Connecticut Stage Race Cat. 4

This was my second time doing the Connecticut Stage Race and overall my experience was far greater than last year’s debacle of popping off the back in the circuit race and totally bonking and finishing nearly 30 minutes back in the road race.

The setup of the race was akin to the Criterium Internationale and old school Tour de France “split” stages where you raced twice in one day. Day 1 was an 8 mile Time Trial in the morning, followed by a 24.8 mile circuit race [8 laps of a 3.1 mile course] in the afternoon. Day 2 was the Queen stage, a 91 mile epic road race with tons of climbing and this year, tons of rain.

Day 1, Stage 1 – 8 mile Time Trial

I have pretty much resigned myself to losing large chunks of time in these events because I do not have the TT equipment necessary to do well in these, the TT bike, the full rear disc wheel, the tear drop helmet, the full body skinsuit, etc. I tried clip-on bars once on my bike but I quickly realized that I needed a different seatpost and severe adjustments to even ride in that position comfortably. Needless to say I planned on just riding as hard as I could and going with the flow. David Andersen and I drove over to CT for the race and we were full expecting wet weather the entire weekend as the forecast called for scattered thunderstorms on both Saturday and Sunday. We woke up to rain on Saturday morning which thankfully turned to sun before we started our time trial, and eventually led to extreme humidity and sunshine, not a good combination unless you planned on drinking 3 or 4 gallons of water in a day.

The TT course was simple enough, 4 miles out, 4 miles back with a full 180 U-turn in the middle. I rode hard, I rode valiantly but I was still 2:42 down on the winner because I didn’t have anything remotely aero on me for this ride. The ride started witha fast little downhill followed by some flat road, a gradual uphill, more flats and some winds that factored in. I felt okay on the ride and road a stronger second 4 miles than my first, finishing in 21:22 for 46th out of 65 riders. After the TT David and I sat around reading in the shade, drinking water and trying to stay somewhat cool before the afternoon circuit race.

Day 1, Stage 2 – 24.8 Circuit Race

The course for the circuit race was exactly the same as last year, a nice 3.1 mile course that started semi-flat, rolled down a little hill, hard 90 degree turn onto the days KOM hill that was long and steep at the end and the decisive part of the course for everyone. After the hill there was a super fast descent, up a little hill, a more than 90 degree right turn, another fast descent followed by about a mile or so of rolling road, slight fast descent followed by little punchy hill, all topped off with a slight uptick hill near the finishing straight that you made a hard right at and then a false flat for about 500 ort 600 meters to the finish line. My goal as always this year was to finish with the pack. I started off in the back, as usual and I rode conservatively for the first few laps, spinning up the big hill, slightly detaching a little off the pack, pushing down the fast descent and catching back on for each lap and following the same pattern until lap 5. At this point I felt okay despite the heat and I noticed other guys getting tired each time we went up the big hill. I made a conscious effort to move up during lap 6 and I found myself mid-pack going up the KOM hill and the rest of that lap. Dave pointed out that he saw me a few times in the back and then suddenly mid-pack on one lap. As we rolled through the finish line and into Lap 7 I started to formulate a plan, or more so a thought that maybe I would “try something” during this race since I was not off the back at this point. For me “trying something” is the only way I think that I could do well in such a tightly bunched pack because I don’t have a powerful finishing sprint and I get too nervous trying to jostle with people to even put myself in that position. We turned onto the road with the KOM hill and I was still mid-pack on the inside as we were going up. At this point I thought to myself that I still felt good which I was happy about. We started to crest the hill and as we passed the judge who was watching the race for the KOM points I noticed that everyone was sort of slowing down a fraction to catch their collective breaths. More importantly the peloton was strung out at the front and for some inexplicable reason they were lined up by the yellow line as opposed to the customary position which is the right side of the road by the shoulder leaving no one the ability to move up. I saw an opening and for a split second I thought to myself that if I was going to “try something” at any point I would do it now because I had a free lane to ride in. I started to move up along side the front of the peloton and then I attacked with everything I had. This was about 100 before the descent started so I didn’t have much room to experiment with. As I started down the hill I switched to my hardest gear, 53×12 and rode like I had stolen something. I thought that if I blew up then so what, I pinned on a number so I might as well try for something just to see what would happen. As I went down the hill I didn’t look back until I started up the little climb that led to the hard 120 degree turn, I noticed then that the peloton was not right on me. I had two thoughts at this point, 1. this is strange and 2. don’t think anymore and just ride your guts out until you get caught.

I pushed through the turn, jumped out of my saddle and gunned it down the next hill to the flat section before the rollers started, I looked back and saw nothing. As I reached the two little hills I went to an easy gear and just controlled myself going up then, then switched back to my hardest gear and pounded it down the hills. As I was going up the last little climb to turn toward the finishing straight I saw the tip of the peloton in the distance. At this point I thought that if I was going to get caught it would happen as I was going up the KOM hill for the 8th time. I went throught the finishing line area and heard the bell being rung for the final lap. I counted and listened for the bell a second time, estimating it was roughly 10 to 12 seconds that I had on the peloton. I pushed as hard as I could down the next hill thinking that if I could just somehow get up the KOM hill with 10 seconds again I could pull this off. I made the hard right turn and got out of my saddle again to start the climb. When I was half way up I looked back and saw the peloton starting the turn onto the KOM road. I switched to my small chainring and told myself to calm down, spin up the hill, don’t panic and blow up and just get over the hill. I crested the top, immediately went to the big chain ring and jokingly told the official to tell everyone to stop behind me, which actually got a nice laugh from the woman. I went as hard as I had all day on the next descent, touching approximately 45mph in my hardest gear. I still didn’t see the peloton and I employed my same tactic for the rest of the course, push down the hills as hard as possible and ease up the hills to conserve for the finish. I still didn’t see the peloton until I was cresting one hill and they were coming down the one before. As I got to the final hill I noticed that the peloton appeared to be picking up speed going down the hill before and I started to panic for a second thinking my effort would all go to waste. I calmed down and continued the push to the finish. At about 500 meters to go I could see the peloton behind me and what looked like one rider jumping out. I pushed on as hard as I could even though I knew I was losing speed as I was completely on my limit at this point. At the 200 meter to go sign I knew I would win but I could see the gap closing. I looked straight ahead and for the last 100 meters I had a euphoric feeling come over me that I have never experienced on the bike before. All of the pain I had that day riding in the heat, including my hip problems, saddle bruise/sore issues and slight knee pain all went away. I didn’t throw up both arms because frankly I’m not good at riding without hands and I didn’t want to fall down, so I just pumped one fist and crossed the finish line, 4 second ahead of the second place finisher, 7 seconds in front of third place and 9 seconds in front of the peloton. It was the greatest feeling I have ever had on my bike and I had never been happier riding as I was right at that moment when I rolled through the finishing line. The feeling continued as I turned around and heard guys congratulating me on my effort. I stopped to tell Dave about my good fortune as he was lining up for me and he gave me a heartfelt congratulations which meant alot to me. I ran into an old teammate, now on Threshold Cycling who was waiting for the Cat. 3 race to start. When I told him that I attacked on lap 7 and soloed in he didn’t understand what I meant. I repeated it that I attacked on lap 7 and soloed in for the win he was shocked and seemingly more excited for me than I was for me, giving me a congratulatory hug and saying that that made his stage race. I sort of felt what it may feel like when a PRO wins and his teammates and comrades on the road congratulate them. In short, it felt great.

Day 2, Stage 3 – 91 mile road race

To be perfectly honest I didn’t really care what happened on day 2 because of what had happened on day 1. I woke up to check the results and find out that I had won the Green Sprinters jersey. Although they had me winning 15 points, more than double for crossing the finish line first, technically I was awarded 6 points [the judges had to go back and recalculate because of an error that led them astray from the tech guide] just as two other riders were awarded 6 points for crossing the finish line first on lap 2 and 6. Regardless no one else had more than 6 points and since I won the stage I got the jersey, which was one of my main goals in doing stage races, to phsyically get to keep one jersey, any jersey as an awared for leading a competition. I pinned on my numbers to the Green jersey and suited up for an epic stage that turned more epic as we rode through one major thundestorm and one decent rain shower near the end. I didn’t remember much of this course from last year because I blew up around mile 55 oto 60 and rode by myself the rest of the way so I just thought about staying with the group as long as I could. I lined up in the front because I got there early expecting a small ceremony on the podium like they had before the circuit race for the TT winners but no ceremony was conducted. Regardless I had a nice position to start out. Eventually I was in the back of the peloton after about 6 or 7 miles. When the rains came I could barely see and I worried more about staying upright then anything else. All in all I rode a pretty stupid race because I was never drafting, I either yo-yoed off the back avoiding people because I was fearful going down steep descents with crappy roads and tons of rain, or I was riding in the very front, when I went up there mid race to try and contest for the sprint points at mile 51 to try and keep my jersey another day. I sort ot attacked around mile 42 or 43 and immediately everyone went with me, I was getting no leeway this time. I proceeded to purposefully zig zag across the road, riding from the yellow line to the shoulder and back several times just to toy with everyone because I thought it would be fun. Eventually as we got closer to the sprint point line I was still riding first wheel going up a rather long false flat that was burning my legs. I tried another dig to get away but didn’t have it in my legs. We went up a sharp hill and turned onto the road that led to the finishing line/sprint line and I attacked two more times within the next half mile, both times to no avail as I couldn’t maintain my speed and the group just latched on to me, with the second and third place sprint point leaders following right behind me. After getting swallowed up the second time I quickly realized why I get nervous in Cat. 4 races. The group started to ramp up again to lead up to the final 1k to the sprint line, and as riders started to push into me I thought I might go down. I sort of yelled out to no one in particular to just go around me because I had no desire to sprint anymore. Thankfully I was blown out the back and I just rolled with the peloton trough the line. Knowing that the green jersey was most likely not mine anymore I resolved to just survice the rest of the day. The real hills began in earnest and I kept riding in the back just staying on, a few times becoming detached but catching right back on as the road turned down or into flat territory. We went down a couple of very sketchy descents which I was nervous I might flat or crash on. One descent that they did not warn us about had two massive craters in the middle that took up half the road. As we approached these, guys scattered yelling HOLE as loud as they could, I swerved around them and one rider went off the road and fell into brush, eventually rejoining us unhurt. The only other memorable thing from the day besides surviving the storms was getting neutralized going over a metal grated bridge that they let the PRO/1/2 field race over, causing a massive crash and sending several riders to the hospital. We were forced to get off of our bikes and walk across, which quickly led to an impromptu but much appreciated massive peloton natural break. I audibly called it one my top 5 pees of all time, which got a few laughs. The USAC official even told everyone to stop and not remount their bikes, basically letting everyone finish their breaks and rejoin everyone to restart as one group, which I considered the only fair thing to do. I rode in the back the rest of the race and started really yo-yoing in the final 10k, almost coming unhinged a few times. Eventually we approached the final sharp hill about 3k from the finish and I found myself detached from the main group. I tried to catch back on but to no avail. I ended up 30th on the day out of 35th, with approximately 30 or so riders dropping out, 51 seconds back of the winner but in light of the effort I put in the day before and the completely un-strategic riding that I had done for nearly 91 miles I was pleased to finish how I did.

Overall GC was 28th out of 35 finishers, 3:22 down on the winner.

Lessons learned -

1. Get TT equipment if you want to do well in a TT or contend for the GC in a stage race, otherwise be resigned to a crappy time.

2. Ride more strategically, draft off of people, even if you may feel a little scared try it, or even if you have water and dirt shooting into your face, try it again.

3. Prepare phsyically for a 91 mile race, eat and drink a ton on the bike. This was the most I had ever eaten in a road race, I tend to forget to eat or I get too nervous to reach back for my gel flask, but this time I finished two whole flasks and three water bottles.

4. Most importantly, if you pin on a number, do something to remember the race by, even if you attack and blow up, at least you can say that you tried to do something. Especially at the Cat. 4 level where no one attacks because they are afraid that they won’t make it or they don’t go with someone who does attack because they think that they won’t stay away, you might as well try because there might be the one time that you do stay away and win and in the off chance that it does happen, I can attest to the fact that it makes all the other seemingly silly times that you do attack well worth the efforts to make one break finally stick.