Sumner County Classic Road Race

May 1, 2009.

Nasty drive to the race just north of Nashville. We went through tons of rain and had our doubts about the race conditions. All was not lost though. We got a few sprinkles in the parking lot before the race and that was it.
The course was 2 laps of a 24 mile loop. I race Cat 4. This was my first race of the season and my goal was just to finish and not be dead last.
We started with about a mile and a half neutral start. Once we were clear to go, everyone stayed together for the first few miles. Finally at around 7 miles in the race a group of 6 got off the front. There were members of 3 teams in the break that had at least 2 team mates in the pack. These team members were on the front trying to control the pace of the group. I got with 3 others to chase down the break and easily brought it back. Everyone settled down again and we just cruised along.
Then a solo break was started. The guy making the break had 3 team menbers sitting on the front to control our pace. No one seemed to want to chase him down. I waited for someone to go after him and still, no takers. So, off I went. My thought was that if I could bridge the gap and work with this rider, maybe the 2 of us could stay away. It was not to be. Once I caught his wheel, he backed off his pace and his 3 team mates brought us back to the group.
4 riders went down on the slick road in a sweeping left turn on a descent. One of the rider's front wheels went airborne off his bike. They all got back into the group pretty quickly.
The climb on this course was a slow, gradual one with a kick at the end of about 200 meters. When we got there, I was toast. I had expended far too much energy chasing breaks.
I was shelled down to about 25th position from where I had been holding in at around 15th.
It took the next lap for me to recover and work with a couple other riders to work our way back to the group. We never got back on. I dropped those 2 on the final climb and passed a couple more riders before my solo finish. I finished 27th of 35. After 2 hours and 17 minutes in the saddle, I finished and I wasn't last. Good enough for my first outting this season. I have to step up my training for sure. I know where I suffered and where I felt good. Unfortunately, there was more suffering than I wanted.
My team mate won his Masters 50 race in a 2 person breakaway from 4 miles into the race. It was his first win EVER. He was stoked for the rest of the day. It was a good race and worth the 5 1/2 hours of ride time to and from the race.