Tuesday, July 24, 2012
City Nights
For all the ups and downs I've had in this city, and the good and bad that urban living brings...some times you simply can't beat this place. Tonight was one of those nights where the ride home was simply amazing. After gathering with teammates at Veselka downtown for post ride/race eats, three of us headed back uptown on 3rd Ave. The iconic Chrysler Building loomed up ahead, beautifully lit while every now and then I'd catch a glimpse of the Empire State Building off to my left. The city was so alive as we cruised along, everyone seemingly out having a good time. It was a scene out of a movie or a picture from a post card, likely something you wouldn't understand until you've at least visited here. It has been over two years that I've lived in the city and at least once every week, this place still leaves me with a lasting impression you simply can't get anywhere else. Typically best experienced from a bicycle...
Lucky #7? Tour of the Hilltowns
This past weekend I headed up to northwest Massachusetts for my first road
race back since getting hit. In all honesty, I was quite apprehensive about
doing this race since I knew my fitness was questionable. I’ve had many ups and downs since coming back
to training, some physical (sickness) and some mental/motivational as a result
of getting hit. But mostly it has just
been a struggle to move on. Further medical
treatment has now been denied after a farcical “evaluation” by a supposed “independent”
doctor for the state’s insurance company.
I have half a notion to file suit for medical malpractice considering
the doctor never did 95% of the evaluation tests she claims she did during my
appointment leading to this outcome. It
makes me sick how corrupt the system is every step of the way. Now to see what they decide to pay out for my
damaged bike. But this post isn’t about
that crap, it is about moving on and racing my bike again.
Over the past week, I slowly convinced myself to enter the Tour of the Hilltowns…primarily since it had a 4 mile climb. I figured this would play into my favor even if I wasn’t in great shape. The day of the race turned out to be absolutely beautiful with a high of 80F and only a few clouds in the sky. At 10:30AM we rolled off on the 56 mile course which consisted of 12 rolling miles followed by a several mile descent. Around mile 22, we hit the 4 mile climb followed by approximately 25 miles of gradual rolling roads. The last few miles had a few climbs, nothing too serious gradient wise but still enough to split the remaining groups up even more.
Prior to the start, the promoter warned us about the steep descent at mile 12 due to rough pavement and many cracks in the pavement that ran parallel to the road. Given this information, I rode the first part of the race in the top 10-15 riders to ensure I was well positioned for the descent. It was good to be back in the peloton, it felt like I never missed a race. I probably spent a little more energy on positioning rather than hiding in the peloton but after rolling a few of the short descents in the first 12 miles at 45mph+ in a peloton of 60-70 riders, I was willing to fight a little for good positioning. Before I knew it, we turned onto the old narrow road and we began to plummet down toward the river. The road was in reasonable shape with only a few pot holes here and there however the cracks were quite a bit more worrisome. They were rather wide cracks that ran nearly parallel with the road mostly in the center of the lane. And yes, the centerline rule was in effect forcing the peloton to deal with the cracks. I descended on the left side of the peloton and left a little room to the rider in front of me so I had a clear view of the pavement. I would say it was never racking but really I was too focused to be nervous. Over the worst part of the descent, we rarely dipped below 40mph with a maximum speed of 47mph riding inches apart. Most everyone rode smart which impressed me quite a bit, although there are always one or two idiots who think the race is won on the descent. I did see two almost crashes. The first guy that almost went down hit a pot hole triggering him to clamp on his front brake and doing an endo in the middle of the peloton and the second guy hooked his tires on a crack. Both escaped going down at high speed either due to skill or luck, maybe a little of both! While the descent seemed to last forever, it wasn’t long afterward that we turned left up E. Hawley Road and hit the 4 mile climb. The first kick was fairly steep and I was slightly shocked when I looked at my powermeter nailed around 400 watts. It only let up slightly after the first step and picked right back up on the second step of the climb. This is where I started to slide backwards wondering how long they could hold this pace. Well, apparently long enough to spit me right out the back. At least I wasn’t alone but I was suffering. I fought as best I could but the power wasn’t there. The peloton hung just in front of me for a while and I thought I might have stabilized the gap but then we rounded a bend and they started to pull away yet again. The steps eventually evened out to a steadier climb and I seemed to find a rhythm and started reeling in other dropped riders. I crested the climb with two fighting to hold my wheel and I immediately brought the speed back up. For quite a while, I held a good pace but knew I couldn’t maintain it. I pulled off and the other guys pulled through as we reeled in another rider. We rotated through a couple times and then one guy drills it up a short climb and I was gapped. Yet another stupid Cat 3 racer that has no clue about tactics. Once dropped, it's best to work together with as many as possible to stabilize and maybe close back up on others. At this point, it was clear I wasn’t going to close the gap. My stomach had been giving me some issues since the climb and I simply didn’t have it. I was looking at nearly 30 miles solo with a bad stomach. Food and drink mix were not sitting well which is unusual for me. All I wanted was water but I still had another 8 miles to the feed zone. I slugged my way through to the feed zone and luckily got a bottle of water from some stranger, skipping the drink mix bottle my wife had for me. The remainder of the race was uneventful as I struggled along. I rode reasonably well until a little after 2 hours when my lack of endurance kicked in. When I hit the final few climbs coming into the finish, I managed to resurrect some reasonable watts…mostly because I wanted to be done. I caught five other dropped cat 3 riders and went straight to the front and kept my pace. They jumped on my wheel and we rolled in over 20 minutes down. I finished 46th out of the 56 finishers. This certainly wasn’t lucky #7. Well, maybe it really was lucky #7 in the sense that I was once again racing.
After the race, I talked with my teammate Jimmy who finished sixth, getting dropped from the winning break within a couple miles of the finish. He mentioned this was the toughest race he has done all season and he's done some rough races. He also expressed some shock at how quickly they flew up the 4 mile climb. That’s something coming from Jimmy who is super strong this season. Post race analysis of my data shows I climbing 30-40 watts off where I should be which explains a lot. Well, I knew I wasn’t in great form and that was confirmed. But at least I was back out there racing, even if my fitness has a long way to go. It would be easy to hide until my form comes back around and then race, but what fun would that be?
Over the past week, I slowly convinced myself to enter the Tour of the Hilltowns…primarily since it had a 4 mile climb. I figured this would play into my favor even if I wasn’t in great shape. The day of the race turned out to be absolutely beautiful with a high of 80F and only a few clouds in the sky. At 10:30AM we rolled off on the 56 mile course which consisted of 12 rolling miles followed by a several mile descent. Around mile 22, we hit the 4 mile climb followed by approximately 25 miles of gradual rolling roads. The last few miles had a few climbs, nothing too serious gradient wise but still enough to split the remaining groups up even more.
Prior to the start, the promoter warned us about the steep descent at mile 12 due to rough pavement and many cracks in the pavement that ran parallel to the road. Given this information, I rode the first part of the race in the top 10-15 riders to ensure I was well positioned for the descent. It was good to be back in the peloton, it felt like I never missed a race. I probably spent a little more energy on positioning rather than hiding in the peloton but after rolling a few of the short descents in the first 12 miles at 45mph+ in a peloton of 60-70 riders, I was willing to fight a little for good positioning. Before I knew it, we turned onto the old narrow road and we began to plummet down toward the river. The road was in reasonable shape with only a few pot holes here and there however the cracks were quite a bit more worrisome. They were rather wide cracks that ran nearly parallel with the road mostly in the center of the lane. And yes, the centerline rule was in effect forcing the peloton to deal with the cracks. I descended on the left side of the peloton and left a little room to the rider in front of me so I had a clear view of the pavement. I would say it was never racking but really I was too focused to be nervous. Over the worst part of the descent, we rarely dipped below 40mph with a maximum speed of 47mph riding inches apart. Most everyone rode smart which impressed me quite a bit, although there are always one or two idiots who think the race is won on the descent. I did see two almost crashes. The first guy that almost went down hit a pot hole triggering him to clamp on his front brake and doing an endo in the middle of the peloton and the second guy hooked his tires on a crack. Both escaped going down at high speed either due to skill or luck, maybe a little of both! While the descent seemed to last forever, it wasn’t long afterward that we turned left up E. Hawley Road and hit the 4 mile climb. The first kick was fairly steep and I was slightly shocked when I looked at my powermeter nailed around 400 watts. It only let up slightly after the first step and picked right back up on the second step of the climb. This is where I started to slide backwards wondering how long they could hold this pace. Well, apparently long enough to spit me right out the back. At least I wasn’t alone but I was suffering. I fought as best I could but the power wasn’t there. The peloton hung just in front of me for a while and I thought I might have stabilized the gap but then we rounded a bend and they started to pull away yet again. The steps eventually evened out to a steadier climb and I seemed to find a rhythm and started reeling in other dropped riders. I crested the climb with two fighting to hold my wheel and I immediately brought the speed back up. For quite a while, I held a good pace but knew I couldn’t maintain it. I pulled off and the other guys pulled through as we reeled in another rider. We rotated through a couple times and then one guy drills it up a short climb and I was gapped. Yet another stupid Cat 3 racer that has no clue about tactics. Once dropped, it's best to work together with as many as possible to stabilize and maybe close back up on others. At this point, it was clear I wasn’t going to close the gap. My stomach had been giving me some issues since the climb and I simply didn’t have it. I was looking at nearly 30 miles solo with a bad stomach. Food and drink mix were not sitting well which is unusual for me. All I wanted was water but I still had another 8 miles to the feed zone. I slugged my way through to the feed zone and luckily got a bottle of water from some stranger, skipping the drink mix bottle my wife had for me. The remainder of the race was uneventful as I struggled along. I rode reasonably well until a little after 2 hours when my lack of endurance kicked in. When I hit the final few climbs coming into the finish, I managed to resurrect some reasonable watts…mostly because I wanted to be done. I caught five other dropped cat 3 riders and went straight to the front and kept my pace. They jumped on my wheel and we rolled in over 20 minutes down. I finished 46th out of the 56 finishers. This certainly wasn’t lucky #7. Well, maybe it really was lucky #7 in the sense that I was once again racing.
After the race, I talked with my teammate Jimmy who finished sixth, getting dropped from the winning break within a couple miles of the finish. He mentioned this was the toughest race he has done all season and he's done some rough races. He also expressed some shock at how quickly they flew up the 4 mile climb. That’s something coming from Jimmy who is super strong this season. Post race analysis of my data shows I climbing 30-40 watts off where I should be which explains a lot. Well, I knew I wasn’t in great form and that was confirmed. But at least I was back out there racing, even if my fitness has a long way to go. It would be easy to hide until my form comes back around and then race, but what fun would that be?
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