After a tough week of lousy weather mixed with a couple of long work days making for diminished training time I raced back to back races this weekend. The RATL race put on by the Summit Freewheelers is a spring classic in Monroe Falls set on a 1.2 mile closed course around a beautiful park lake. The course always makes for exciting and fast racing. Saturday was race one of the four race series. Rather than sign up for the CAT IV's as usual I decided to test myself with the masters 45+ gang. Combined with 2's and 3's I figured I'd have my work cut out and my goal in the first race was to just stay in touch with the field. I did a nice long trainer warm up watching the 4 race and getting my head straight. With a cold coming on that was a bit tough. I lined up with team mates Rick Paduka and Bill Flecher. The pace started spirited as some tired to thin the pack early but just about everyone hung on, including me. After the first couple of quick attacks I got my legs and became pretty comfortable with the race. I found my self mid-pack or front third at worst for the whole race. The last lap worked great as no one tried to attack the one little hill on the back side that was the finish. I used it to work my way to the front and sat as one of the front four riders the rest of the finishing lap keeping pace as everyone worked to position themselves for the finish sprint. I kept my spot right up to the base of the hill and had a rider miss a shift. That forced me a bit off line to go around and then go for the finish. It was hard to tell exactly where I finished as it was a big bunch at the line, but I considered the race a victory for myself in keeping contact and position in a race with riders two cats over me. I've been working on getting more out of my riding this season, and also my mindset. I think the path I'm on is showing some results and I'm looking forward to next weekends race to do it all over again. I'll have to say I was so happy with the race that when I sow my coach Pete Gladden on the road just after the race I rode up and gave him a big hug. The data for the race was pretty good:
Duration: 1:00:19 (2:03:02)
Work: 730 kJ
TSS: 81.3 (intensity factor 0.899)
Norm Power: 247
VI: 1.22
Pw:HR: 4.57%
Pa:HR: -0.81%
Distance: 23.663 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 816 202 watts
Heart Rate: 103 167 153 bpm
Cadence: 25 122 97 rpm
Speed: 9.9 34.4 23.6 mph
Pace 1:45 6:04 2:33 min/mi
Sunday, was a bit of a twist though. I thought it would be a good stamina builder to double up and do the Cuyahoga Valley Circuit race. It is another 4 race series held in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's also another spring classic for the area that is well attended. After a warm up lap I was wondering if it was such a great idea. My cold had gotten a little worse and I felt pretty stiff. Once we got going though I felt better, and by lap three of five I felt really good. the only downside to the race is that as a "training series" cats are combined and in the B field there are seasoned as well as riders out for their first race. It always makes for some nervous moments. I knew I wanted to stay at the front with the more experienced riders. It was a good idea until the group bunched on a small rise and i found myself immediately in the middle and then the inevitable happened. As a rider stood for the incline a rider behind him touched his wheel and started a chain reaction. I think about 5 went down, a couple pretty hard. I was faced with running over a guy or doing a sideways slide and going off course. By the time I got sorted out and turned around the group had made it over the rise and of course someone attacked on the other side. I still had eye contact with the pack and put pedal to the road and started grinding out an ITT effort. by being solo and the pack now starting the rubber band positioning for the finish I was pretty well out of it. But, I was not going to just let it go. I stayed on it and finish just a minute or so behind the group. Not last, but not n the bunch where I had been riding comfortably earlier. That's racing, and not every one is going to go the way you want it to. At least I didn't go down, and thank some experience for that. Interestingly, as I looked at the data after words and split out the solo effort, it was higher in watts and almost as fast as the first part of the race in the bunch.
Overall I'm happy with the weekend and look forward to a better tarining week and getting through this cold. Next weekends racing should be much better.
Also have to give a shout out to my awsome team. We won 3 of 5 races this weekend, and had high placings to go with the wins. this is a great bunch to ride and race with. Check us out at www.starkvelo.com.
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