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Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wet and gritty
This was my first Oregon road race since I moved out here in August, I was super excited to get back into it. As much as I love cross and mountain biking, road racing is still a lot of fun.
In the OBRA series everything is a little different than what I was used to back in the Midwest. For starters you are issued two lycra numbers to last through-out the season, and you can preregister for all the races. This cuts down on a lot of annoying headaches associated with racing. But with biking being very popular out here, the fields are large and strong. The fields are broke down by Cat 1/2, Cat 3, Cat 4, Cat 5A, and Cat 5b, also a large number of master fields as well. I am registered for the Cat 4 series with my eyes on upgrading to Cat 3 this season.
Today’s race was stage 1 of a three part series called the Banana Belt. 44 miles around beautiful Hagg Lake (actually is beautiful) the course rolls up and down quite a bit (overall elevation gain of 750 ft). The Cat 4 field seemed to be around 100 riders for the day, all unfamiliar to me, except Andrew Utz. The weather was not-cooperative, it was raining the entire race and everyone was covered in grit and dirt from the road, it looked like we just finished a cross race.
My goals for the day were simple, don’t chase or attack anything. Sit in and finish with the pack. I was just trying to figure out my fitness level and get a feel for racing again. Also being so early in the season there was a lot of general uneasiness in the peloton; lots of dropped water bottles, a crash, general bumping, and the words “slowing” repeatedly. Road racing.
I was sticking to my plans well until the final 7 miles. A rider from Team BEER charged up a hill with another on his wheel, they gapped the field by a decent margin. When this happened I was sitting 5th wheel and decided to go after it, a man in a pumpkin-orange kit followed. We got up to the 2 man crew and joined in, we put on about 100 ft of distance between us and the peloton, it seemed like we could hold it. But some of the guys decided to sit-up and get reeled back in. I knew this was going to cost me; the biggest hill was near the finish.
Still sitting near the front and approaching a sketchy-downhill turn, I decided to jump into the lead, coast down the hill and take the turn fast. This time Andrew was sitting behind me, we flew out of the sketchy turn and put on a decent 50 ft gap, 3 miles left. A few other riders decided to join us in another attempt at a break. The other riders were total assholes or smarter than us. They just sat on our wheels and refused to pull. During this confusion/waste of time, the pack caught up. Screw it, might as well finish with the pack. Too bad I had burnt all my matches in the last 7 miles and bonked on the final hill leaving nothing for the finish.
Overall I felt great to be racing again, even in the cold, gritty, rain that was today. I learned who to stay away from in the pack and who to stick to. Andrew and I worked very well together; I think it is going to be a great season racing with him.
This was also the last race for my road bike; this is the first bike I had ever built up (wheels and all) and have been riding it for three great years. The new bike is a big upgrade and I am really excited for the next stage of the Banana Belt to test it out.
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