2/3 race on wet pavement and the field size was looking pretty slim. Some real talent had already registered and I was without any team mates. I also spent most of my warm-up time in the car, contemplating going home. But half way through the Women’s race, the weather let up and it stopped raining. The temperature must have dropped about 10 to 15 degrees though, and it was downright chilly. I managed a few warm-up laps and the stout winds the 4/5 race experienced, died down considerably.

During the warm up, I heard Ryan Vingris from Team Abundance talking to his other two team mates about instigating a break. He and another rider had big plans to get away, while the other rider was to sit-up and try to slow things down. Mmmm…

We’ll my hat is off to Ryan and his boy’s for a mission accomplished. From the start, the pace was “stupid fast”, as Dave Stewart use to say (speaking of Dave, he was the lone Huntington Bank Rider in the pack and it was fun racing with Dave, who is always friendly and a good sport). Anyway, I digress…when a large break of 7 riders escaped, our average was 26 mph. I was winded, but felt good and I was annoyed when the pace slowed down, as guys realized that just about every team had a guy in the break. For several laps the break was within view but they were slowly gaining time on us. Dave and another rider (sorry, don’t know his name, but have seem him around a lot at races) asked if I wanted to help launch some attacks, in an effort to either break things up a bit or perhaps pull the break in. This sounded interesting but by the time the plan was devised and implemented two laps later, everyone was well rested and our attacks were not fruitful. Altogether, it was fun changing-up my usual race tactics and working on the front a bit.

With two laps to go, Ryan and his team mate passed the field (impressive). There was quite a bit of grumbling regarding how to proceed, but everyone agreed to let them go…everyone but an Olympus rider that is, who seemed to like the idea of a free ride, as he attached himself to the break (Readers, I realize we were only sprinting for like 8th place here, but come on…I was so annoyed). I was later told with authority to “check the rule book” but whatever….

The ninth place finisher was about a bike length behind from catching Olympus, who took 8th. I managed a 13th place finish. I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Summer Solstice

Sorry for the delay...here's the Summer Solstice Race Report (Saturday 6/14/08)

Well, I can’t say the weekend was a total loss but I had high hopes of racing all three days. Friday night’s race plans were prematurely cancelled by some serious candy in our nether regions. The rain started around 4pm on Friday and didn’t let up till almost 6pm. The radar wasn’t promising much of a break in the Wilmington area either. After much inner debate, I packed the car and headed up I-71, only to be thwarted by Friday night traffic. Doah! I turned around and went home.

Saturday’s weather was much better and several of us DH’s (Tank, Stephen, Goert, Moore, and myself) headed north for some bike racing. We arrived to find out that the previous evenings races were not cancelled and stayed fairly dry (Doah!). We also discovered that today’s course contained several miles of gravel that was recently laid in preparation for new black top (Doah!).

Kudo’s to the race officials, who likely heard all the grumbling and made a solid of effort to quickly re route the course. As a result, the finish line direction, feed zones, etc. were changed. The race was slightly delayed, which was kind of nice, as we were able to take are time getting ready. Instead of racing a 13 mile loop, an 8 mile (lollipop or circuit) loop was devised. On the last lap, the official would ring the bell and we would make a left back to the finish line. In other words we only passed the finish line once (at the end).

It was my first CAT 3 race and I kind of felt alone, as the rest of my team lined up behind me in the 4 race. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t regretting my decision to up-grade. All in all, we raced 8 laps for about 67 miles. Our average was a little over 24 mph. The pace was tolerable but the distance and heat were another story, entirely. The story for the day was hydration. I ran out of water almost immediately and relied on the feed zones, which were very dangerous and not worth the risk and effort required to snag a bottle of 90 degree water at 20 miles an hour. There was at least one crash that I’m aware in the feed zone and I heard of other mishaps in the 4’s, as well. On one lap, I was so determined to grab a bottle that I had to slow down to almost 10-15 miles an hour to get one. This was a big mistake, as the rest of the men kept riding along at 23miles, leaving me no choice but to produce a massive effort to get back on (one handed, juggling a bottle of water in one hand). A Saturn of Dayton rider gave me a swig of his water bottle.

There were a few attacks early on by Olympus Homes but then things calmed down considerably. Besides the feed zone crash, a man went down on the back side of the course, before the hill. The mishap occurred on the course’s fastest section; a moderate down hill with a roller and a soft “s” turn with a bit of gravel on the road. The racer apparently bumped another rider (a team mate of his) on the turn and went down. Luckily, no one else went down with him.

With 2 to 3 laps to go a three man break stayed away for the duration (Greg Cavanagh, Ryan Vingris and Kris Siatkowsky). Every one seemed content with the break and things were moderate for the rest of the day. There was one hill that took its toll, though. Every lap, I was grateful to have climbed it and with the pack. The hill was rather short and probably not that steep for a lot of guys, but the speed in which the pack climbed this thing took getting use to. I also think the right hand turn right before the climb was a factor. If you were not the first 15 guys through the turn you had to sprint to catch back-on and then…boom; the hill and then steady rollers for another quarter mile.

Anyway, with one lap to go, a solo break went with about 2 miles to go. It was an impressive solo effort by Cameron Jackson of Rgf Solutions that no one contested. I heard a few folks grumbling that this was a stupid move, but not really. He stayed away and finished fourth. Nice job. The pack was sprinting for 5th. I expected it to be harder to move to the front as the finish line approached, but found a strong wheel to get behind (Thanks Christopher Beck, Fed Ex) and tried to stay strong to the line. He finished 5th overall and 1st in the field sprint. I held on for 10th overall and 6th in the field sprint. Lots of room for improvement but I was happy with my results and even happier to get off the bike, where I was greeted by my team mates. All in all, I was sun burnt and dehydrated but it was a fun day.

Newmark Crashterium

Seriously, how hard is it to ride in a straight line?

You couldn't ask for an easier course. 5 laps to go and someone goes somersaulting into the grass on a long straight away, unacceptable.

1 lap to go and I am where I want to be with about a 1/2 mile to go. About 3 or so riders in front of me, someone decides they don't know how to hold a line and down we go. Jim Dennedy of Abundance was right in front of me sliding on the pavement, I tried to go over him but he didn't make a very good ramp, so down I went. I rolled as best I could and then braced for the impact, sure enough a couple more riders slammed into me. I got up as fast as I could and tried to remount my bike. I couldn't even find it at first, it was like a scene from 'Saving Private Ryan' shot in colorful Spandex. Once I sifted through the carnage and figured out which heap was mine, the pack was long gone and I was holding my broken steed in one hand and Jim's broken collarbone in the other.

Ault Park #3 (B Race)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (although it could have been much worse). Much of last night was a blur, so I will be as brief as possible. 4 of us started the B race, Steve Brown, Matt Bell, Mike More and myself. I stuck to my plan of only contesting the double points sprints, despite the yelling of Chip from the sideline, sorry coach ;) Due to the help and maneuvering of the DH men, I was able to come through 1st on the 10th lap.
I recovered for the next 9 laps and got ready for the finale. I was toward the back, I know, I know, and as we passed the chicane to start the bell lap, Geoff Reynolds and Harry Wicks got close and personal causing several of us to come to a stop. Of course, this is when the pace at the front was ramping up for the last hurrah. I got around the mess and had to make up ground on the whole field. I could see Mike More at the front doing an awesome job leading out the field, unfortunately I just wasn't in the field :) I basically had to do an 800 meter sprint to get toward the front and was nipped at the line to finish 5th, one spot out of the money. I received compliments from others on the teamwork of the Horsemen, you guys rocked! Matt was flying as well, I think he got points on 2 or 3 sprints, nice work!
I still ended up 3rd for the night so it could have gone much worse. Thanks for looking out for me throughout the race guys, I'll do a better job of staying toward the front next week.