The Raccon Rally is my own little stage race. Saturday morning road race, Sunday morning mountain bike race. It's one of two weekends per year that I travel to race.
The road race is two laps of a 24 mile long course. It starts straight away with a 7 mile climb followed by a 7 mile decent, then a 5 mile climb followed by a 5 mile descent. Sound like fun? These climbs are not brutally steep, but they are work, as the descents are not super fast, but still fun.
I've registered for the cat 3/4 race, hoping that they don't combine the 1/2 field into ours. Before the trip I got an email from the organizer asking if I wanted to race the master's race instead of the 3/4, so I decided if they combined the fields, I'd move over. Turns out they had about 20 in the 1/2 field, so I was safe. Grouping the 1/2's into our field would have totally changed the race tactics, making it just "Hold on as long as possible, then try to organize a group of stragglers to finish together and turn it into some kind of race, instead of just a training ride that cost money."
SnakeBite had 2 other cat 3 riders in the field, since Tom and Todd both drove in for the day. Dave Steiner is also there from Mazza Winery/Inferno Racing, who I regularly do the Thursday group ride with.
At the start Todd suggested we go hard from the start to make it like a mountain bike race. My suggestion was to sit in and watch what happened on the first climb, and see what we could do from there. The finish is on the uphill. In about a half mile, the road kicks up sharply, then flattens a bit, then kicks again. The line is at the top of the second steep part. I told Tom that I would give him a lead out, if I was with him at the finish. It worked on a few occasions last year when we were both in the 4 field, so why not go with what works and Tom has been riding really well in the 3 field.
About 45 riders in the field, including the cat 3/4 women. When I've done this race before, there were mostly independant racers, with no team advantage. This year we had 3, and the local Team Hollyloft had about 20 (so it seemed). There were other teams represented, but I don't think anyone else had more than three. At the line, the promoter even announced us and asked where we were from. Like we were sombody!
The 1/2's started first, then each field with 5 minute intervals. 3/4's, master's then beginners. At the start, a women rider goes out to the front and leads us through the uphill finish. My plan is to stay in the front 10 throughout the whole race. I will not pull through unless I absolutely have to. The first climb is big ring all the way to the top. It's not huge but we do gain about 900 feet in 7 miles. Within about a mile, Todd goes to the front and starts pulling. I've heard he's done this before, so I hope he knows what he's doing. Both Tom and Dave are also in front of me, and I'm still within my first 10, as we get to work.
In the course of the first five miles of the climb, in the course of the climb, Tom pulls through once, and there may have been one other guy that got to the front, but it seemed like everyone was willing to let Todd do the work. I was feeling Todd's pace, and decided I should back off a little, as I see Dave get to the front and Todd start to fade back toward me. As I back up, I realize I am at the back of the field, which is now down to about 20. Todd comes back by me and I warn him that this is the back of the field. Dave is also coming back to me, and I realize that a gap is opening... but there is nothing I can do.
Rule 1: don't sit at the back of the field! Especially if the back is now only half the field.
The gap is opening, but I am NOT going to pull my group back on the climb, I cannot bridge either. I watch as a blue rider sits just off the back of the lead group... dangling. I feel for that guy. He's almost there, but not quite. We pass the first road to the left, and I think we're at the top... but we're not there yet. I'm thinking if we can just get organized over the top, maybe we can chase back on. When we do get to the top, I start to try to get the group to work. We can work this, I take a pull, and see we've got 8 guys. Todd, Dave, me, a HollyLoft, a Tailwind, a Haul-n-ass and a couple of others. Off we go.
Rule 2: If you need to chase, do it when it's hard, not when it's easy.
This is a corrallary to the rule about "attacking when the course is hard, because it's harder to chase there". Once we got to the top, our group could not get organized. Every time I pulled off the front, there would be a gap about 2 or 3 riders back, so I would fill it. It seemed that only Todd, the Haul-n-ass rider and I are the only ones really working. I figure if we don't catch the group by the bottom of the next climb, they are gone.
We keep catching little glimpses of the group ahead. It doesn't take long before the blue rider is in our group. At some point, I play back the tape in my head, and realise that Tom made it across. It turns out that Todd knew the move was happening, and told Tom to get across to it as he was fading back. So we're actually chasing a team mate.
I'm still confused as to when you start racing to defend your current place instead of attempting actually get to the front of the race. It was so weird having some of our group work and others not work. As we got to the second climb, we'd have a Dave, Todd, me and the Haul-n-ass guy pull through, then nothing. Once the grade kicked up a little, Todd just went to the front and set the pace again. Dave sat on his wheel, then me. Todd never pulled off, being more comfortable riding his own pace than the surging pace that was being set when we were in our spastic pace line.
I like to think I'm a pretty good decender, that I can drop faster than most guys in the group without pushing as hard. So once over the second climb, I told Dave that it was mostly down from here, and took over at the front. Pretty much same as before, except every time the blue guy got to the front, it was like he was attacking! Whatever. I'd sit on until he slowed up, then just tried to keep the pace high in hopes of bring something, anything, back to us.
First lap done, and we're down to 7. As we came through the finish line, Todd was at the front, then me then everyone else....and I hear some comotion behind us. I look back and there's a gap again. In short order, I see the blue, HollyLoft and Tailwinds come back. I asked what happened, no one is sure. Then the Haul-n-ass guy is back and he tells me Dave has flatted. Ouch! Well, at least it happened at the finish line, so he doesn't have to walk anywhere.
OK, so second lap, do it all again. In the comotion, Todd has gone off the front on the climb. He basically rode me off his wheel... or I let a gap open, either way, I faded back in our group of 6... oh, Todd's up front so it's 5. Nope. Haul-n-ass is dangling off the back, so it's 1 then 4 then 1. Teammate off the front, I just sit on the other three and let them work the hill.
Rule 3: If you get gapped at some point in the race, be careful when you return there.
At about the same place I lost the lead group, the tailwind guy let a gap open between us and the other two guys. By the time I notice what's happening, I jump around him. I saw the HollyLoft guy start to lose the blue guy, look back, see he had a gap, then jump to catch the other guy and encourage a small attack. I know the guy with me will be useless... so it's up to me. Nothing doing. I have to repeat exactly what happened last lap. The two of them catch Todd before the top, and then there off! The Tailwind rider is on me like glue, so we start to work the descent. With the same results.
Now I'm just racing to stay in front of the master's feld. Can they make up 5 minutes on me? It's pride at stake here, and there's not much of that left either.
At the bottom of the last climb, I drop the Tailwind guy. So, I'm on my own to the finish. OK, ride my own pace, and practice my time trialing up the hill. I'm mostly concentrating on maintaining an even effort. About a mile before the summit, I see a group coming up behind me. Shoot. Here comes the Master's field. Oh well, I'll let them go and finish up my race.
Trouble is, they are not gaining very quickly. I expect them to be on me in no time, but they don't actually catch me until we get to the top of the climb... and there is no way that the baby on the front of the field is a Master's racer. He can't be more than 22! "Is this the 3/4 group?" Yep, so I can work.... I do my dscent thing again. There are a couple of women helping at the front, with a couple of other guys. As we get close to the bottom, I decide I'll sit in a bit and watch the front. I want to try to sprint for a place out of this group. Both the Tailwind guy and the Haul-n-ass guy are in the group also.
At the lowest point of the course, one guy does a pull, and I get his wheel. Heading into the finish climbs, it's just the two of us for a second, and I tell him we've got a gap.... which helps hime pull a little more. In no time at all the Haul-n-ass guy is ack on us, and I think he's got the whole group on his wheel.
When we hit the first climb, I take a hard dig up the right side. The two guys I know about are just about right there on my wheel. I sit up a bit on the flat part and the guy that pulled comes around me a bit. As I look up, I see Todd is almost to the line! The other two are gone. So, they worked him also.
When we hit the second climb, I took another hard dig that I intend on making to the line. I dropped both of them, and there is a gap behind them also... I look back often and gauge the effort to hold them off to the line.
I figured I was sprinting for some minor place, and was right. Todd got 14th, I was 15th. The good news on the day was that Tom managed to stick with the lead group for a 2nd place! He would have won, but the leader ran him off the road to keep from getting passed. He probably should have been relegated for that move but it's still a very nice result. I've decided that Tom is about the smartest racer on our team. He has the legs and the brains to be exactly where he needs to be when it really counts.
It turns out that the lead group had a task master, that whipped them into working for their placings. I guess I'm not mean enough to force everyone to work in the chase group and it failed us.
Somewhere on the first time up the second climb, I came about as close as ever to deciding to quit a race. We weren't getting anywhere and I was really frustrated that only a few of us cared enough to work, the others sat on, or would attack as they pulled through. On the second time up the climb, I had decide that Dave would be really grateful that he flatted where he did, so he could save his legs for the mountain bike race tomorrow.
So, 49 mile chase effort on Saturday, and I ended up 11 minutes behind the leaders. Tomorrow I get to do a 29 mile mountain bike race with a ton of climbing! What fun! After the race, Dick Brink also suggested we do the short track mountain bike race. At the time it sounded really stupid. I was tired and frustrated and only wanted some food a shower and a nap. By 6:00 when the race started though, I felt pretty good. Maybe I'll add that to my stage race next time. We'll see how I feel then.
STATS:
48.4 Miles
2:19:11
19.9 mph
43.6 mph max
3500 feet climbed.
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