Race At the Lake 2 - 2004

April 23, 2004

So after last weekend, I decided to play the week a little smarter. I planned on taking Friday off, and racing the short RATL race on Saturday instead of doing the long training ride on Saturday with guys that were not racing on Sunday.

RATL is put on by the Summit FreeWheelers club. They've got a pretty big presence at about every event I've been at. The cool thing about this race is they split the fields nicely. Cat 5/Citizen/Juniors, Women, Cat 4, cat 2/3, masters. So theoretically you really are racing with your peers.

The course is really short 1.2 miles. The Cat 5 race does 12 miles (10 laps), Cat 4 does 18 in 15 laps. There is a slight rise at the 7:00 position, it flattens out again near the lot at 6:00, the rises again near 5:00. You descend from 4:00 into the left turn heading into the start finish mark. Overall the course is really flat, but you could still feel people moving backwards over the 2 rises.

15 counter clockwise laps... on a really short course. Westlake is about 2 miles, which I guess is just long enough, but this course I almost felt dizzy from spinning around this so much.

Prep

The weather was nice, sunny and around 55-60 degrees. I arrived at 8:00 for a 9:40 start. The Cat 5 races starts at 8:30, so I wanted a little time to take some laps and see whe the course looked like. Phil Manning was there for the 5 race, so he took me around and indicated the "be careful" points.

The organization of the race is pretty good. I watched the 5's roll of, then about 3 minutes later, the women rolled off for their race. I watched a lap or two, then started heading out for some warm ups.

On the way out I ran into Dan Guggenheim from Chaos. I figured it would be cool to roll around with him. He also had Steve Previs there. Still only 2 guys on his team, so they were a little short handed. Dan asked if I would work with them... this being my first exclusive 4 race, I said I'd see what I could do. Wow, I'm an honorary team member! or at least recruited to see if I can bury myself.

We warmed up on the roads a bit, and got back in time to catch the Cat 5 chase group come in. I think 2 guys got off the front and a big group came in for third. I'm not sure, but I think the women had passed the 5's somewhere... Cat 3/4 women, so no real lose of pride.

While waiting to get on the course, we stopped and chatted with one of the 5's that went down. A little craziness with holding lines, and a few guys hit the pavement.

By the time we lined up, I was pretty warm, so I dropped all my warmers. Base layer, jersey and shorts. I think the temp was about 60 at the start of the 4 race. A little cool, but I'm sure I'll be plenty warm after the first lap.

The Race - Round and Round the mulberry bush...

A few words from the official at the start. Some complaints from last week on squirrelly riding... I thought I would be away from a lot that in the 4's... I guess not, something else to watch out for.

I did recognize some of the guys from the Covered Bridge races, and last years Westlake race. Some of them have been racing in the A group, but getting dropped. I'm not sure that's a good idea, since then they are not really working once they are away from the pack (personal opinion). Something to think about before trying to jump up.

... And away we go.

Not a super exciting race. My plan was to sit in and see if I could do anything on the primes and at the finish. I felt pretty good, but the pace was pretty high. Round and round. There was some squirrellyness, guys were twitchy in the pack, and it would ripple around.

The primes were pretty frequent, but I couldn't get into a decent position. As I'd move up on the hill, hold ok on the decent, and then get swarmed through the turns before the line. So I was pretty much sitting around 10th wheel through the primes, and in the front 20 or so for most of the race.

Phil hung around and watched the 4's race. It was pretty funny. Every time I went around, he'd be hollering "Come on John, let's go!" After about the fifth or sixth time, one of the guys says to me "Yeah, come on John!"

Dan was doing lots of work at the front, which kind of surprised me. He didn't seem to jump into any of the prime laps, so I wasn't sure of his motives. Steve did hop into one prime that I was close to the front on, but pulled out of his pedal....

One guy (unattached, unless he just wasn't wearing team kit) went off the front with about 5 to go... and opened a pretty big gap. Being the responsibility of the teams to bring him back, I just sat in and watched. We picked him up with 1 to go...

Going up the rises the last time the pace was really ramping up. I lost a few places, probably sitting around 30th. When a bit in front of me a couple guys banged bikes. No one went down, but there was the requisite screaming and a little slow down.

As we hit the second rise, I was behind Brett Davis from Snake Bite. I thought he'd be a fine wheel to move me into a bit of position... my mistake as he stalled in the hill. I waited a bit to long to come around, and ended up a little off the back of the field. I used my awesome descending skills to chase back on... and looked back to see no one, literally.

I made it back before the right turn and picked up a few places before the final, but I ended up 25th out of 33.... shoot.

Post

I did a cool down and caught up with Dan, who got second. I also found out from another guy that the guy who went in the break was a state time trial champ. 1 lap short. He was so far out, they didn't realize he took the last prime.

I felt pretty good... not front of the race good, but I hung in for the whole race. I think I could have done better if I would have chosen a better wheel on the last rise. Dan came in 2nd, and had a max speed of 32mph. I was back of the pack, but had a max of 37.5, which I must have hit chasing back on the decent before the final. Average was 24.5 (or so) and my AHRM was 168! Evidently my LT is pretty high compared to my MAX (182).

The finish and primes were handled pretty well. They had a video camera on a scaffold. They'd switch it on to catch the line. They had spotters to catch the money numbers, but they'll review the tape and post results really far down the field. http://www.summitfreewheelers.org/ratl_frame.html. I should be listed in week 2 sometime soon.

http://www.scottthor.comThis guy posts some really good race diaries. He's a cat 3 and here is his view of the big boys racing.. Poke around his blog.. it's got some really interesting stuff.