Call Me - part 2

So I spend the next two hours sitting around the school parking lot waiting for the 35+ race to start (since this course is only 10.5 miles around, they can only run so many races at once. 35+ was in the afternoon wave with the Cat 3 and Cat 1-2). The weather was warmer, hotter really, than what was forecast. The guy parked next to me had a tent, so at least I got some shade while pinning up my number. I tried to keep an eye on the course to see how KL was doing, but I never really saw anything.

I had Ranger Rusnak and Jay C in the race for teammates. An hour before the start, I started getting hungry. I'd only had some toast and a yogurt smoothie for breakfast. That might have been fine for the four lap 45+ race, but now with the extra time and extra lap, I knew I had made a mistake in trying to get there for the 45+ instead of stopping somewhere like McDogfood for a nice salty egg sandwich on the way up. All I had with me was another yogurt smoothie and some outdated Cliff bars. I forced two of the bars down as our start neared, and drank the smoothie. I washed it down some more with some over-strength Gatorade, and packed a flask of Power-Gel for the race.

We had around sixty starters. We rolled out slowly as usual. The uphill grind starts right away, and I was at the front as a few riders spun ahead one by one, forming a small break that began to pull away. The hill at Bow goes up in pitches for a few miles, not too steep, probably three or four percent. There are a few flats, false flats, and slight downhills mixed in there. Not a problem at all unless the hammer is down. The last mile of the climb gets a bit more serious, and then the final 400 meters comes into view. This nasty pitch of 10-15% would be hard enough were it standalone, but coming at the end of a two mile grind doubles the degree of difficulty. Did I mention the face of the hill angles toward the afternoon sun, and there is no shade?

With the party of five a few seconds up the road and the pace sedate, drifting from the front to the back on the steepest part save me even more energy. Everyone stayed on. The descents weren't that fast either, and lap one finished uneventfully. The second and susequent times up there would be KOM sprints, and obviously attacks as well. I positioned myself well and hit the steep part mid pack, but the pace was pretty severe and the field split roughly in half by the top. Splits separate very quickly on the downhill, and we in the wrong end of the split found ourselves at least ten seconds back in short order. Ranger and I led the chase back with the help of a few others, but it too an uncomfortable three k or so before it was grouppo compacto again on the descent. By now I was already feeling early signs of cramping, as well as a very uncomfortable bloating from my belly full of sugar.

Lap three I vowed not to wind up in the back split again, and I fought to the death on the climb. Staying with the leaders, and cresting about eighth wheel, I quickly realized I may have been mortally wounded in this battle. I had simply dug too deep, with an effort more fitting of the end of the race. Adding insult to injury, this time the back split rejoined the front after less than a kilometer, and had I held a more comfortable pace on the climb I'd probably have been in much better shape.

Despite the threat of quad cramps, I was feeling a bit better as the lap finished, and I took a feed from KL as the climbing began again. Luckily, our pace on the early portions was quite slow, and I started to think that maybe I could hang on after all. Nearing the top though, things got very surgy, not good for me. I almost went off the front just so I could keep a steady tempo, but I didn't, and tried to keep following wheels as things kept speeding up and slowing down. The group was down to just over twenty riders at this point, with only one guy remaining from the original break still dangling off the front. We hit the steep part and I started coming unglued. You can see the top from there, and I tried everything to limit the damage as the gap grew, but there was nobody home in the engine room. Even at the crest, I was probably not more than fifteen seconds off the last guy, but I was toast.

On the descent, I grouped up with three other victims and we gave the chase a go. We could still see the pack, maybe fifteen or twenty seconds ahead, when we roared through the ninety degree left hander at the bottom of the longest descent. This stretch leads into another small hill, and when one of the foursome said "you know, even if we catch them at the base of the climb, we're all going to come right back off again" I knew he was right... Seconds later, standing to try to maintain tempo on the small rise, both my legs started cramping severely. I had to sit down and let the other three go.

I worked the cramps out on the next descent, and sucked down half the flask of gel, washing it down with more sugary Gatorade. Fighting over the last few up and down kilometers of the course, I thought about dropping out, but since it seemed there was still a shot at top twenty, I took a feed of much needed plain water from KL and kept going. The last lap was more like a cooldown than a race. I was in my 38x27 all the way up the hill. I was passed by the Cat 3 field, then the 1-2 break, and finally the entire 1-2 field as they finished their sixth'd lap. Some Masters must have glombed in there too, because in the final results I ended up 27th, over 14 minutes down. I know there were only 22 still in the lead group when my foursome popped, so who knows where the other five came from. Not that it matters...

So there you go Ge. Riding one lap of Bow, you may not think that it is too hard, but anyone who had done it will tell you this is one of the most grueling and selective races we do all year. Thirteen years ago, I won this race (Cat 3). Since then, I've had a few decent finishes, some horrible DNFs, and more than one off the back, drag my ass to the line races like this one. I was brutalized by the end, but the feeling of accomplishment was still there, and days like this make the memory of past victory on this course that much sweeter. Thanks for reading.

ps - I'm a day behind, so I'm not proofing this.