Breaking the Road Race Doldrums

Spring Prairie Road Race, 6/7/09
Race #21

20th/36

The way Jake definitively won the Spring Prairie Road Race, digging deep and attacking up the final climb made no mistake that he was clearly the strongest in that field. Congrats on your first win, Jake!

And major props to the team! This was our first race using a legitimate team effort. Two weeks ago when several Monkeys agreed to do this race, Jake had told me this was one of his “A” races. So, in my mind, it was clear—this is Jake’s race and our job to help him do it., so I sent an email stating such. No pressure, right?

Though we intended on racing with 6 we ended up with 5 and after a few laps had only three (John dropped, and despite looking good going up the hill, Josh flatted and one nameless Monkey forgot an essential pair of race equipment). Given this abbreviated team, Dan gets the George Hincapie award! He was never more than a bike or two away from Jake; nearly always on the windward side; paced him up the hill on nearly every lap and hung on for 10th place! Awesome work! I did a little here and there; kept an eye on things at the front; stuck near Jake part of the time; hit the front in the last two miles and drove the pace to prevent late attacks from going and responsibly popped on the final climb—I was flying up that hill at a glorious 7mph and finished 19th.

Honestly, Jake, I really need to think about racing Blue Mounds on the 18th—though I’m leaning more and more toward doing it. Its ironic that suffering up such hills is so glorious in retrospect.

The course was nice, and racing in the evening was a welcome change of pace. The weatherman predicted t-storms by the end of the race, luckily that didn’t happen till much later. It was all around a pleasant day.

The roads were decent the hills were enough to belie the slow pace. And that climb to the finish was real mean. I don’t know the grade—I’m completely illiterate with that stuff—but it was enough to make me suffer—badly—on almost every lap. Not having done more than 2 weeks of short 1 min intervals, I really paid the piper on that hill. Though I was able to find a “comfortable pace” on every lap, and I was “easily” able to catch back on after the climb, it still hurt…bad.

You know how the race ended but two interesting things happened during the race: first, I went off the back for a little while (4th lap, back side) because I thought I flatted (it felt like my bike was moving through mud—more like my legs were jelly) and I dropped back and checked it out—I was fine. Looking up, I was 75m behind the field. I had two choices: drop or chase. I glanced down at my black CSC (now Saxo Bank) wristband, and immediately decided to HARDEN THE FUCK UP and I chased back on. Which, though hard, happened pretty quickly and I didn’t need to go beyond myself. So I feel good about that. Second, I had low bloodsugar reaction in the final lap.

It is difficult to notice the symptoms of low BG (blood glucose levels) in a race because you are generally working so hard and there is no “normal” feeling by which to compare one’s “typical” symptoms. Regardless, I’ve learned the symptoms while riding and told Dan and Jake I was dropping out. But because the pace was not too high I was able to sit on the back and consume the rest of my energy drink and down a gel packet. After a few min, I felt much better, and my legs and bloodsugar had recovered so I returned to the race. This is when I went to the front in the final two miles, I pushed the pace to prevent attacks before dropping back and letting Dan and Jake run it the rest of the way. I was able to recover for a min before the final climb and though I thought I'd just fall right over somewhere near the top, I nevertheless finished my race.

All in all, a good day for Spidermonkey Cycling!