After an looooooong winter and a cold start to spring, it was time to open my account for 2013. Early this past Saturday morning I headed upstate to Coxsackie for the Trooper Brinkerhoff Memorial Race #3 for my first race of the season. Training had been going well until late February when a mild cold resulted in some lung issues which proved extremely difficult to get over. Four weeks later I was finally healthy enough to resume hard training although I still had to avoid real cold days. So going into today's race was a bit of an unknown with less than two weeks training at full intensity. Regardless of fitness, I wanted to get a couple of races under my belt before Tour of the Battenkill. Unfortunately it is no longer a target race for me due to the delay in my training, luckily it is a long season with many great races.
By the time I arrived at the start, it was a balmy 34F with full sun. Unfortunately the nights are still very cold upstate and the peak temperature often doesn't occur until 4-5PM. I delayed going out to "warm up" in order to stay warm for as long as possible. I went a little light on the clothing, choosing to dress for the end of the race. This meant standing at the start line shivering with nearly 100 other entrants. Luckily we were under way quickly and my attention was soon focused on the race, distracting me nicely from the fact that I was under dressed. I chose to ride on the right side of the peloton but ended up having to battle a little wind at times. The up side of riding on the right was that offered me opportunities to move up as well as hopefully having an escape path should I need it. I rode in the front third of the peloton all day, trying not to get caught out and shuffled to the back. It was a little tougher to move up at this race however there were two good opportunities every lap if necessary. Speaking of which, the race was a circuit race on a 12 mile course that was mostly flat with a few mild and short kickers. The race got off to a fast start and maintained a hard pace for the first 18 miles. Thankfully things eased up and a few guys slowly rode off the front near the end of lap two. I decided it was a good time to test the legs, apparently I wasn't thinking clearly given my recent training...brain must have been frozen. None the less, I pressed off the front in pursuit of the break. I quickly made it about 3/4 of the way across when the headwind started hurting. I realized this was going to end up being a painful bridge. I checked my gap to the peloton only to see things all strung out single file by an Expo Wheelmen guy. I continued to press a little longer, again checking the gap to the peloton. Still strung out and now closing, clearly the Expo Wheelmen guy didn't want me going anywhere. Given that our team was pretty well represented and teammates had been very active in the previous week's races, I guess he perceived us as a threat. I sat up realizing even if I did bridge that it would be a waste because they clearly weren't going to let us go. From there on, I rode smart trying to stay as hidden as possible yet near the front. Unfortunately several of the guys in the peloton were riding pretty sketchy, forcing there way by guys on the right when there was no room or blatantly moving over on someone so they could move up. I could hear many guys calling others out behind me, even a little shouting. Funny this amateur racing thing we do, very similar to the Wednesday night softball league yet some guys act like it is the cycling world championships every race. Get a grip, we are amateurs and we do this for fun! None of us will ever be pro. Anyway, with all asshats forcing there way around, it was only a matter of time until a couple guys got together. I was just hoping it wouldn't be anywhere near me. Unfortunately for me, it happened two bikes up in the middle of the peloton with a guy getting tangled up and taking a hard right while unclipping, trying desperately to stay up. The guy in front of me was a goner as best I could tell and it wasn't looking good for me...that is until I took a hard right for the grass for a little cross action. If I've learned anything from Battenkill, when you hit bad terrain, drop the hammer. I powered through some very soft and muddy grass, easily clearing the crash, until I came to a gravel driveway to work my way back onto the road. I did get bogged down a little bit and the crash formed a natural break in the peloton which I found myself on the wrong side of. I kept the power on and dragged myself back up to the front of the peloton, ending up quite gassed after the ordeal only to hit the longest uphill grinder on the course. I was suffering but kept in it and hung on over the top, recovering nicely on the gradual descent. By the end of lap 3, I had managed to move up to the top 10 riders and my goal for the 4th and final lap was to preserve as much of that as possible. With all the argy bargy going on, I knew it wouldn't be easy. I had another near miss on a slow corner when the guy outside of me nearly rode me into the guy on the inside of me because he didn't want to give a few inches. Good thing because races are usually won 6 miles from the finish idiot! About 4 miles from the finish, one of my ridiculously strong teammates attacked and got approximately 100 meters on the peloton and then sat there for the next 3+ miles solo into some nasty headwind while guys took their turns trying to run him down. I was actually quite comical watching the whole thing play out. I kept myself as well positioned on the right as I could in case Mike got caught which I figured was likely. Unfortunately guys started forcing their way in the front and I heard no less than 2 wheel rubs behind me, thankfully no one went down. By now I had been shuffled back to probably 20th position with 1k to go. I kept holding the right and kept telling myself that it would open up...it always does. We rounded the last sweeper onto what I thought was the final straight and the 500m sign. OK, it's going to open up any second now, keep the faith. Not long after that, I noticed the leaders peel off left. Who knew? Turns out the finish was on a side street we hadn't used and wasn't marked on the course map! Luckily I easily made the left sweeping turn which was thankfully rather wide. Not so lucky for the guy in front of me who completely missed the turn. Sure enough, once we had use of the full width of the road the peloton pulled left and things opened up. The only down side for me was that I had no idea where the hell the finish line was! One guy rapidly jumped through the opening and passed me quite quickly. I hesitated and then figured I'd better go now. I opened my sprint only to see the 200m to go sign shortly after. Uh oh, this was going to hurt. A 250m sprint, seriously? I hammered only holding back ever so slightly hoping to stretch as long as I could to the line. I came into the clear with only a few guys in front of me and started hammering for all I was worth because I could now see the line. Despite my best effort, I lost several places coming to the line as I started running out of steam and finished 7th. I sat up, looked around and realized that I had just pulled a top ten...starting from somewhere around 20th position all the while having no idea where the finish line was. Not a bad day's work for my first race out.
Afterwards we gathered in the parking lot, traded war stories, and then grabbed some grub at the local cafe. Despite the race being a bit sketchy, it was great training for maintaining proper positioning. I also realized that tactically I made the most of the race as well. Both are critical for staying out of trouble and racing smart and strong. I just wish there were a Trooper Race #4 this year. Oh yeah, and from now on I'll always ask about the finish!
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