A few weekends ago was the collegiate national weekend out
in Ogden Utah. I was lucky enough to have the UW team send me out there along
with some good company, Alex Martin, Skip, and a new woman on the team Maddie
Pape. There was an ITT Friday, Crit on Saturday and the big Road race Sunday.
Things started out pretty bad, I’ll be honest. A week before
we were set to leave, I was coughing and wheezing with a headache. I was
getting sick. I did the best I could to quarantine myself in my room and get
better as fast as possible. I had to skip a few workouts but not too many as I
was scheduled for some rest going into the weekend anyways. But with the cold,
I wasn’t getting the best rest. But as the Monday before we set off came around
I was starting to feel the sickness subside, so I was able to get things packed
up and have some hope for a normal weekend.
We jumped on a plane Wednesday morning and traveled out to
Utah. We were super luck to have the ISCorp team send out their elite team
manager for Skip and the rest of us to have some support. Kip Spaude, mullet
flowing like he just got off his sister, drove all the way out with all our
gear and bikes and met us at the airport to drive us to our host house. Oh and
our host house! I’m not here to make you jealous, but what an amazing place to
stay. We were in a small mountain community of well off families perched in the
middle of the eastern slopes outside of Salt Lake City. It was as good as you
could imagine it could be. Having my own bed was a good start, there was a
sweet dog (who kept getting into my clif gels), and waking up to the sun
kissing your face followed by making breakfast with a mountain view. In short,
it was seriously one of the most amazing weekends I’ve ever had.
But you’re probably not here to only hear about the host
house. We started off riding on Wednesday after arriving in Salt Lake by
driving out to Antelope Island and checking out the TT course. I was trying a
new race prep so I did some efforts to get the legs going. I felt like complete
crap. I think some of it was the altitude, some of it was the travel legs, stale
legs from the rest maybe, but it was mostly my lungs. I was still feeling the
cold a little bit. Not so much energy wise, but I definitely was getting some
post cold bronchitis. But as the efforts continued I felt better. We finished
the day off with riding back to the car on the dirt trail that followed the
road, very fun, very bumpy. We drove back to the house to meet the host family
and hit the sack for bed.
Thursday was all about getting opened up and pre-riding the
road course. We drvoe to Ogden and parked near the crit course to get a little
view of it. We kitted up and took as little ride through the downtown area and
hooked up with the road courses final leg, the North Ogden Pass. By the
numbers, it’s not the most brutal climb, but its long enough to hurt no matter
what, but short enough that you could punch it hard and it would hurt bad. But
the decent was like nothing I’d ever ridden. The corners were actually tough,
to road was steep, I was in heaven. More on that later. We grabbed some food
and went back to get some sleep.
Friday’s time trials stated in the morning with the teams,
but the ITT was later. Our starts were around noon for Maddie and 1 for skip
and I. It was a lazy morning, but we drove over and got things settled for the
effort. I warmed up a rode over to the start. I actually flatted right before
the start, but Kip was there to make the change and everything turned out fine.
When the official gave me the go, I started out trying to find my rhythm. The
course had a climb to start off so this was challenging as I crested the short
climb almost catching my 30 second man. By the time we descended down and began
the flat section I had caught and passed him, but I was feeling the effort.
Fearing I’d started out too hard I reeled it back in and looked down at my
Joule to see I was only averaging 290 watts, something I could for more than an
hour in normal cases. So I tried to hold it where I was but just struggled the
whole time. I ended up catching another rider, then another, so at the end of
the day it must have been a good effort, but it was tough to feel proud coming
out of it. I might have been the altitude, the sickness, and a whole host of
other things, but I didn’t think so. I didn’t feel sick, I didn’t notice the
altitude. I came away from the race with a 13th place (an okay
finish, not great) and a low feeling going into the Crit on Saturday.
The Crit was my race. With skip such an amazing talent for
the road race, I was left to race the crit. On top of that it was a fast
course, said to almost certainly finish in a sprint, something I’m pretty good
at. With that in mind we started out the race and I immediately made a point to
stay out of trouble and get near the front. I kept my nose out of the wind as
much as possible and took it ‘easy’. A few attacks went flying, but nothing was
ever able to get away. The real story was how much one had to fight to stay
upright and at the front. The field was 140 strong, a big field. There were some
tight corners, but nothing too bad. Mostly it was because of so many people
shooting gaps that really were not there. There were a few crashes throughout
the race, but I was lucky and maybe skillful enough to miss them. When the lap counter showed 8 to go I stated making the move to the front. I began looking
for the Marian train. I knew they would be leading out Colton for the win, so I
looked for his wheel and got ready as the laps ticked down. With 4 or 5 to go
they started making the move for the front, but they did so too early and
backed off when they got to the front. The whole pack slowed and crashes stated
happening, 2 or 3 in the last few laps. But I stayed clean. As the acceleration
happened and the final sprint was getting led out, I lost Colton’s wheel and
slipped back into the top 15. Coming into the last lap I moved up a little bit,
but I was hesitant to spend too much and kill my sprint. I retro spec, I had
the legs to push it; I could have gone harder to get up into the top 10 maybe
the top 5. But I sat back a little bit and came around the last corner in 12th
or so and made 2 or 3 passes to the line finishing in 9th. I was
pretty excited to get such a good finish.
Check back later for the rest of the story, see you then!
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