One Second

Here's a race report from the Steamboat stage race this past weekend.  The picture below does a good job of characterizing the weekend.  After over 6 hours of racing, I finished one second behind Michael Catterall.  In this picture, I am sitting one position behind Michael and his goofy-looking lead-out-my-teammate-to-win socks, waiting for an opportune time to attack in the crit.

This picture pretty much sums up the weekend.  One second behind Michael.

Friday - 10.5km TT - Not much to say here.  It was a TT that started along the river on a road with rolling hills and chipseal, then we turned under US-40 and started about a 1.25-km climb to the finish line.  All I can say is it went quite a bit better than last year. Last year, I got there a couple minutes after my start time and began the race with no warm-up.  This year, I arrived about two hours ahead of time and was able to ride for over an hour before my start.  Last year upon returning to the car, I discovered I had locked my keys in the trunk.  This year, upon returning to my car, I was at a sweet condo where a few other ColoBikeLaw riders and I were spending the weekend.

Saturday - 7.5-lap circuit race - We raced 7.5 laps around a 4.5 mile course.  The start line was the same as last year, but the direction was opposite last year's circuit, and the finish was moved to the top of the hill.  The pack took off like gangbusters on the first lap and my climbing legs were not yet ready to keep up.  I rode my own tempo and did not let the field vanishing in the distance discourage me. Over the next 7 laps, I caught, passed, and dropped 15 riders to move from 64th the first time through the finish to 49th after the 8th time.  Saturday revealed an interesting rivalry for the weekend. Michael Catterall from the BRC team was 8 seconds behind me in the TT, but then hung on to beat me by 9 seconds in the circuit race.  The whole way up the finishing switchbacks, I could see him up ahead and was closing the gap, but there wasn't  enough road left to catch him before the line, so he went into Sunday with a 1-second lead.

Sunday - 70 mile road race - The road race was the same course as last year, sort of a T-shaped route with two out-and-backs.  The first out-and-back featured rolling hills but no major climbs to cause selection.  The 2nd out-and-back, though, consisted of three big climbs broken by two medium length descents (and three descents broke by two medium length climbs on the way back).  I knew after the circuit race that I wouldn't have the climbing legs to stay with the leaders on the 2nd out-and-back, so I stopped for a nature break at the bottom and let everyone ride away from me.  Then, with about 1-lb less fluid on board, I resumed climbing and immediately began catching and passing riders.  Riding my own tempo seems to work!  If only it were a much faster tempo, I could probably win some races that way... Anyhow, I linked up with Jay Engel on the climb, and saw Mr. Catterall coming down the descent just before we reached the turn around.  I knew if we worked together, we could catch him and I could possibly earn back the 1-second he was leading me by in the overall race time. Jay and I drove the pace on the downhill, then separated on the last climb, but reconnected after the railroad crossing on the way back towards the start/finish.  Working together and taking maximum advantage of the tailwind and Jay's aero wheels, we brought Michael's group back right at the start of the 2nd to last climb of the day.  At that point, Michael and I rode side by side the whole rest of the race (except when I dropped back momentarily to give more room as a truck passed) until the final 200m.  The last 1km of the race was a moderately steep climb, with the finish at the top.  I jumped right after we passed the 200m to go sign, and put a bike length or so into Michael, but it wasn't enough for us to be given separate times, so the 1-second gap remained through stage 3.

Monday - 45-minute crit - The crit course in downtown Steamboat is one that suited me quite well.  I knew that with a bit of luck and good timing, I could get a really good result here.  I lined up at the back, and tail-gunned for the first 15 minutes or so.  With about 30 minutes to go, I started moving up through the field, and with about 15 minutes to go started consistently maintaining a position inside the top-10.  Last year, I didn't realize how well this course suited me, so I went prime-hunting throughout the race and came home with a pair of tires, a time bonus, and half a wheel-length short of a new wheelset.  This year, though, I was focused on the finish and successfully ignored every single prime announcement.  As the minutes ticked down, I was doing a good job of marking moves and keeping a good spot in the top-10.  Also, I noticed the hill after the start/finish line and between the 1st and 2nd turns was getting easier.  When the timer turned over to laps remaining, I was feeling really good.  CU Boulder riders were doing an excellent job of controlling the race, either sending riders to the front to drive the pace or off the front to force others to chase.  One rider went to the front and buried himself with 5 and 4 laps to go.  Then another CU rider launched from the front with 3 laps to go.  I assisted in chasing him down on the back side of the course.  The pace remained quite high after the catch and as we came through the start/finish with two laps to go.  I was sitting in 5th position or so and was feeling good.  As we came onto the start/finish straight seeing one lap to go, I was sitting in 3rd wheel and felt the two leaders start to ease off and drop the pace.  The possibility of getting swarmed on both sides flashed through my mind and I knew I would feel really bad if I finished outside the podium after being boxed in, so I decided to make a move with one lap to go.  I stood, accelerated, shot over to the left edge of the road, saw that I immediately had a gap, and then put my head down and hammered.  This attack was the fastest I had come through the first two corners, because the hill between them actually felt flat on this lap.  Coming out of the 2nd corner, there was the long gradual downhill on the back straight.  I kept hammering and maintained the lead into turn three and then railed turn four, pedaling for all I was worth.  Coming onto the home straight with a good gap, I could almost taste the win, but then the finish line seemed to move further and further away.  The gap I had built up early in the lap proved to be insufficient and I was caught by the front of the field with about 200m to go, coming over the line, legs cooked, lungs seared, and muscles burning in 12th place, but much happier than if I had been boxed in and finished 2nd feeling fresh.

All in all, it was a great weekend and definitely has me feeling good about track nationals at the end of the month in LA and then my winter season on the track in Manchester, UK.