Workingmans Stage Race - TT

What's a race report without pictures? I've been waiting for more to show up, but instead had to go with this one, especially for MoveitFred.

When all else fails, write a race report. When we left off, the 24th Annual Workingmans Stage Race was already underway. My team puts on this event, a unique mid-week, evening stage race with GC scored on points, not time. This year we had categories for 40+, 2/3, 4, and 5 and 145 racers braved the summer traffic and threatening thunderstorms (which never materialized) for three nights of fierce racing and very little sleep. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

As you might imagine, putting on a 3-night race is a lot of work. Our race crosses the state border, with the TT and circuit race stages taking place in Amesbury MA and South Hampton, NH, which means twice as many meetings with municipal authorities to work out all the details of road use. Then the third stage is on private property, the All-Star Speedway in Epping NH. More on that later. Since I live 65 miles south of the rest of my team (who are mostly local to the race), both racing and helping out require a lot of driving. Getting in the prep for competing in the race while fulfilling my club duties to help make the event happen, as well as not getting fired from the day job, took more than a touch of creativity on my part, which is one reason why you haven't been getting a lot of blogging out of me lately. But I can still spin a run-on sentence.

And we pulled it off. Race Director Armand and his partner-in-crime for this race Duano did not sleep too much the past few weeks, but everything got done. TT night the weather was fantastic, 90 degrees and no wind. The course was perfect and well marshaled. My start time was 7:06 PM, so this year, daylight, bonus. The course is a 6.6 mile loop beginning with a very fast, straight, slightly downhill opening stretch of just under two miles. This is followed by the "Euro section" with a few tight turns, narrow country roads, and two big rollers. You bomb down off the last one at 55 kph, across a bridge into a high speed turn leading to the main obstacle, a sizable hill and subsequent bumpy false flat totaling around a kilometer in length. Then it's a 70 kph plunge down into the thickly settled village of Amesbury, a 90 degree turn on wide roads, and a final 1.5k push on flat road back to the finish. Unlike some boring, featureless TTs, this one requires a rider to possess strong TT skills, but also be able to handle the bike, climb a bit, and make anaerobic bursts at several points on the course. And it is relatively short, in other words, perfect for me.

This year, I've been on my TT bike a lot. Besides the two "real" TTs at Freeport Maine and the KSR, I've been to Rehoboth four times, all on my TT bike. I've got my setup dialed pretty well. As for training, after my break in early June, I did a big three week block of volume, around 16 hours/week, taking me through the 4th of July holiday. Since then I'd more or less been tapering, just doing TTs, the Attleboro crit, and my team's Tuesday night worlds training ride. The week prior to WMSR it was that on Tuesday, Rehoboth on Thursday, and then a local TT in Sharon on Saturday morning just for good measure. That's a longer one, around 12 miles, so rather than ride it like a TT I did 2x5 minutes at of extra-hard pace, and the rest a bit below what I normally time-trial at. The idea was to sharpen up a bit. Just three days before the race, this was a bit risky, especially coming on top of the hard works outs I'd already done the prior Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Sunday and Monday I was feeling it too. Getting prepped for a 15 minute TT is always going to involve training on a fine line between freshness and sharpness.

Race day I worked a half day and then headed up in the early afternoon, working some last minute (and I mean last minute) details of the production with Armand before bolting to the venue to greet the angry mob waiting to register (yes, we were late). Actually the racers were all very cool, race packets got distributed, and everyone was polite and super-attentive at the rider's meeting. Faith in humankind restored. Around 600 PM and I was just setting up my bike on the trainer, so the warmup would be rushed. Hopping on, after about three pedals strokes POOFFFFFFF! and my rear tire goes down. Sweet. I'm using a disc cover on my power tap wheel, with a lightweight Veloflex clincher and latex tube. Springing into action, things are disassembled and there's no glass in the tire, in fact there's a weird looking hole that appears to be melted in the tube, on the inside, like it was some kind of defect. I hastily install a butyl tube, get it inflated, and re-fasten the disc cover for what will now be an abbreviated warm up. But at least my legs seem OK and after less than 15 minutes I finish up and roll around the lot for a final gear check before heading to the queue.

We do 30 second start intervals. The guy ahead of me does not have aero bars. There are 38 riders registered in the 40+, 37 men and one woman, Danielle Ruane (Sunapee) whose husband Patrick raced (and won the overall in, chock one up for old man power) the 2/3 instead, because we geezers his own age do not provide sufficient competition for him. At go time, I rolled off and settled in. I was targeting 340 watts average for this race. Starting off too hard is deadly, as the beginning is the fastest and easiest part. Flying down Lion's Gate Road, which is slightly downhill, I was going well over 50 kph in my 53x13 and seeing high 300s every time I glanced down. Feeling fine, I still recognized that was too hard, and I tried to pace. But last fall in my winning TT ride at Bob Beal, I averaged 367 for 9 minutes, and this was only 15, so should I push it?

Staying focused, I downshifted for the rise onto Kimball Road, keeping my cadence in the high 90s and trying to hold my aero-helmeted head level and keep my shoulders hunched Zabriskie style. The tight turn onto Newton Road gives some competitors trouble, but I know enough to take a little recovery and set up for a fast exit rather than dive bomb in too hot. There's some false flat there and I reeled in and passed my 30 second man before the 90 degree left. I consider this section of the course key, as it goes uphill for almost a kilometer before plunging down at high speed into a steep and difficult roller. You have to meter out your energy and speed precisely to maximize the length of the speedy portion and build momentum for the roller. I nailed it, and knew I was having a good ride, so I started pushing more. I took the turns a bit conservatively, as you never know exactly where the cops will be standing in the road, or where they might stop traffic in the oncoming lane, so wide exits are not a good idea.

Into the hill, the race is more than half over and it's showtime. The steeper part at the bottom is pretty short, only 200 meters or so, with a longer false flat coming after. I attacked it out of the saddle in a 53x19, perhaps a bit too soon. I was getting gassed but had to keep humping until it crested out a little before sitting back down, taking the 21, and trying to build a spin over the bumpy false flat. Two riders were just ahead of me, my 1:00 just passing my 1:30 man, who I passed myself before starting the descent. I was dieing at that point, but the downhill is pretty long and it's not do or die, it's just die no matter what and recover when you're spun out. My work of the past weeks may have paid off as I did recover and as soon as the downhill leveled into the long pedaling section I blew by my 1:00 man. Blessed with a clear road, I motored all the way down into the 90 degree turn onto Friend Street, coasting for an extra second to pull myself together for the final push. After a nice apex and a smooth exit, quickly getting on top of the gear, 44 kph showed on my speedo and things looked pretty good. But it's a loooonnnnngggg way to the end when you're this smoked, and of course I faded, having used up everything to get this far this fast. Into the cones and around the corner and up the school driveway, I gave it everything I could find in a final out of the saddle burst, crossing in 15:09.

The start and finish locations on the course have been tweaked a few times over the years, but in 2009 it was the exact same as this year (and we hope to keep it that way). I was sick last year, riding a disappointing 15:52, good for only 12th. Encouraged by my improvement, yet still disappointed as I felt going in that it would take a sub-15 to win and don one of the snazzy pink S.M.A.R.T. wind tunnel leader's jerseys. And I was correct, my time was good for only 3rd in the 40+. Paul Richard (CCB) surprised me with a race winning 14:56. Paul is fast but I'd pegged Bruce Diehl (Sunapee) and Mainer Ron Bourgoin (OA/Cyclemania) as co-favorites. Both had trounced me at Freeport and Killington. Bruce took second with a 15:00, with Ron 4th, just a half second behind my time. Mark Suprenant (Team Type 1) has also been beating me this year, and he was 5th just a few more seconds back. Other notables include my team mate the Cronoman who took 10th with a 15:58, and of course Danielle who girled more than half the field with a 15th place finish of 16:14 (24.4 mph, and this is not a particularly fast course).

I'm pretty happy, though I really wanted to win. With Patrick in the 2/3, that made things look easier (he rode a 14:59). Paul and I are usually very close. Diehl and Bourgoin have owned me this year, but I'd beaten them in the past, so I had hope. But my ride was still a highlight of my season. I may have left a few seconds on the table by misjudging the hill, but so many other things went right that I shouldn't second guess. I averaged 343 watts without zeros, 332 with (there are five points of coasting on this course), nearly hitting my target. Cadence was 97 rpm, speed 26.2 mph. That's it for now, thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll get some pictures to go with the rest of the story.