Pace Bend RR Weekend

Pace Bend, Saturday - Day 1  Cat3,4  8th/100+ - 31 miles - Good mixed field of 3s and 4s, I stayed in the front 10 the entire race.  Race started with a bang as me and 5 others shot up the tailwinded 3 mile section.  Like the rest of the breaks that day, the pack eventually clawed us back in though by the time we passed the finish on the first lap.  The next 2 laps went this same way, with a group of us flying off the front, and the large mixed pack then clawing us back in.  On the third lap, we had a break with the riders who would eventually finish 1, 3, 7, 8 (Me, M. Aguilar, S Poncik, and Canyon).  This one should have stuck, but didn't the others wouldn't work hard enough.  In hindsight, I should have worked harder to make this stick, even if it meant burying myself for a while. 4th would have been better than 8th, and I might have done even better. Lesson: work hard enough in the break to make it stick, even if it means risking something if the pack catches you.


Pace Bend Sunday - Cat 4 - 51 miles - Good field again with a number of strong, should be 3 cat 4's.  Teams Dallas Bike Works, Tilt, and Rockwall Racing and a couple others are well represented.  Same as day before breaks start out every time on the back straight, a heavy tailwind helps them along.  I try for a few, making it to the group each time, but with groups not working fluid enough each time, but we made sure to make it fast enough to hurt the people sitting in the pack going up the hills.  With one, big long punishing hill which was right about where we got caught being our main weapon against the big guys every time.  3rd lap around, early on the tailwind sections two guys go up the road.  Me and a coupe others work to claw them back within striking distance, but they tire.  As we approach the big hill, I know this is my chance to pull back that break, and if I go hard enough the pack may not follow.  So, I jump, I nearly reach the two in front and TT up near to them, upon seeing me, they wait up a bit and then we are three.  I immediately go to the front and put in a hard pull.  I am happy to see Dallas Bike Works and another big team I can't remember right now are represented, limiting who will be chasing us.  Soon after we make the sharp right after the tailwind, the chase is one, we hoof it, and only a group of two is able to close and catch us, we add Tilt and someone else solo to our team rerpresentation.  We all collaborate through the straight and we've got 30 seconds by the time we hit the tailwind section again.  I pull more, lots more, and we are out of sight.  At this point we are gone.  We drop the one solo guy and then the team I can't remember guy has a mechanical, we try to wait for him, but after the second chain drop, we have to go.  We leave him, At this point, it is me, tilt guy, and DBW dude.  We work hard through the last few laps, and then know it is between the 3 of us for the end.  I feel good, so I put in a couple of attacks on the last lap.  I am hoping to just solo off, but the tilt guy works hard to reel me in at about 3k to go.  He is toasted at this point though.  We settle back in and hold off til 1K to go.  I attack again as the hill to the finish starts,  Only the DBW dude can bridge, so I ease off a bit, and let him try to outsprint me to the end.  I hope my legs hold up so I can pull around him.  At 200 m to go, we are both out of the saddle on the steep uphill, I pass him on the left, and accelerate around him to first.

A&M Collegiate Omnium

RR - 1st/17, Cat B - Summary: Don't let adversity get in your way, Ripped up packs are where I do well.  44 miles. 

TT - 2nd to R. Currie from OSU, din't finish hard enough

Crit - 2nd in breakaway to R Currie,  RC and I split off on 3rd lap as I had desired due to wet conditions. 

Race 1:Sealy RR1, 1/14/2017

Race #1:
My first serious road race, since I would say I hit decent shape (i.e. holding 300W for an hour or so).

Unfortunately, this raced was doomed long ahead of time.  I came down with the flu on Tuesday night.  I was so sick I had to miss work Wednesday with fever, and work from home on Thursday.  I could barely manage moderate aerobic efforts during the week, and did manage to train a little bit to help with recovery.  But this was far from the week I needed coming off of a really intense week of training. With over 600 miles the previous 2 weeks.   I had mostly recovered by Friday and was well enough to go out for dinner to the parents' house.  Which was fine, but not ideal pre-race food.  Additionally, I forgot to charge my Garmin so the battery was dead, preventing me from having GPS during the race.

The morning of was not bad.  I headed to race and got there about 45 minutes early.  But in my haste, I forgot to eat the oatmeal I had brought for myself.  I arrived, registered and peed.  But there was a delay in start so we had to wait an extra 20 minutes.  By the time the race started I had to pee again, but too late... I would have to hold it.  It was hot and sticky, especially for early January (about 78' and humid).

 I raced the 4/5 open Men's category; looking around, I knew I was the strongest rider in the field  (on normal days), excepting maybe my team-mate Phil.  I had trained with and knew I had better top-end power and endurance than the people around me.  Only one rider, from Austin, my friend Justin M., I thought could hang with Phil and I over a distance.

But the day of was hot, and sticky, and with a 15 mph headwind.  And it would turn out to be a rather slow and gentle race with very little excitement, except for one sprint as we turned on the loop portion of the route.  A crash in front of me a rider lost control on a sprint and went over the bars.  I dodged the wreckage.

The pace was otherwise very gentle,  only averaging only about 175 W.  Our group of 3 riders had planned to jump ahead in a section of skinny road.  But we were not well organized, and did not know where each other were.  Come time for the planned jump, I made the jump, but none of my confederates could follow.  Only a few of the team that had been blocking all day, joined me, so after a bit, I gave up and drifted back in.  I decided to make another jump, after the turn off of the road onto a brief 3-4 mile tailwind section.  I tried to jump again, and was joined by one other rider.  We held about 400W.  But looking back, my jump was really more of a hard pedal. In hind sight, I should have gone out much harder (500-600W).   We shattered the field a bit, dropping a slower pack, but we were unable to drop some of the bigger guys who would end up beating us in a sprint.   In the end the group re-grouped into a massive pack as we turned back into the long 10 mile headwind stretch heading back to the finish.

On this stretch I would end up pulling wayyyyyy too much.  Averaging 250W for over 30 minutes as my opponents just watched me do work.  In reality, 250W is well within my ability, but I was working much harder than them, and I continued to work until about 1k from the finish.  This ultimately was my demise, which was really dumb.  I should have either gone out really hard, or waited for the pack sprint.  Instead, I made a foolish jump about 400m out.  I flew up the ride side and was slammed by the headwind.  Someone spun past me on the left, Taylor Pruet.  Panicked, I grinded rather than spun, and  as I reached exhaustion, I was quickly eaten up by the passing pack.  I ended up finishing in the back of the pack at 32/69 riders.  But this was much worse than I had hoped.  In the end, I had bad luck, but more fatally, I made a series of mental mistakes.

Without the team support, I needed to have conserved energy, marked a good rider, and let their team lead me out.  But, there's always next week.  I am excited to try again this next weekend at the oatmeal roadrace in Austin.  The hills should hurt the (more) fat riders.