Friday I went out on my time trial bike just to run through the gears and make sure everything was functioning as it should. I was only out for about 40 minutes. I didn’t go too hard, just easy to moderate spinning. When I got home, I washed the road bike I’d be racing Saturday morning. After putting the race wheel set on and lubing all the components, I loaded the bike in the Element and got my gear together.
Saturday morning I was up for breakfast by 5:00 a.m. My race was scheduled to start at 8:20 a.m. I had to drive about an hour, check in at registration and hoped to warm up at least 30-40 minutes. This meant I’d need to leave by 6:30 or 6:45 a.m. Of course, I was late getting on the road, but, as seems to happen more times than not, the race was not starting on time and was about 20 minutes behind schedule. No complaint from me as I needed the extra time. I checked in got my bib numbers and quickly pinned them on my jersey and got ready. I warmed up a little, but hoped that the neutral start would also serve as a warm up. This would be about 2 miles of riding before the race official gave us the okay to start racing. I talked with 3 other riders who were representing our club/team. I had raced with 2 of these guys before. I knew what to expect from these 2 and hoped we could work together throughout the race. There were 52 pre-registered for this race and several had signed up this morning. This was a huge field, the largest I’d ever been a part of.
A CAT 4 race can take many forms. It can be just beyond a CAT 5 race some days, rival a CAT 3 race others and fall anywhere in between most of the time. Today’s race started at a moderate pace. I was able to warm up before the accelerations started, as they always do. But, like a CAT 5 race, there was WAY too much go and stop. Riders would speed up and slow for no apparent reason. JUST GO ALREADY!
The conditions were great Saturday morning. The temperature was mid to high 70’s, no wind and dry. There had been storms at home during the night, but Oak Ridge had not been hit by them. I was glad of this because there are a couple of fast, curvy descents on this course.
The first lap (1 of 2 - 24 mile loops) was good. One hazard we had not expected was that the county had dug a ditch across the road on Thursday. They filled it back in, but poorly. There was a definite dip in the road that could jar you pretty good. One team member in the Masters 50+ race broke his seat post at this point. Our group had no problems crossing it either lap. There were 1 or 2 attempted breaks off the front, but they were shut down very quickly without much effort. I managed to stay at the front of the group on all the climbs. I never fell back further than about 10-15 riders from the front. I was feeling very good. 2/3 of the way through the first lap, on a right turn in a slight descent, the group pulled one of those go and stop moves and I had to hit my brakes pretty hard to avoid slamming into my team mate. My rear tire locked up and I slid sideways for a split second. I released the brake and managed to straighten up correct. My other mishap was road kill. The group parted and I swerved right to miss a dead opossum. I ran over the front feet. “I hope his claws were facing down” was my comment to the rider next to me. I sure didn’t want a opossum induced puncture. The second lap was a little faster. Again, there were a couple of attempts to get away off the front. They didn’t get far before being brought back into the group. This was really a bit of a surprise because there were 2 or 3 teams in the race with 6-8 riders each. I’d have thought they would have had a better strategy since this was the TN State Road Race Championship. The climbs were more intense this time around as the pace was increasing. The lead riders tried to get a gap on each climb, but had no luck. I was still feeling really strong and was sure I could hang with the front of the group till the end of the race. I was on my team mate’s wheel up until about 3 or 4k to go. I lost his wheel to another rider somehow. I was pushed out and ended up on the left side of the lane right on the double yellow line. No worries, I still had good positioning in the field. Once we went under the 1k to go banner the pace kicked. It was on and about to be over. The finish line was soon in sight when chaos ensued and the horrendous, familiar, dreaded sound that no rider wants to hear or be in close proximity to became all too real. CRASH!!! NASTY CRASH, right in front of me. (looked much like the attached picture) “Oh, S*@T!!! I’m going down!” was all that was going through my head. I jerked the bars to the left only to see this massive pile of bikes, bodies and bottles sliding across the center line. I corrected and swerved to the right. There was a bike summer saluting in the air about 6 feet in the air. I pedaled harder and somehow, made it through the carnage unscathed. The field sprint was on. I tucked low and hammered with all I had. The crash had opened the sprint up for some and hindered others. I was in the latter. I pulled past 2 riders and was gaining on a 3rd when he looked over his shoulder, saw me nearing and found a little more bite in his stride. He crossed the line 6 inches in front of me. I was glad to be over the line, surprised I had actually been in the sprint and relieved I had not been involved in the crash. My team mate had seized the opportunity he’d been given and crossed the line in second place. I finished 13th. I was VERY happy with that result. I have progressively gotten better results this season and hope this trend will continue as I stick to my training throughout the rest of the year and into next season. The crash had left one rider with a broken collar bone, one with stitches in his arm, lots of road rash and one trashed bike frame.
I drove home shortly after the race for a 2.5 hour rest before driving back for the evening time trial. Once again, the event was behind schedule by ½ an hour, then 45 minutes and finally an hour. I was supposed to start at 6:02:30 p.m. I finally rolled off the starting line around 7:03 p.m. The route was rolling terrain on a closed course. I had gotten in 30 minutes on the trainer and another 15 on the road before lining up to start. My legs were still fatigued from the road race and I couldn’t quite get my breathing down. The course was 8.24 miles (according to my GPS). I finished 16th with a time of 20:39 at an average speed of 23.9 mph. Not a great time, but respectable.
Sunday, doing absolutely NOTHING, just recovering and watching movies with the family.
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