Gratuitous uniform pic of me before the TTT
I just finished my second weekend of racing this year. We hosted the race this time. I have to say that I am incredibly pleased with how I did. I probably won’t be moving up to C’s this year, but I’ll end up toward the top of D’s. We had just about everybody from the team race this weekend. One guy is injured, and another is too out of shape to race just yet. They’ll do some of the later races. Now to get into the meat of it….
Saturday morning we headed out to Stanley Draper Lake. The
temperature was in the mid-fifties, and it had been drizzling. I was a bit late
with my buddy because he slept in, and he was my only feasible transportation
to the race. Luckily this didn’t seem to be too bad. It was pretty miserable
out there; too cold to wear just shorts while standing still yet too warm to
wear base layer for the race. We set off on a route that I was quite familiar
with. We made our way past the first turn letting everyone know that they
should slow way down for it. The section we rode then was filled with potholes.
It was much worse than I remember last year. On the bright side we got up the
hills, and I wasn’t even pushing that hard. There was a rider from UNT that got
dropped on one of the first few hills; poor guy. He finished a sizeable chunk
behind everyone. Kudos to him for finishing the race mostly by himself.
The next turn put us out of the hills and into the wind. The
pack stayed pretty tight at a 21-22 mph pace. It felt a bit slow to me, which
is a bit strange. I’m normally pushing pretty hard at that pace on that section
even with a number of teammates. I’ll just assume it was a larger group causing
a more effective shield from the wind. The whole first lap was really wet. I
was coated in red dirt by the end of it. As we turned North we brought the pace
up to about 28-30 mph. This continued for the last 3 miles or so on the first
lap. I became pretty exhausted by this, so I dropped off. I put in several
efforts to catch them, but after the first mile of the second lap it was clear
I should let them go.
I pushed through the hills to the best of my abilities. I
slowed down on more than I would like on them though. I think I’m going to add
some intense sustained efforts followed by some climbing to get better at this.
I am not so great at hills, but this could help mitigate my weakness. After one
of the fast downhill sections in this area of the course I saw 3 of my
teammates on the side of the road. One of them was face-down on the pavement.
The other two were clearly okay. The teammate that was down has crashed in all
3 road races this year. He couldn’t recall the month, so they took him to the
hospital. He had to get his lip sewn up, but was otherwise fine. His bike frame
cracked though.
On the second to last hill I was getting caught by two
riders, and I heard one of them go down. He and the guy with him never caught
me up, but both were uninjured. At the end of the hills I caught on to an Arkansas
rider. I talked with him for a bit and asked him if he wanted to work against
the wind. He agreed, and we pushed a rotation for the majority of the second
lap. When we were closing in on the finish I told him good ride, and rode next
to him for a bit having a chat. When the conversation lulled I took off and
opened up a gap. I had about 30 meters or so on him at most. As we approached
the finish there was a rider from West Texas that had a wheel change and was
picking his pace back up. I pushed to catch him, and sprinted for the line. I
held off the Arkansas rider and passed the West Texas rider with about 20 feet
to go. Great road race.
The time trial was uneventful for the most part. Still wet,
and miserable. It rained really really hard with about 15 minutes before the TT
started. I was paired up with the teammate that drove me. We had another D
squad with 4 guys who we pretty much put together to give a better chance of
winning. I stayed with my teammate who was definitely stronger for that. On the
way down we got caught by the Arkansas squad behind us, but on the way back we caught
them. Poor planning I guess.
This was the beginning of the TTT. I am in the back.
Dinner was good. Beer was had.
The crit was the next morning. We were even colder. This
time I put on my thick winter layer underneath the uniform. I had one warm-up
lap. We took off pushing about 25 with the wind and 21 into the wind. I stayed
in the top 10, but never pushed to the front. I stayed in this position through
half of the crit. With 5 laps to go, the pace increased. I couldn't quite hold
with the front guys, but I was still in the mix.
I am on the left, the OU rider to the right of me got second, and the OU rider on the right side of the pic got first. All riders pictured are either OU or Arkansas. Our schools dominated the worst division at this race!
I was gaining on opponents all
through the last lap, and I went through the final turn perfectly. I sprinted
for the line, and passed a couple of people right before the finish. It felt
great. If I can focus on maintaining intensity I feel as if I will be able to
reach the end of these races with the podium in sight.
Here I am passing all three other riders just before the finish. Looks like I beat the West Texas rider to the finish twice. The final guy that I beat is a UNT rider that is just behind me from the photographer's angle.
Until next time, I'm gonna take a big nap now.
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