I had a worthy teammate to go along with me in Andy Kimble, after moving to Asheville and joining VeloSports Racing. Andy met me at my house at 5:00am and we set off in my Avant for the long drive. With smaller fields (around 25), one team having four members, and two of us, the plan was to give me carte blanche and Andy would try to get in a breakaway at some point to let me sit in and give him a chance at a result since he wasn't as confident for the final climb - with an eye towards me waiting for the last climb.
We had a wonderful drive through the "Historic Center of Gainesboro, TN" and arrived with plenty of time that of course went too quickly. Not a bad deal since it was a long race and hot weather, so a complete thorough warm-up wasn't as crucial. The start was sane with only one person trying to channel his inner Jens for maybe a couple of minutes. The first 3.5 (the .5 being the hill at the beginning) climbs come within the first 16 km and makes for a difficult beginning. After that downhill it is a slight build up to the fourth climb to a plateau. I was sitting second wheel with no intention to work when the jerk in front of me thought he would signal his attention to stop working by simply and suddenly stopping pedaling. We exchanged philosophical differences and when I looked back I had a gap by just dangling off the front and keeping pedaling. I decided to keep going, but not bury myself since we had over two hours left in the race and doing it solo was not ideal.
After who knows how long [10 minutes?] someone bridged to me and we started working well together. A few minutes later someone else bridged up, who I think was my recent debate partner. He was a definitely a rouleur and would be great for the breakaway success. However, I was stuck with rotating behind him and he was not doing it nice. Being smaller and unable to crank out huge watts instantly by mashing on the pedals at a whim, his rotations and me trying to follow him and pull through were hurting (since we were going very hard trying to extend the gap). When we got to the plateau climb I lost a little bit of ground on the climb by virtue of the big nut's pulls. At the top the two companions pulled away and I couldn't catch them on the downhill. I waited for some reinforcements which came in the form of the main group that had whittled down. I thought for sure we would catch those two as they only had 30 seconds at first, but they quickly extended that since no one knows how to work together apparently even when one specific team had four teammates at the start of the race.
From that point we passed time with people doing stupid "attacks," accelerating and powering up hills [ie bumps] for no good reason to only rest at the top. As a high note, we hit the feed zone with neutral water and I got to do the PRO thing and pour it over me. Aaaaah, that felt so good in the sun and heat.
After a bit Andy and I stopped rotating at the front when we got word of the huge advantage. I was feeling good and thought I had a good chance on the next to last climb to try an attack again if I could get someone to help me on the descent and flat. At the least I could go on the final climb. But up that next to last climb I started to get a cramp on my inner thigh and lost some power. No problem I thought, because the top of the climb was just ahead and they were clearly in view. Plus it was flat/downhill after this and there was no reason for these idiots to drive hard. Alas, for Andy and I they were idiots and drove so hard that we couldn't close the gap despite bombing down a descent and TT'ing for a while.
At this point I started to actually notice how hot it was and just wanted to finish. Andy and I made it to the final climb and we just went up at our own pace. We descended, changed, waited for a 12th place $15 payout and headed home. Since we both care about food and hate crap, it was a long 4 hour drive home to food.
Next stop is the Longsjo Classic Stage Race in Fitchburg, MA. Site of my most depressing performance ever in 2009.
After who knows how long [10 minutes?] someone bridged to me and we started working well together. A few minutes later someone else bridged up, who I think was my recent debate partner. He was a definitely a rouleur and would be great for the breakaway success. However, I was stuck with rotating behind him and he was not doing it nice. Being smaller and unable to crank out huge watts instantly by mashing on the pedals at a whim, his rotations and me trying to follow him and pull through were hurting (since we were going very hard trying to extend the gap). When we got to the plateau climb I lost a little bit of ground on the climb by virtue of the big nut's pulls. At the top the two companions pulled away and I couldn't catch them on the downhill. I waited for some reinforcements which came in the form of the main group that had whittled down. I thought for sure we would catch those two as they only had 30 seconds at first, but they quickly extended that since no one knows how to work together apparently even when one specific team had four teammates at the start of the race.
From that point we passed time with people doing stupid "attacks," accelerating and powering up hills [ie bumps] for no good reason to only rest at the top. As a high note, we hit the feed zone with neutral water and I got to do the PRO thing and pour it over me. Aaaaah, that felt so good in the sun and heat.
After a bit Andy and I stopped rotating at the front when we got word of the huge advantage. I was feeling good and thought I had a good chance on the next to last climb to try an attack again if I could get someone to help me on the descent and flat. At the least I could go on the final climb. But up that next to last climb I started to get a cramp on my inner thigh and lost some power. No problem I thought, because the top of the climb was just ahead and they were clearly in view. Plus it was flat/downhill after this and there was no reason for these idiots to drive hard. Alas, for Andy and I they were idiots and drove so hard that we couldn't close the gap despite bombing down a descent and TT'ing for a while.
At this point I started to actually notice how hot it was and just wanted to finish. Andy and I made it to the final climb and we just went up at our own pace. We descended, changed, waited for a 12th place $15 payout and headed home. Since we both care about food and hate crap, it was a long 4 hour drive home to food.
Next stop is the Longsjo Classic Stage Race in Fitchburg, MA. Site of my most depressing performance ever in 2009.
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