This race looked simple enough from the description, a short out and back with a single U-turn and a few corners through the town square. I carpooled down with Mike since we were racing together. I forgot to pre-register, so we rolled out plenty early, at about 6:45. We parked and I made for the registration tent. Luckily there were still a few spots available, so I got my number, went to the team tent and did some socializing. As the start time grew near, I geared up and got on the trainer to warm up. Did about 20 minutes at an easy pace, with a quick 2.5 minute threshold effort just to wake up a bit.
We rolled up to the line with just under 10 minutes until our start time. I made some small talk with a couple of the Knight Rider guys I’ve been racing with recently. There were two groups in front of us, the E2’s and E3’s. The race started at a reasonable pace. No suicidal early attacks or anything particularly interesting. I didn’t take any rest days before the event, and was still feeling a bit sluggish from “The Tainthammer” last weekend. This lack of freshness translated into a sort of mental laziness, and I found myself cruising on the back of the pack and not feeling especially assertive. I paid for this dearly once we hit the first U-turn. The front of the field went through quite gingerly, while the back slowed down to about 4 MPH and a few riders had to unclip to make it through.
Since the turn was at the bottom of a hill, I had to make a big effort to get up to speed and latch back onto the group, jumping from 6 MPH to 29 MPH in 25 seconds. Luckily I was able to hide in the pack again for a bit. I tried to join follow a few wheels up the side to get a little closer to the front, but each rider I followed ended up slowing up again, so I’d end up gaining only 3-4 positions. We rolled through town and I couldn’t get in position to take my ideal line through the corners, so I took them a little cautiously. Before I knew it I was at the back again. I found myself sprinting again to latch back on up the hill just after town. This pattern kept up for a couple more laps, without much happening in the race other than a few people falling over at low speed on the U-turn, and a short attack that Mike followed that got brought back quickly.
On the last lap, I somehow found myself quite a bit further back than expected coming out of town, and ended up making my biggest effort in the race. Luckily, there were a few of us back there, and we worked together to get back to the group. We hit the U-turn one final time, made a short effort up the hill, and then things got a little too quiet in the pack. The group spread itself out, taking up both sides of the road. I had gotten a chance to catch my breath and recovered, so I moved towards the left of the group trying to find a hole to get towards the front. I told Mike to move to the left as well, and to get up there because we were coming up to the 1k to go marker. My plan was to find an opening and sacrifice myself, digging as hard as I can to get Mike at least towards the front of the bunch, if not to the line.
Unfortunately, just as I was getting ready to execute, there was a big crash on the right side that took out what looked like a quarter of the field. It quickly spread towards me, and I found myself riding in the dirt and shrubs on the left shoulder. I slowed and unclipped, but didn’t have to stop completely. By the time I got back on the road and clipped in, the pack was out of reach. I cruised it in with a few of the other crash survivors for 29th place. Mike ended up 11th, and Daryl was 15th.
Lesson learned: Get to the front early, because it’s a lot harder when you’re already tired.
P.S. Thanks Jenny and Katie for the awesome pictures 🙂
Mike_Leung
Good job Matt! Glad you were there to yell at me towards the end.