Cat. 3: 29th/80
Post-race posing.
Note everyone else is in shorts and shortsleeves. I'm the ass in tights and longsleeves!
This race popped onto the schedule as a result of a lacrosse game cancellation. It dawned on me a week ago when some guys on the PVC SMR were talking about it. They had an ambitious plan of entering the Cat. 3 race and breaking away together. I was hooked on the idea and made plans to attend. After refreshing the weather.com forecast for Loudon several times on Friday, I pre-packed that night and set the alarm for 4:45am Saturday. I mention the weather because it has obviously been quite unpredictable lately! It called for sun and 50 at 9am (race start) and 60 by 11am. Now, there’s a rule of thumb out there that if the air temperature is going to be below 60 degrees, a cyclist should wear some kind of clothing layer over one’s knees as the tendons are easily susceptible to the cold air. My knees are bad enough without any additional aches and pains, so I heed this suggestion religiously. Unfortunately, I don’t own knee warmers so I have to either wear full tights or full leg warmers. So, having accepted the forecast for 50’s during the race as law, I packed tights (my lightest pair) and didn’t shave my legs. Doh! Big mistake!
I arrived at the race and all seemed according to plan. I needed a jacket on while out of the car and I felt the tights were the way to go. It wasn’t until I was riding around warming up that I realized the tights were going to be overkill. At the top of the course’s only significant climb I actually felt some heat in the air and I knew I was in trouble. To make matters worse, I had a long-sleeved jersey on AND I was carrying only 1 water bottle. What a buffoon! These were rookie mistakes.
Well, it was a case of “run what you brung” and I wasn’t going to let it bother me. I rationed my drink and unzipped my jersey and took off my gloves mid race just to make me think it would help. Having just upgraded to Cat. 3 this summer, this was my first race in the new category. Normally I race in the Masters 35+ class which is open to any rider Cat 1-4 and age 35 or higher. It’s a typically competitive field and generally safe because most everyone has kids and a job. The PVC guys wanted to hit the Cat. 3 race which is open to any rider age 18 and up, but must be a Cat. 3, as it was early in the morning. The prospect of working with a team out in front of the pack was exciting and I was looking forward to helping out. The best laid plans go to waste pretty much summed up the day. The race consisted of 5 laps on a 11+ mile course. It was rolling, save for a long and semi-steep climb to the finish. The field was large and the roads were narrow making it extremely difficult to advance any positions except for on the climb. Trouble there was everyone went hard on the climb so unless you had way more power than everyone else and you launched yourself to the front, you were resigned to continue to ride in the pack. There was 1 crash that occurred just ahead of me which I was lucky enough to avoid by braking and veering to the left. I like the comfort of riding in the middle of the road along the yellow for just such a reason. However, this puts me in some of the headwind so I have to work a little harder than those mid-pack. Plus, if the roads aren’t closed to traffic, there are oncoming cars and such evasive action could make me a hood ornament instead! As I mentioned, the team strategy never really came into play because we could never get to the front as a group. At 1 point 4 of us were together, but we were mid-pack and there was no moving up without violating the yellow line rule. Fred stuck to his hugging the white line which unfortunately got him involved in the aforementioned crash. Apparently he rode into a ditch to avoid the melee, got back on the road and bridged back to the group. Stu and Tim enjoyed the view up front while Graydon and I dealt with the constant annoying changes in speed as it rippled through the pack. With some 2-3 miles to go, I glimpsed Fred fly off the front on a solo mission. This was a bold and brave move, but a necessary one as no one seemed committed to making a move. This effort was just what the pack needed as after a mile + it realized Fred may actually get away. The pace picked up and the chase was on. It was difficult for me to see whether we were gaining on Fred as at this point I simply wanted to finish safely, take off all my stupid clothes, and drink a keg of water! We rounded the final turn and after a speedy descent it was to the climb we went. It seemed longer than the previous 4 times we surmounted it, my legs were pretty unresponsive and guys were passing me, but I was passing some guys too. One of them was poor Fred who was laboring up after his hard solo effort. Graydon came by me towards the top and that motivated me to get out of the saddle and make a final push and we finished together. To sum it up, we rode more than 50 miles at a variety of speeds to basically see who was fastest on the hill. We could have avoided all of the nonsense and just had a hillclimb event!
Oh well, it was a great training day at least. I rode for an hour after the race and had the chance to see New Hampshire International Speedway totally empty instead of with 100,000 NASCAR fans milling about. It was good to meet some of the other PVC guys and look forward to racing with them again.
Next up is a double-header weekend, 2 road races in MA.
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