In short, this was the hardest race I have ever ridden.
The race was set up as an homage to the Belgian “kermesse” style of racing. In Flemish, “kermesse” means “carnival.” When towns would hold a carnival, they would hold a bike race to help earn money for the carnival owners. The course would be about 16 km, would incorporate both town and farm roads, and would always include sections of gravel and/or pave (i.e. cobblestones). And since they often take place in the spring they are usually horrifically windy. Having read about this type of racing in Joe Parkin’s “A Dog in a Hat” (on loan from the Chris Hammer Cycling Library), I was excited about the opportunity to give it a try.
If the goal was to make it authentic, the organizers of this race (with some help from Mother Nature) succeeded in spades. The course was a 10 mile loop that included 1 mile of gravel right before the start/finish. Although the forecast early in the week had been beautiful (low 80s and sunny), race day brought a different story…cloudy skies, scattered thunderstorms, and 20+ mph winds. A cyclocross bike would have been ideal for this race, but since I don’t own one I decided to just run some wider tires. I made a quick run to Bicycles, Etc. earlier in the week and walked out with some Bontrager 700x25s in the hopes that they would provide a smoother ride over the gravel and, more importantly, puncture resistance.
Race time for the Cat 4s was 12:30, so I was in Leland shortly after 11:00. Kev showed up shortly thereafter, and turned out to be the only other Wheelfast representative. After a decent warmup on the trainers, we rolled to the line with about 30 other Cat 4s. The roll-out from the school in Leland was neutral for about a mile until we reached the Start/Finish line. Then the game was afoot! The first few miles rolled by relatively easily.
The pace cranked up as we hit the first section of full-on headwind. A group of about 7 riders got a gap on the field. I cranked up the pace in an attempt to bridge up, and ended up dangling by myself in no-mans-land for the rest of the lap. It was maddening…I could see the group just ahead of me, but no matter how hard I fought I just could not close the gap. I was hoping that they would slow down when they hit the gravel section, but that just wasn’t to be.
So, going into the 2nd lap I sat up and let myself get absorbed into the group behind me. I was hoping to see Kev in there, but he wasn’t. There was a rider each from WDT, Cuttin’ Crew, and Tower, along with a few other random riders. We formed the most disorganized paceline that I have ever had the misfortune to be in. Riders wouldn’t pull through, they would pull off on the wrong side, etc. It was a complete mess. The rain that started falling during the section of headwind just made it that much more miserable. I reached for the water bottle and realized how sore my shoulders already were...one of my big problems on the bike is tensing up my shoulders, and it was painfully obvious that I was doing just that.
By lap three, our group was down to me and a rider each from Cuttin’ Crew and Tower, along with a WDT rider that had been cast out of the lead group. This time around, we actually got a decent paceline going. It would have been nice to have more than 4 riders in the group, but you take what you can get. After turning out of the headwind, we picked up another WDT rider that had apparently also fallen out of the lead group. Shortly thereafter, we get eclipsed by the Cat 1/2 field. One of the WDT guys refused to move to the left to let them by…in fact, he moved further over to the right, directly in the way of the 1/2s. He got an earful from the field as they tried to get around him. Then, even though we had been explicitly instructed to not join other fields, he, along with his teammate, hopped right on to the back of the 1/2 field.
One of the WDT riders couldn’t hang with the 1/2s and eventually dropped back into our group. However, he all but refused to do any work…he was right after me in the paceline but very rarely followed through. Fortunately, after they realized that he was leaving me dangling out front, the Tower and Cuttin’ Crew riders would breeze by him to take the lead and give me some relief.
After what already seemed like an eternity of racing, the four of us came around the start/finish to begin the final 10-mile lap. The skies had darkened and we started seeing lightning. Super. We continued our ragged paceline through the headwind, which for some reason didn’t seem quite as bad the last time around. As we turned out of the headwind, I took the lead and cranked up the pace. We dropped the Cuttin’ Crew rider, leaving just me, Tower, and WDT. After leading for a bit, I let WDT take over. Tower fell off a bit. For some odd reason, WDT kept looking over his shoulders every 2-3 seconds…and this went on for several minutes. I have no idea what he was doing…whether he was looking to see if anyone was behind us, or whether he was trying to gauge how I was feeling. Very Lance Armstrong/Jan Ulrich on Alpe d’Huez in 2001. Either way, I was actually feeling pretty good and made sure to put on a stoic poker face.
By this point, the thunder and lightning really started to intensify. Tower caught back on with us shortly before we turned into the gravel for the final time. And just as we did, the rain hit! There is nothing quite like hammering along a gravel road with stinging rain pelting your face as lightning flashes and thunder booms right over your head. Pure insanity. Tower and WDT accelerated, and I simply couldn’t match their effort. Also, and this may be a cop-out, but part of me didn’t want to chase them. I realized that I was 1.25 miles from the finish, and I really didn’t want to risk crashing. I was content to push at my own pace, knowing that there was no one else close behind me. After what seemed like the longest mile of my life, I made the right turn and rode out the final 1/4 mile to the finish. When the final results were posted I found that I took 8th.
Caked with gravel dust, and with shoes and socks squishing with water, I turned around and soft-pedaled the mile back to the car. I encountered Kev as he was driving away (he finished his day after 3 laps). We chatted for a minute about the race, and then I rode back to the car to wipe off and dry out.
All in all, it was a challenging, epic ride. It turns out that we had faced winds ranging from 14.9 to 23.0 mph. The wind, coupled with the rain, lightning, thunder and gravel made it an unforgettable experience. Oddly enough, I can’t wait to do it again next year.
STATS:
Race time: 1:59:39
Distance: 39.91
Average pace: 2:59/mile
Average speed: 20.0
Max speed: 33.2
Average HR: 167
Max HR: 185
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