Willow Springs

Illinois Road Race Championship (Cat 4), 9/12/09

(40 miles)

Race #36

Middle of the pack/50ish

For the record: I spent a grand total of 2 min at registration! Big thanks Tower Racing for making the admin side of the race better than last year, and for securing a nice, long, loop with a great climb. A real road race so close to Chicago is fantastic! I have no problem with he results, because...well, I don't need to care on this one.

T1 Report: fine. BGs were fine. During the race I methodically consumed a little gel and water on a predetermined schedule—because I’d forget otherwise. I felt really great through the race.

The course was without much wind and as a result, pretty fast. We averaged over 25 mph and if you were more than 5 wheels back, you had a really easy ride until you go up the hill. The hill was about 2.5 min long and I never really figured it out. Because I work better with a high cadence I chose to keep my wheel with the PT and 12-23 cassette and shift into the small ring at the right hand turn. My rationale was that if someone attacked prior to that turn and I had to keep it in the big ring that I could manage in the 23. The first two times up my comfort pace was a bit faster than the pack and I moved up to the front easily, though I knew I wasn’t going to have much of an uphill punch left in mile 39. But I had no real idea how or where I was going to attack in that last mile.

Most of the ride….oops, I mean race…was really chill. In the last few miles I was 5^th or 6^th wheel headed into the turn, Drew was with me. I considered attacking at the staging area and thinning out the field before the hill. Not a good idea, Drew wouldn’t make it from that far. So I decided I was going to try to set a pace that discouraged attacks for the first half of the climb. I’m not sure if I did but once I took the front up the hill I was spinning like 125 rpms doing 7w/kg. Then I heard the crash. God knows what happened, but it sounded like it happened just few rider behind me…so I immediately thought there was a gap. For a glorious few seconds I thought that I could keep it up for another minute—I thought we had about that much left to climb. Could I actually get on the podium? Yes, and no. In just a few short seconds (1, 10 more, was it 30 more?) I was done and let up the pace. With around 2-300m remaining Drew came around, then the winner, then the top ten, then friggin everyone else. I couldn’t pick up my head to see the line so I didn’t see how well anyone did and I have no idea where I finished. Even Drew was not sure if he made it saying he was near dead by the line. I wonder if I had paced myself with the pack, if I could have gotten a better result. That night, as I was sitting and watching the most amazing live music spectacle that is U2 with my wife and cousin, I thought about that. My gut tells me ‘yes.’ But honestly, at this point in the season, that does not bother me in the least. I have such a spotty road race record that I’m pleased that I raced a respectable race, and I felt good for the duration. And, more importantly, I gained some confidence and a little of that stuff goes a long way in this sport.

I may do a few more races still…we’ll see.