After getting my ass handed to me at Tour of the Hilltowns, I decided to jump into another hard road race the following weekend...Capital Region Road Race. Brillant idea I know! FGX lined up with six in the Cat 3 race as the rain began to fall. We had a pretty good line-up with three strong riders, Jimmy, Ira, and Alexi and three on the rebound, Etsu, Darius, and myself. For me it was another training race and I simply hoped to stay with the peloton as long as possible. Soon we were under way as the rain began to pick up a bit. We headed through the feed zone neutral then the pace car sped off and the race was underway. The pace immediately picked up and seemed to stay at a fairly high level. The course rolled for the first 6 miles until we hit the first serious climb, a 2-mile stair step climb that seemed to never end. I slid backward as we climbed but I did manage to hang onto the back of the peloton. I was again surprised at the wattage the Cat 3 peloton climbs at as the pace seemed aggressive. My next focus was to recover as quickly as possible because the second kicker of a climb was only a couple miles later. Before I knew it we were already there and we turned off onto a small side road that seemingly shot straight up and bent around a turn. I was immediately in trouble as I had yet to recover and I began to slip away from the peloton, a familiar feeling these days. After I rounded the bend, the road continued upward in excess of 10%. The top was so close yet so far. After I crested the climb, I was able to quickly pick up the pace and eventually collected a few other riders. We worked together for the most part until we hit a main road with some gradual rollers. On the first roller I heard a yell from the back and we had dropped a rider. We eased up and waited figuring it was best to remain together. This happened on the next two rollers and by the third time, I kept the hammer down and never looked back. At that point, I could see the cars trailing the peloton...I'll be damned if I was waiting again. A total of three of us hammered ourselves back into the peloton over the next few miles. I sat in and tried to recover as best I could knowing more climbs were only a few miles away. As we hit the feed zone climbs, I was shot and dropped away, this time for good. I continued on after a short debate on dropping out. I wanted to get at least another good lap in before I'd consider anything. About 6 miles into the second 20 mile lap, the skies completely opened as I soldiered on. I didn't seem to mind, in fact it was nice to be out there alone in the pouring rain. I hooked up with another rider for the last half of the lap and we started rotating. Unfortunately the sensations weren't right for me, something was off. I was completely fatigued. At the end of the second lap, I pulled out of the race. As I headed back to the car I ran into Darius headed back to the finish line to cheer on the rest of the FGX guys. I grabbed my rain jacket and did the same.
Afterward, I learned that both Darius and Etsu were dropped before I was. Neither of them had a good day either quite obviously. I did manage to take the race for what it was, more training, and not beat myself up too much. I knew I still had a ways to go to be competitive again. My goal now became gathering as much fitness as possible and then rest up before Tour of the Catskills. ToC would be another gamble of a race for me but I was committed to at least giving it my best shot...but that's another post.
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