Race Report # 8

Weeks since last race report……………………………….…....2Races since last race report………………………………..…….1Number of crashes in last race……………………………..….…1Square inches of skin currently missing from right leg………~15The weekend before last was the State Juniors and masters championships, that's riders either 18 and under or 30 and over, I'm smack dab in the middle, so no racing for me that weekend. I didn't get to race but I did get to go for a great training ride with two ofmy teammates who also fall in the same age nether region that I do. We drove up to the North Cascades Highway aka highway 20 hopped on the bikes and went riding. It's pretty fantastic up there and it was fun to get to go up some mountains again. I haven't done that since I biked through the Pyrenees. That and I kicked butt despite being 20 and 30 pounds heavier than my two teammates. This weekend was the Elma/Vance Creek course that I raced on earlier in the season as a Cat 3. It’s a 13 mile loop with a long series of small flat farm roads heading in one direction then a turn, a 1000+ meter climb (linear, not vertical) with some rollers at the top, then a big descent that takes you back down to the flat farm roads.
Just before our race began it started to rain, not hard but enough to be annoying and get the roads nice and slick. It stopped 15 minutes before the start of the race, but once the race began we rode a couple miles into it when up ahead there was a curtain of rain hanging over the road. We went from dry, nice, happy riding to torrential pebble sized raindrops downpour and the worst part was it was just sitting there while we were riding into it of our own volition. Idiots, all of us. That happened just before the climb and continued through rollers on the top and into the descent back down the other side. I was a little nervous going into the descent because the last time I had done it we were cracking 50 mph, but it had been dry. I really had no desire to go down that fast given the fact that my glasses were completely fogged up and I could barely see a thing. Fortunately that seemed to be the consensus because we made the descent at a relatively tame 40 mph.
We got to the bottom of the hill and I breathed a little sigh of relief—while my pants were soaked, it was not I who wet them. Then just like that we were out of the rain. The roads were still wet which became an extra special treat upon turning onto the farm roads. The farm roads were covered with what in polite company might be referred to as dirt. Since I’m writing this report and not someone from said polite company I’ll call it what it was, shit; excrement, fecal matter, poo, manure, crap, all very stinky, all very slick, and all flying at my face off of the tire in front of me. I’m actually somewhat surprised that I haven’t suffered from some kind of Giardia or dysentery. Lucky me.
The next several laps were all pretty much like that. The rain would hop around to different parts of the course keeping the whole thing nice and wet but giving us false hope that it had stopped every time we left the curtain. The 5th time up the hill (out of 7) I was up near the front because the pack felt pretty twitchy and I was expecting a break to go. The last 1-2 race that I saw finish this course had been very spread out and I was both eager to be on the good end of that spread and to see how my fitness actually compares. I was sitting second position in the pack when the man in front started to push it. I stayed on his wheel as we cranked all the way up, and came close to blowing up at the top. I had been waiting for the attack I was expecting to come around me when I looked behind me and realized we were the attack. We had left the pack about fifty meters back, unfortunately neither of us really had much juice left just then and the two of us by ourselves weren’t going to make it stick. I grabbed a Gu (basically a packet of sugary paste that your body can absorb quickly) and started to eat it at exactly the wrong time because as soon as I got it in my mouth the pack caught up to us and started sending counter attacks. This left me in the unenviable position of sprinting after people with a mouth full of paste, a little silver packet sticking out of my mouth, and a mantra of stupid-STUPID STUPID running through my head. Little attacks kept going up until the downhill where a group of seven or so were off the front. I took the descent pretty easy as it was still quite wet and I was still quite nervous about it. At the bottom we caught the break and myself and two others formed a counter attack. We had a small but distinct lead, five seconds or so, but it was growing and one of the two riders I was with I know to be a very strong racer from a very strong team that would help to muck things up in the pack so that he (we) could get away. In short I was thinking that this might stick.
We turned onto the farm roads flat section and I was pulling us through the first 90 degree right when I noticed that I was horizontal and no part of myself or my bike was touching the ground. This didn’t last long because gravity is a total jerk like that, and I was soon sliding across the poo-covered chip sealed pavement. For those of you who don’t know what chip seal is, it’s a type of road surface consisting of gravel (in this case very sharp pointy gravel) glued to the road with tar. Kind of has a very rough sandpaper, or cheese grater effect on the legs. After the shredding of my thigh was kind enough to bring me to a stop I picked up the bike, jumped back on (being careful not to look too closely at my leg) and caught back onto the back end of the pack. One minute later I notice my rear tire is flat, I don’t know if it was from the crash or if the crash was from it but I pulled over and signaled for a wheel change. Sadly in the crash I had bent a piece of my bike known as the derailer hanger making it very difficult to get the new wheel on. It took about three minutes and the pack was completely out of site. My race was pretty much over because there was no chance of me catching back onto the pack with only a lap and a half to go unless the officials neutralized them, which is very unlikely. I finished the lap I was on and waited at the finish line to see who won.
Lesson for the race: don’t crash, it sucks.
That being said, I’m fine, it actually hurts more to walk than it does to ride so I will be racing this weekend and hopefully will produce better results for my next report.