Sport

Mr. Joe Martin. It's not easy to write about a race where you place 30th. I've got several excuses. It was to humid. I'm 5lbs over weight. I've never climbed like that. I haven't been training for Time Trials. I'm too old for this. Weak sauce.

The truth is all the above except. I'm too old for this. I don't believe it. When I look back on the race and think about where I could improve three things are evident. My climbing needs to improve. My ability to ride at or above LT (whatever that is?) for a sustained period of times needs work, and holding a position in the top ten of a crit is paramount.

Now for the report.

The road race was 69 miles with an 11 mile lead out and two 23 mile laps with 1500' of climbing per lap. There was an attack shortly after the beginning of the first lap. I seriously thought the peleton was going to let this group of 8 - 9 go. So I went to the front and pulled them back in before it got out of hand. When we hit the first major climb of the day I was astonished not at the grade at first, but the length of the climb and the speed we were going. I seriously thought I was going to be dropped, then it leveled out for a little bit then kicked up again and the speed was steady. Once over the climb we began a false flat section where there was a steady push. We came to a stop sign where the grade must of been close to 15% during a slight rise. Then it was just steady up up up. This is where I was at the front and felt like I was going backward. After slipping back 3/4 of the way through the peleton I felt a friendly hand from an Iowa racing buddy on my back helping me to overcome my fall from grace. Once on top the climb the descent was fast and furious. The county was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. The second lap went much better. I knew what to expect, and I never once looked up from the wheel in front of me during the climb to be intimidated by the monster. On the back side of the loop I felt a twinge in my inner thigh and immediately drank the rest of my water. I had no problem borrowing a couple of bottles from some riders willing to share, again thanks Iowa. It was a little too late to stave off the inevitable and with 20 miles left my right thigh locked tight. I went straight to the back and tried to hang on with a few painful pedal strokes every couple of seconds just to maintain contact. It must of been quite a sight watching me pedal stiff legged. Realizing this stiff leg pedaling was not going to work I gritted my teeth and forced my leg to bend and went as light on the pedals as I could. Sooner than I thought possible I was pedaling normal with less pain. By the time we approached the finishing stretch I felt fine enough to sprint. But the sprint was really for placement the time bonuses went to the first three places and belong to a 4 man break who put exactly 3 min. on the field. As long as I finished in the pack I would be alloted the same time as the winner of the pack sprint. I came in 21st overall. We rode 69 miles in 2:58:41, average speed was 23.0 and my max speed was 49.9.

The Time Trial was 2.5 miles uphill. The average grade was 7% with most of the climb at 10%, because the first .5 miles was actually downhill. I felt physically weak going into the start. I had no desire to do this. I gave it my best shot, and had a worthless result, (Garbage in, garbage out). I went from 21st to 46th after the time trial. I had a goal to finish in the mid 10 minute range and end up 12:22.

After a great homemade meal by my teammates sister and friend then crashing so hard on the blow up mattress that I slept through my teammates 5 min snoozers for 2 hours, I woke feeling fresh and recharged.

Watched some great crit. racing before my 4:10 debut, supporting friends and teammates. My crit. went as well as I could have expected considering my recent gut punch in the Time Trial. Of the 45 min's I hung for 32 before dropping. I really wanted to drop completely out and be pulled. But this guy on this red Trek caught me and kept waiting for me looking back and telling me to common, common. I felt like telling him to get lost, scat, leave me alone in my misery. But he wouldn't go away, and I wouldn't quit. So I mustered up enough courage to push hang on and start taking my pulls. It was nice to work with someone, we each took our sections. Then he put the heat on in the section before the hill and gaped me. I sprinted with everything I had left, just to finish without a time gap from the Trek, although I was actually about 10' back. I was really glad that this experience was over. I was happy I didn't get pulled. Wished I hadn't lost contact with the main group. Think I can do better next time.