Two years ago this very day I was on my honeymoon, swimming in the Caribbean off the island of St. Lucia in the shadow of the Pitons. Today I was gritting my teeth and shredding my legs and lungs, cross-eyed with pain. I think I liked two years ago better.
The weather forecast called for rain, but when I left the house there were only a few random plinks and plonks of rain on my windshield. By the time I had registered and was warming up on the trainer there was a steadier drizzle, but by race time this had ended and the roads were dry.
This was the first of two races put on by ABD this weekend in Winfield. Today’s course was a mile-long loop raced counter-clockwise through a residential neighborhood. As soon as you left the start/finish and rounded the first sweeping left-hand curve you were faced with a 300 meter climb that topped out at 6.2%. From there it was all downhill…at the top of the hill was a left-hand turn followed by a few technical left and right turns. With the exception of the 90-degree turn at the top, the turns were pretty soft and could be bombed through at close to 30 mph.
About 50 riders rolled to the line. ABD had a huge presence, along with good representation from Bicycle Heaven, WDT, some Tower riders, and a few xXx’ers. The whistle blew and we were off at 24 mph. The field immediately strung out the first time up the hill, and I was caught somewhere in the middle. The lead riders accelerated like mad out of the turn, and I really had to sprint to catch up to them. The pack remained strung out all the way through the start finish, but started to bunch up the 2nd time up the hill. I caught up and inserted myself in the field. In hindsight, I should have tried to move up further. Again, there was a mad acceleration by the lead riders at the top of the hill, and the field strung out again. I was learning the hard way that if you weren’t at the very front at the top of the hill, you were subjected to a vicious “caterpillar effect.”
By this point we were only about 4 minutes in, and I realized how badly my legs were screaming at me. By the 3rd time up the hill, I realized that I was going in reverse. The lead group rode away from me, and I found myself with a group of 4 other riders…WDT, xXx, and two Bicycle Heaven riders. At one point, as we neared the top of the hill, some little kid started yelling “you need to go faster! You need to go faster!” Thank you, Professor Obvious…that thought hadn’t occurred to me yet. Needless to say, I was hurting too much to be even mildly amused by this.
About the 5th time bombing downhill, I got a very nice surprise. My wife, who had gone in to work downtown that morning, suddenly appeared on the right side of the road yelling encouragement to me. I literally did a double-take, having no idea that she was going to show up! This couldn’t have occurred at a better time…I was completely demoralized and her presence gave my morale a huge lift. Now I had a friendly face and an encouraging voice to look forward to on every lap.
My little group continued to stick together, and the race passed in a haze of pain. I don’t remember much, but I do recall that every time we crested the hill we were greeted by the tantalizing smell of grilling bratwurst. How easy it would have been to just dismount, grab a brat, have a seat in the grass, and be a spectator to the suffering, rather than a participant. But no, gotta keep going…
The dreaded moment occurred at 23 minutes in…the pace car came by us, and shortly thereafter we were lapped by the lead group. Fortunately, we were close enough to the end of the race that the officials didn’t pull us…we were allowed to finish and were given placings, albeit with one lap cut (the lead group did 17 laps, whereas all the lapped riders only did 16).
After what seemed like an eternity, I looked down at my computer to see that we had crossed the 30-minute mark. I took some comfort in knowing that the end was very near. At about 36 minutes, the officials rang the bell lap as we came around the start/finish…OK, only one more time up that hill. I fought my way up the hill, and pushed as hard as I could on the downhill. I didn’t want to lose position…and those twists and turns were a lot of fun at 30 mph! A short distance up ahead, I could hear the announcer calling out the final sprint. I pushed as hard as possible all the way to the end, and only had a couple riders come around me. When all was said and done, I took 37th out of 46 finishers.
In sum, this was a very challenging race. That hill completely shattered the field…Stephanie said that the field was so blown apart that riders were spread out all along the course, and that there was always someone riding by her. It is disappointing to get lapped, but I certainly wasn’t alone. I’m just not a climber! Given my poor performance on the hill today, I decided to forego Sunday’s race (it, too, featured a pretty challenging hill). I will focus my energies this week on the Tuesday night crits in Matteson and perhaps the Sherman Park Criterium in Chicago on Saturday.
STATS:
Race time: 37:50
Distance: 14.10
Average pace: 2:40/mile
Average speed: 22.4
Max speed: 31.5
Average HR: 171
Max HR: 179
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