It is the last lap of GDVC #2 this past Sunday. I stomp down
on the right pedal as the pack begins to sprint coming out of the last corner.
I begin breathing heavy as I look up and see a blue figure pulling away 4
wheels up. The lane ahead is full of riders but I can see an inside line open
as I hammer down a few more pedal strokes. I can hear the hallow resonation of
my wheels as I lean the bike back and forth opening up for the sprint. I begin
to accelerate but the noise reminds me how hard I’m pushing the machine beneath
me. The ground becomes a complete blur and my vision narrows. I being to close
the sizable gap but fully realize that I’m racing for second. All I can see is
the line now as my eye sight become completely useless and all that matters is
the feeling. It’s a feeling of pure confidence and no weakness. Everything goes
completely blank as I cross the line. I can’t explain why I remember this
sprint so vividly, but I do.
My last few post have strayed from what I really want this
blog to be about. I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually said the point of this
blog so here it is. The point of this blog is to keep track of things I learn
and to actually remember them. And if someone else can read it and learn
something from my mistakes or victories, then it is even more successful. I
also enjoy the challenge of writing. As many of you know, I am about as close
to illiterate as you can be while still getting into a pretty good university,
even if it is for engineering. But I really like writing something beautiful,
so hopefully I’ve done that as well.
But now back to the action. I ended up winning the GDVC #2
crit in a pretty exciting sprint where I beat the guy celebrating to early. He
realized what happened and when he rolled up to me after the race, we both
shared a good laugh as he congratulated me. The race as a whole went pretty
well. Our team was pretty focused on getting Tim into a break. I took a firm
hold on the pack and chased everything down in the first 15 minutes. I then sat
in a little and got ready to start playing games. I threw in some fake attacks,
but went a little too hard and ended up getting away. The guy on my wheel wasn’t
quite able to pull my pace but still rode strong. We ended up getting pulled back
so I rested up again to send Tim off the front. Again, I put another fake
attack and got pulled back as planned and Tim went off the front. The attack
could have been done at a better time because I was caught in a tail wind
section so Tim’s attack didn’t quiet have the impact it really needed, but he
got away with a couple strong guys. But the chemistry didn’t seem to work. I
tried blocking as best I could as well, but it didn’t seem effective.
Tim was caught and unfortunately was shot out the back. I
think we did most things right, but luck was just not on our side and the legs
were not there to fill the gaps. I started sitting in a resting for the sprint.
I almost forgot how difficult it is to hold a good spot in the pack. But coming
into the last corner I was in a pretty good spot for the sprint. If I could
have done anything else better it might have been to be on the inside of the
corner. As it was I was caught on the outside and couldn’t catch the advancing
line on the inside which the ‘blue figure’ used to rocket out of the pack. As
the pack came around that last corner a lane opened but I think that was more
luck, so I really shouldn’t count on that next time.
With the exciting finish came a healthy dose of ego boosting
high fives and good jobs at the finish. Something that my friends should know
that I really don’t need, a bigger ego, I’m too cocky as it is. But the
opposite was true the day before when I raced Leland-Kermesse (kermesse is Flemish
for a bike race/carnival event, you learn something every day, eh?!) in north central Illinois. It was a 125km race
with 45km of gravel over 5 laps. They also were running the P/1/2 and the 3s
together. This had no chance of not being crazy hard. I sat in for the first
half a lap until the first gravel section when the group split. I ended up in
the 1st chase group which was racing for 2nd in the cat
3s. The next 3 laps were full of getting guttered and sitting in as best I
could. I was all alone with no teammates at this point, and the teams in the
chase were not working together at all so the hope was to break away. On lap 4
I got away with 2 other strong riders in gravel section 1. We worked hard and
picked up a few guys from the lead group who had fallen off and built a sizable
gap. But I was running on empty. I didn’t start eating until lap 4 and was
hitting the wall. Plus on top of that my back was starting to hurt as my whole
body was falling apart from the gravel (when I say gravel, I mean small
boulder). From there I was caught and shelled rolling in for 8th in
the cat 3’s and probably top 20 overall in the p/1/2/3 field.
After the race, the whole groups of guys in the car were
blasted tired from the race. We all agreed, all be it lack luster, that Leland
was a crazy hard race. Despite not winning, I was glad I went. I learned a lot.
The lessons you learn from failure always stick better than the ones you learn
from victory. On the plus side I feel as though my form and confidence in the
pack is really solid. I was where I needed to be and made good moves. I think
it was smart of me to not try to make the first split because riding in a P/1/2
break is probably just out of my reach. But if I had eaten more and started
earlier, plus been on the front a little less I think I could have gotten a top
7 spot and picked up some upgrade points.
Overall, it was another solid weekend, racing bikes and
living the dream. Next week is the Whitnal park race and a White Water road
race. I’ll be racing Saturday, but might take Sunday off to mountain bike in
preparation for Iola the weekend after. That’s it for now, see you around!
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