Blather on Bicycling

Today I was suffering on the old highway near Kamela. This suffering was from stinging hail chunks as Rad Doc and I got caught in a wicked hailstorm. Exactly one week ago I was suffering in the heat of the first stage of the Elkhorn Classic. I talked about Stage 4 a few days ago. Here is my recap of the other stages:

Stage 3: Gold Rush Criterium

Meaningless merry-go-round racing.

Stage Kiddie

Here I got the first taste of being a competitive parent. I can’t wait to start berating little league umpires and yelling at basketball coaches to give my kid more playing time.

Training . . .
 

. . .tasting bronze.

Stage 2: Pleasant Valley Time Trial

I had a good warm-up and felt good during the time trial, but didn’t set a time that was much better than a year ago. We had a strong headwind going out, so I think that made all the times a bit slower this year. In any case, I haven’t put in any brilliant time trials this year, including in training. I may mess around with my bike and set-up in the off-season. I definitely don’t like this Pleasant Valley time trial course, whereas I loved the previous course on Pocahontas. It gave the “non-climbers” a much better equalizer and it was a faster course with better pavement.

Stage 1: Richland Road Race

This was the first, and hottest day of the whole race. The new course had us plunging down toward Hell, where it was even hotter. Fortunately, we turned around before reaching Hell—or more specifically, Halfway to Hell. A couple year’s ago, the race organization gave us a notepad in our packet that read, “To Hell You Ride.” I’m pretty sure these were printed for the annual motorcycle rally, but they would have been fitting to give out at this year’s race.

I don’t really like out and back racing, especially on a road with angry ranchers who are pissing mad that they were delayed one minute on their trip to the city. Even more disturbing is passing another field of bike riders in the opposite direction. We passed the Pro-1-2 field in the feedzone, going full-speed downhill. The Pros coming uphill in the opposite direction were all over the road and loose bottles where rolling into our path. Nearly brushing shoulders with a bike racer going in the opposite direction isn’t fun.

The wind was all over the dial during the race. On the downhill headwind plunge to Richland, we saw quite a few attacks but the group wasn’t allowing anyone to go. Then we turned around and the wind blew us back up the canyon. Other than some relatively fast short climbs, everything was docile until we emerged into the open plains into some crazy cross winds. The only real incident was a big rock that caused a disturbance in the back of the field that sent Fred Meyer headfirst into the ditch. I’m glad he was okay, because I was taking advantage of Fred’s wheel during the entire criterium. This event was very similar to last year when a turtle suddenly appeared on the road near the back of the Cat 3 peleton. Only this time, there was much less carnage. I originally thought the turtle story was a tall-tale since I’ve ridden lots of miles on these roads and never seen a turtle. Rad Doc has a confirmed turtle sighting so maybe there was a turtle. I still hear people talking “The Turtle” at other races.

When we arrived at the final climb, I’m not sure if I was feeling good or the group was just climbing slower than usual. I was doing some cyclocross riding on the shoulder gravel, but I liked my position and tempo so much that I kept crossing it. Eventually I moved up to about 5th position and felt like I was starting to blow up, so I eased over to the left side to shelter from the wind and dropped back some places. Just then, Sunny (an acquaintance from Boise racing) put in a fearless attack that took him and another guy to the 1-2 finish. In the meantime, I managed to tack onto the chasing group that caught up with them right as they crossed the line. The pace must have been pretty fast up the climb, because the rest of the field was strung out behind us. I was happy to have a same-time finish and feeling surprisingly fresh after a hot day of racing.   

My Elkhorn Classic 2007 in reverse order:

Stage 4 Dooley Mountain

Three of the four times I’ve done the Dooley stage at Elkhorn, I’ve been riding mostly solo for half of the race. I’m thinking I should just make an annual practice of taking the short drive over to Baker in June to ride the loop by myself and call it good.

I’ve certainly had some interesting experiences on my lonesome rides. One year I had to stop for a cattle drive by Unity Reservoir. This year there was plenty of poop on the road up Dooley, so Category Cows must have been out racing the course again. My first year, the pro and masters guy I caught were making fun of my 6-speed cassette, and then I dropped them. Last year, lack of consensus on a pee break resulted in a split field and plenty of obscenities when pee group 1 caught pee group 2 on the side of the road. Somehow I was caught in limbo with my pee break and ended up chasing group 1 and 2, but I did integrate only to pop off the back in the next climb and chase for about 50 miles. And it was a successful chase because I kept catching people that would temporarily work with me and then shoot out the back again. One other guy survived the chase with me and we caught the group just in time to get shelled off the back on Dooley.

This year, everyone behind the main pack in the Cat 3 race abandoned at Feedzone 1, leaving me to chase on my own after I dropped a chain. I was so relieved to catch the main field again at Austin Junction, only to suffer heartbreak when I realized they all had pony tails and wider hips. I suffered further heartbreak later, when my spoke broke just as I had almost caught the real main field for Cat 3. I waited for all the women to pass again and finally the 2nd women’s support vehicle gave me a wheel. As I got back on my bike, I heard someone say, “Hi Brian.” I was so happy to finally have Cat 3 rider join me (one of only 2 behind me that hadn’t abandoned). Somehow I convinced him (and myself) that if we rode hard for awhile there was a chance the Cat 3 field would stop for a pee break and we’d be lucky enough to latch on. We rode together for awhile but eventually he was done.

The lead masters group of about 10 riders caught me and gave some friendly encouragement. This was a stark contrast to the greeting I got from the small chase group of about 5, who came by an eternity later. Team Z pointed his finger at me and gave a stern warning, “Stay back!!” When a patriarch of the peloton with his resume talks, you listen. I slammed on my brakes because I was clearly going fast enough to keep up. His warning disheartened me and completely foiled my strategy. When I had seen the group coming, I formulated a plan to sit in and rest for a few minutes. Then, when they least expected it, I was going to give them “The Look” and attack at the bottom of Dooley to shatter the chase group. This would have sent the message that there is a new masters rider in town, and the 40+ guys are to watch their backs (in 5 years).  I can’t blame Z for taking it upon himself to direct the race, because I know first hand that the official following their group is inept at providing direction during a race. 

After that incident, I switched to Plan B for finishing my race. This included re-passing the women’s peleton in a solo breakaway that would gain enough time to get a front row seat for the end of their race, on the slopes of the climb. This plan worked to perfection. I was gaining quickly on them and then I launched my attack at the perfect time, when they were all on the side of the road practicing their catcher stances. I built up a sizeable lead through the feedzone and by the climb, they were nowhere in sight. I settled into a spinning tempo up Dooley and began watching the race coming up to me on the switchbacks. At about 3 k from the top, I had my front row seat for the attack by the eventual winner and I witnessed the agony of the top 4-5 riders trying to chase her down. What I realized that day, is that all my training has made me a very-strong female rider. In fact, I think I could have won the women’s race this year. I couldn’t say that about the first year I did Elkhorn, because the women’s group caught me at the bottom of Dooley and they were all killing me on that climb. Likewise, the following year I was struggling up Dooley with women passing me while I begged for water from them. This year, was different.
 
Stages 3-1 in the next entry.