Friday's stage was an individual time trial around 12 miles. This was my first time trial in a long time and it was actually pretty fun...although I did have to dust off the TT bike. Hey, what can I say...I prefer racing directly against others. I have never been pushed harder than some of the road races I have done in the past. Plus you don't always control the situation adding to the fun and difficulty. Despite my lack of form and training on the TT bike, I turned in a performance I was happy with. I'm sure I left a good 30 seconds on the course because I was riding blind, no computer what so ever to measure anything. I'll have that fixed by my next TT where hopefully the result will matter a little more than just training.
Finishing the TT.
Post TT deep thoughts.
Saturday brought a 65.5 mile road race which included the infamous Devil's Kitchen on a nice hot 90+ degree day. Since many of you have never heard of Devil's Kitchen, let's just say it makes the Devil's Backbone back in Ohio look like...not even child's play, it doesn't even register compared to the Devil's Kitchen. My goal was to stay with the peloton until the base of Devil's Kitchen and then simply survive. Well, I achieved my goal but it was waaaay harder that I ever thought it would be. Only a few miles in, we hit the first climbs of the day. Nothing too serious but the peloton was in a serious mood causing many watts to be poured out even on the minor stuff. About 6 or 7 miles in, I was taken out on a climb by some guy who rode into someones wheel and took a hard right turn directly in front of me. I was even riding in the top third of the field! I didn't go down but I did smack my left hand and brake hood and had to clip out, stop, and untangle. I sorted things out quickly and chased back on without any major issue, fixing my crooked brake lever along the way. From there things got worse as we climbed toward the first KoM of the day. Gunning from the back is never ideal, especially on a climb which means constantly going around those getting gaped but I had no option thanks the crash. Well, one moment's inattention was all it took and some guy gaped several of us a good 50 feet off the peloton and I was pinned in. I finally broke free as a Cosmic rider went flying by to bridge up so I jumped his wheel. We rejoined as the peloton made a left turn and the road kicked up for the final climb to the KoM. By now I was in the red and couldn't hang onto the back as the cracks opened up. Luckily the climb wasn't too terribly long and we had a nice descent to catch back on so I rode my pace to the top. Once over the top, I had company from three teammates from another team who were chasing hard. I let them work a while and then jumped in as one of them started to tire. Shockingly it took longer than I figured and more energy than I expected to catch back on. Once back, it was pure survival mode given the number of matches I had burned. Heck, I think I stole someone else's matchbook because I didn't realize I had as many as I did with my limited fitness! Regardless, once the descent slowed and the rollers started, hanging on was all I could do. I managed to get a brief reprieve as the course completely flattens/bottoms out about 6-7 miles before Devil's Kitchen. It was then that I knew it didn't matter, I was done. 56 miles in, I was immediately dropped at the base of Devil's Kitchen and after a couple minutes of climbing, stopped, dismounted, and began to walk. Walk, really? Well yes and I wasn't alone by any stretch of the imagination. You see, Devil's Kitchen consists of 1.4 miles at 16% average and totals 2.1 miles of climbing depending where you measure from. So yes, I walked. This bitch makes Brasstown Bald look reasonable. Both times I have ridden it I have been in complete shock at the gradient. You cannot comprehend this climb until you have seen it and ridden up the beast plain and simple. For a detailed write-up, check out this post I found from last year from some guy...
http://thedailygrind.robdamanii.com/2011/08/09/getting-fried-in-the-devils-kitchen/
And if you wonder why it is called Devil's Kitchen, it is because even on a cool day, the heat comes out of nowhere on that climb and cooks you. It is always hot, searing hot on that climb. So back to the race, I eventually made it to the top with a series of ride/walk intervals. Once the road returned to civil gradients, I was immediately back on it and strangly feeling better. I rode the final 7ish miles strong and finished 59th of 73, somewhere around 15 minutes back.
Chilling before the start. FGX was well represented, Ira almost won stage 2 and Jimmy took 6th overall
After recovering a little and taking in what seemed like a ton of fluids, it was clear I was pretty beaten up...mentally and physically. After three consecutive race weekend beatings, by the time Sunday rolled around the weekend had stopped being fun. The though of fighting just to cling to the back of the peloton yet again was extremely demoralizing. A minor point was that Stage 3 was the hardest of the race and generated plenty of buzz among the top riders regarding difficulty. By the time the start rolled around, I packed up and called it a weekend. Mentally, I was cooked. It has been a long, challenging road back to health and riding/racing and there's way more to it than I've ever written about here. Not that that is an excuse, but I gave it my best shot and failed. While some cannot accept or even admit failure, that Sunday it wasn't very tough to accept and admit failure. Being the competitive person I am, I did beat myself up a bit over my decision...quitting is never easy. But hindsight being 20/20, the real failure would have been not attempting something so challenging for me for fear of not finishing. It took me a few days but I'm proud of what I accomplished that weekend. Those close to me know just how much of a victory that failure actually was. Maybe next time I'll plan a less grueling comeback haha.
Jeff said he is very proud of you (and I am too). What some call a failure, others call a huge victory. You know you won't plan anything less grueling.
ReplyDeleteI know Basstown Bald - can't imagine this one.