After the TX training camp wrapped up on Friday morning, we headed over to Austin TX to grab some food and stop by Mellow Johnny's. Good thing we stopped at the shop too because I needed some more riding food. From Austin, we headed up to Marble Falls TX and crashed there. Long before the crack of dawn Saturday, we were up and the bikes were packed into the trucks and we were off to the races with much grumbling. To finish up the training camp, we were racing the Walburg Classic in you guessed it...Walburg TX.
The Cat 3 race was three laps of the 24 mile course, a "shallow" rolling course around the TX countryside. After a week of big miles and a lot of work, I was a bit unsure how I'd feel for the first race of the season...a 72 miler with guys who have been racing for over a month none the less. The race was well organized and before I knew it, we were rolling out. The peloton moved along at a nice clip and my plan was to sit in and see how things went. The first 15 miles were consumed with several guys trying to get away and the peloton chasing until the right combo was off the front. That meant many surges where I saw over 500 and even 600 watts. Seeing how I'm still wrapping up my threshold period, I have yet to train the short hard bursts that often happen in races, especially criteriums. Thankfully, my legs seemed to be very good and I recovered very quickly from the efforts. Many times I looked down feeling like I was cruising along easily and my wattage was sitting at threshold. Anyway, breaks went away, were caught, and then others would try. I rode in the top 20 riders (our field had something like 100 riders) and kept hidden, doing no more work than required to hold/defend my position. As with any field, we had a few idiot riders, especially the two very young Garmin development riders. Despite a few close calls that I saw, everyone rode respectfully enough for the most part and we stayed crash free. For most of the race, I was fairly bored just ticking away the miles waiting for the good part. With 10 miles to go, things started to hot up a bit. The shuffle for position became more intense and the speed rose a bit. I held my own in the top 15 riders on the right side of the road where I had been nearly all morning. Numerous guys would try to sneak through but I had things fairly shut down on the right. About 3 miles from the finish, one hippie guy shouts "on your right" as I drop my head down slightly to see where he thinks he is going. I was riding 4-6 inches inside the edge of the road...which is pretty darn tight to the edge. He had the guts to stick his front wheel in that 4-6 inches and I finally got to use a phase I heard in Minster years ago..."that's not a very smart place to be." And with that, I kept tight and didn't really care if I put him off the road or got into his front wheel. When you ride stupid, you get what you deserve. I didn't wish him harm but you have to be smarter than that! Apparently he gave up on trying to slide through. Had I made room, he and about 50 other guys would have slid through. About a mile to the finish the peloton let up and everyone started looking around. Just then, a guy launches off the front and several followed. Soon there is a gap and no one bothers to chase. By the time they did react, it was too late. I didn't think it would stick (very little did up to that point) and sat in for the uphill sprint. Not long after, the Garmin development rider I was behind grabbed a handful of brake for some reason and then swung to the left. I'm not sure what prompted this because I didn't see any obvious reason but the damage was done. Since everyone was so tight, as soon as he grabbed the brakes, my front wheel overlapped his rear to the left and he force me to follow suit heading to the left. I got trapped in the middle of the peloton, at one point quite literally with the guys on my left and right both making contact with me at the same time. After a few more bumps I ended up on the left side of the peloton only to be flicked across the yellow line (center line rule was in effect until the last 200M) as guys fought to move up...illegally in this case. I held position and slid back across the yellow as the ref set chase to the offenders via motorcycle. Before I knew it we hit the finishing climb and I was still trapped. When things finally opened up, I swung hard left and immediately opened my sprint with about 75-100M to go...too late. I made up several positions and nipped the back of the lead finishers in the peloton at the line to finish 14th. Had I not been boxed in, I would have been in the top ten (I believe 6 were still away at the finish). That's racing.
Overall, I was pretty happy with the race because my legs felt great and there were a lot of tired guys at the end while I still felt fresh. That being said, I will always be a little disappointed with not winning or placing higher. The race was also good practice fighting for position and dealing with very tight situations including contact and bumping. Not to mention that the last 10 miles were an absolute blast, so much fun. That's why I race.
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