As an out and back loop we had to contend with mostly head winds in one direction and mostly tail winds in the other, but it was the few cross wind sections that did the most damage. This was going to be a race of attrition as the big guys tried to crush the smaller guys in the wind.
The race started about half way along the loop and into the headwind. It was fairly mellow for the first few miles with just a few attacks that were easily brought back. I was sitting near the front for most of the time with only about 15 riders ahead of me. As we came to the first turnaround people were trying to move up. The road was so narrow at the turn around that the cone forced everyone to an almost complete stop. This meant that it was a mad sprint to get back into the group. I wasted a lot of energy on this first turn and made a mental note to be nearer the front on the next one.
We were now in the tail wind direction with a couple of cross wind sections that caused a lot of trouble. The center line rule was being enforced and that meant that everyone was strung out trying not to cross the yellow line. The cross winds were so strong that all the riders ahead of me we leant over at 60 degrees forcing against the wind.
People were opening gaps and coming back through the groups as they blew up fighting to keep a wheel. I was holding the wheel in front and able to go around people when the gaps opened up. I looked at the GPS at one point and it said 35mph. I was in the 53x11 and completely spun out. I needed a 10 cog!!
I was managing to stay in the lead group even though it was shrinking behind me. We came to the northern turnaround and I came flying up the left side overtaking about 10 guys coming into the cone, again my CX racing over the winter helped. I was always able to cut inside on the tight and twisty sections of the CX courses. I was out of the saddle and sprinting to stay on the back of the lead group as gaps were opening up. This time I used a lot less energy as the gaps were much smaller this close to the front.
The next 10 miles were into a block headwind so the group really slowed. This didn't stop the two biggest teams of MarkPro-Strava and Fremont Bank from attacking the hell out of each other. MarkPro-Strava had a man off the front with about a minute gap and were covering everything that anyone did. They had the strongest riders and the largest number of teammates. The continual attacks were taking their toll on the field. Gaps were opening up and smaller and smaller groups were being formed with each attack. Instinct drove me to the front and I went with a couple of attacks and also bridged up to a group that got away. I could sense that a group was going to get away. Another attack of 3 guys went and I jumped on the back. It took almost everything I had to stay on the wheel and we were away! Another 4 or 5 guys bridged up and we had a good gap. This was it, this was going to stick. The big teams were represented and their teammates were shutting things down behind. Unfortunately I'd used up too much energy getting into the move and didn't have enough power to stay with it when we hit one of the cross wind sections. I fell off the back of the break and started to drift back to the group. I was going backwards through the group as riders were trying to bridge up and nearly lost contact before managing to catch a wheel and hang on the back.
Thankfully things were shut down again by the bigger teams and the group started to slow, but it was much smaller now than it had been a few minutes earlier. The attacks and chasing had popped a bunch of people off.
That was the winning move, the group of 8 broke up a little but the leaders were never caught. We could see them at the next turnaround, they had 30 seconds. This inspired another chase which really put me in the hole. I was struggling to hang on at one point and only just managed to grab a wheel before the group slowed again.
We had a good tailwind and again I was spun out in the biggest gear I had. We came through the northern turnaround again and the gap to the lead group had grown and this took the urgency out of the group. We had slowed down a lot. We started the headwind section again and about half way through we all felt a few spots of rain. By the time we reached the southern turn the wind was howling even stronger and the rain was chucking it down. The bikes were making foamy streaks through the puddles and all the back wheels were throwing up rooster tails. I had a good pair of glasses on and had also treated them with rainX but I couldn't see a bloody thing.
We had about 3/4 of a lap to go, probably around 15 miles but the rain was making this tough. It also started to get much colder at this point.
There were still attacks but the power had really been taken out of them. I was riding near the front and trying to stay out of the potholes. Before the turn around we could see that the lead group had broken up into groups of 2s and 4s. We came around the turn and I sprinted to keep my place in the lead group, I was in the lead 10 of the group and holding my wheel. The finish was uphill, into a head wind so I wanted to leave it late before I sprinted but that would be dependent on what everyone else was doing.
I put my head down and jumped for the line but wasn't making ground on anyone and a couple of guys came around me. I was done. The race was so hard and the weather was so miserable that I just started laughing out loud. I pulled my rain jacket out and just started the ride back to the car. It was about 7 miles and the rain was still coming down. After about a mile just started shivering, I was getting really cold. By the time I got back to the car I was shaking all over and hardly able to open the car door. The first thing that I did was start the engine and then climb into the back of the truck to get out of the wet clothes. It took me about 20 minutes as I was moving so slowly and my handshake stopped working. I couldn't even button my trousers so just did the belt up and figured I'd fix it later. Once I was dressed I started loading my bike and other gear into the truck. Once everything was in I started looking for the truck key and couldn't find it. I started to unload a bunch of stuff and was going through my bags when realized that the truck was running. I was so delirious that I'd forgotten I'd started the engine and the keys were in the ignition.
I jumped into the truck and grabbed some food and a Muscle Milk to start the recovery. It took about 45 minutes of driving with the heater on full before I could really function again. That was the closest I've ever come to hypothermia. Let's not do that again.
This had been one of the hardest races I'd ever done and actually finished. I'm interested in seeing the results but apparently they're not available this evening due to the bad weather.
On to stage 2 and 3 tomorrow. My TT starts at 8:14:30 AM and the Circuit Race at 10:55.
Breakfast: Toast and an Egg McMuffin.
Race Food: 3 Crank Gels 1 Honey Stinger and 2 bottles of Cytomax.
See Strava for race details.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Oakdale, CA
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