Round and round

Two people on a tandem just rode by the crib. My street gets quite a bit of cycling traffic on the weekends. This morning I'm just hanging out and relaxing, enjoying the fact that, with my training now in taper mode, the pressure to make the most out of each weekend day has ceased for the time being. Soon I'll head out for a short ride just to loosen up and get the blood flowing.

Yesterday there was a criterium in Attleboro, just a few towns over from here. The course is a short 1k loop with a small rise on one side, just after the start/finish. The turns are a litte tight, but not too bad. Since I'm tapering, the 30 lap 45+ race provided just the right duration of high-intensity work for me. Sixty-five riders were registered. There is quite a range of abilities in this group. The top twenty guys are all deadly serious, with a few who just race, and don't even hold jobs. The bottom twenty guys, well, these are the guys with guts that show a lack of training time, and with lots of grey hair adorning their faces. Sorry Ge, but bike racers are just not supposed to have any. I can barely keep from laughing when I find myself riding along side some dude with an "Orange County Choppers" moustache...

One danger when the race venue sits nearby is taking it too easy in the morning, and of course I must plead guilty. In the past I've ridden to this race, but it takes almost an hour, so if you throw the race on top of that and then ride home, that would make a three hour day, which went against my plan. I therefore drove over, and didn't get registered until about 9:15, with a start time of 9:35. My "warm up" consisted of riding to the start, and then mercifully they gave us a chance to ride three laps of course preview before calling the race to the line. Not ideal for such a short, intense event, but I was OK.

The race started very slowly. I've not raced too many crits since being a master, and this just wasn't like what I remembered from the 3's. Part of it had to do with the variation in abilities. The greybeards and fatties were content to hang at the back, so you didn't have them trying to steal your position. Our plan was to keep it together for Duano in the sprint. Knowing that I had great form right now, I thought I could probably go in a break and do well, but I owe some service to the team after Stafford, and I also was not keen on getting in a long break. Working to keep the field grouppo compacto would give me just the right amount of work for the day.

One little break went early. I moved up in case I had to chase, but it came back by itself. I took a flyer just so that I could get the feel of the corners at top speed. In crits, this is always a good idea, because you want to know the limits before you get to the front at the end, with the race on the line. I banzaied the course for a lap, had a small gap, and lo and behold they rang the bell for a $20 cash prime. Well, one more lap wouldn't kill me, so I kept my head down and soloed the additional kilometer required to pocket the double sawbuck, before sitting up and going back to the peloton.

I surfed the front a bit, then a move with our friends Rano (Gearworx) and Munroe (CCB-Evil Empire) went. Easily bridging onto them, I just sat on, letting them rotate amongst themselves. The field was not far behind, and these two quickly became disheartened and we were absorbed. Retreating a bit for rest, it did not take long for me to see another move, this one more dangerous looking, head off the front sans a BOB. About six guys were up there, a few CCBs in the mix, and they powered away to a ten second lead. The Cronoman and Timmy were up front and kept the group moving for a bit, and I headed up there too. Taking the front, I made a strong two lap effort and brought them group back just as we hit the top of the rise. Of course, a counter when instantly, and to my dismay, rider after riding came through, and no red and yellow... This looked deadly, and I verbalized my opinion, but we were all out of place.

This group gained a straightaway lead before the Cronoman and I think a Bethel started to bridge. Not what I had in mind, and to me it looked like too big of a gap. They chased for two laps but never made it more than halfway across. As they came back, Duano had to hit the front himself to limit the damage. Not good. I was now recovered so I got up there and once again went into locomotive mode. The officials had left lapped riders on the tight course, so that made it interesting. I found out later that my effort had taken us single file and what remained of the main field had split when some riders got gapped going through the lappers. This effort brought me total confirmation of my form, as after two laps on the front at 45+ kph the escapados were back in the fold! A Bike Link guy went right away, and with the race now down to five laps to go, Curley (Gearworx) jumped across the gap, but just sat on the guy.

My plan was to try and catch them on the last lap. Curley would still be tough, because he wasn't doing anything up there. I thought I had it all worked out, and still had gas in the tank when we took the bell at one to go with the duo just about 50 meters ahead of us. But, someone from CCB panicked and they swarmed around me and closed the gap on the rise. I got shuffled back and heard Duano yell to let him in, so I eased. Duano came around sixth wheel with two turns to go, with me getting pushed back out of the top ten. When it wound up going into the final straight, I wasn't totally gassed so I figured I may as well sprint. In the 12, I held my position, maybe taking one or two riders. My max speed was only 58 kph (around 36 mph) which is still better than last year. I got 13th and Duano only got 6th. Curley won...

Cooling down, I was kind of pissed because I knew this was a waste of good form and effort, but since this was all part of the taper, things weren't really so bad. Hearing lots of talk about how fast the race was made me feel good, because for me it was easy. Later I found my HR numbers were pretty high, with over ten minutes in the red zone. That is an excellent sign, as my recovery was very fast and I never felt like I was in trouble, even though I was obviously going full gas. I cut my cooldown off after twenty minutes and headed home without remembering to pick up my prime. Dohhh!