Bristol Mtn RR 3, Marty 0

I had two bike races this past week. Last Thursday the GVCC G-Tour raced the Rush course. I hadn't been out to the Rush course since the 3-man roller ski race that Chad, Jason and I did last December. It's definitely one of the tougher courses we race during the Thursday night series and after a few weeks in a row with big pack finishes, I was looking forward to having a more selective race (read - no field sprint). I felt pretty good, so I tried to be aggressive with a few attacks early on that didn't stick, but the field was getting thinner with a few more guys dropped every time up the main hill. My teammate Phil was also one of the main aggressors and was looking pretty strong as well. Eventually a break of three got a pretty big gap, and both Phil and I missed the break. Phil tried to bridge with two laps to go and almost made it, but had to settle for 5th. Realizing that I didn't want it to come down to a sprint, I attacked the main group with a little under a lap to go and ended up making it to the line before they did, so I ended up 6th. So, not quite a win, but it was good to be able to make strong late attack like that stick. It was also good to finally get some points for the year, so I guess I'm no longer a non-contributing zero for the team this season!

The 2nd race of the week was the Bristol Mountain Road race on Saturday, which would be 3 laps of a 17 mile course (51 miles total) that includes a long climb up Egypt Road. The first bike race I ever competed in was this race three years ago. At that point I had no idea what to expect and ended up getting shelled out of the main group before we even got to Egypt. I also wasn't in great shape at that point as I was still in grad school and maybe working out 3-4 hours a week at the most. The following year I came back in better shape and with some more race experience and expected to do better, then three miles into the race I got a flat and that was all she wrote. This year (my first time racing in the cat 4 group), I went into the race confident that I could hang on to the final group and hopefully end up with a good finish, but it wasn't to be. The first time up Egypt, I started the climb pretty far back in the pack, but managed to move up to about 20th wheel about 2/3 of the way up, then was able to settle into a descent tempo. There was a pretty good acceleration put in by a couple of the riders near the top of the climb and I got little gapped by 15 or so riders at the very top. I managed to chase back onto that group, but then was subsequently dropped on the downhill (I was going over 50mph's and apparently that wasn't even close to fast enough, because the group just pulled away from me). I obviously haven't quite mastered the proper aerodynamics to descend quickly. That and there's a reason I'm a cross country skier and not a downhill skier, I'm not the biggest fan of high speeds, and in usual training rides, typically go downhill like a grandmother! Once I got gapped on the downhill I had to make up maybe 10 seconds on route 64 (which had about a 30mph headwind), I never mustered up enough to get back into the lead group and ended up riding the next 35 miles with a group of about 7 that was in the same predicament as me.

So, I ended up pretty much right in the middle of the results sheet, which I wasn't too happy with, but when I put things in perspective and look back on it, the fact is that I don't have much experience in weekend races at this level and made a few tactical blunders that wouldn't have made a difference in the Thursday night races or at the Cat 5 level where I was the last time I was doing these weekend races, but simple things like riding too far back in the pack at the beginning of a climb and never taking the time to work on descending were significant factors. So, while it wasn't the result I was hoping for, it's one more race that goes down as a learning experience (albeit a cold, windy one).

I got a nice e-mail yesterday from a fellow nordic skier who was in the race (and has more bike racing experience than I do) who gave me some very constructive advice including the following "you were thinking too hard, searching for something to do. You look like a skier trying to ski a bike race." When I read this I couldn't help but think of the classic line in Bull Durham - "Don't think, it can only hurt the ball club"! Once again, I need to remember some of the advice that I used to give all those idiot pitchers, don't overthink things meat!

It also wasn't the luckiest day for the other guys on the team as Rick was sick and Phil got flat tire at the end of the first lap after making that final selection on the climb. The good news is that we have plenty of chances to redeem ourselves over the next few weeks as there will be a lot more racing and hopefully we can put a few good ones together.