Dirty Circles #1 2016 Race Report

Sunday 2/28/16

5:30am — My eyes opened without an alarm reaching my ears; my body was clearly still on central time zone. I didn’t plan on leaving for the race until 7:15. I lay there in the warmth of the covers and wondered what the race would be like. Would the weather be dreadful? Would I crash? Would I win? I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and could still feel pain in my ribs from the elbow I took weeks before.

Today was the first race of the season. Time to get up.

7:30 — I was late, already. I had a nice breakfast in the quiet of the morning. I ate while thumbing through the latest Bicycling mag which was basically about buying bikes you can’t afford because its a good decision in the end. I can’t afford a bike…but I want one, wait I NEED one, what no I just want one. Brainwashed.

After punching the address into the car GPS I realized I was actually 30 minutes later than what I wanted to be. Looks like it will be another quick warmup = no real warmup. I have to get this timing right!

As I entered Washington I began thinking about the race. How cool was it that I’m racing on the opening weekend of the spring classics? The conditions were turning out to be epic too, rainy, wet, windy, one for the hardmen.

Yesterday, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, I’ve avoided it so I can watch it later while doing some trainer time. I have to admit though, the race name sounds a heck of a lot cooler than Dirty Circles. Apparently, its dutch for circulation newspaper…not as cool now huh, but still fun to say!

Dirty Circles is held in Woodland, WA. It is a 6 mile loop in the countryside. 4–6 laps are done depending on the category. Today I would be riding Masters 35+ 4/5 and we would be doing 4 laps. I expected the race time to be somewhere between 1:05 and 1:08. The race runs in slightly different configurations for three weeks in a row, as a series. It was my first road race of the year, second of my life.

8:30am — Arrive, home base setup was brilliant thanks to Mark, Nancy and Dean. Team tent setup with wind barrier, warm coffee/tea, chairs and even a bike stand. Loved the support from the team! Team Planet X USA is a great team to be a part of.

Change into team kit. Conditions, 51F, light rain. I flip flop about layers, end up with kit, base-layer, knee and arm warmers and a cycling cap. I love cycling caps. I couldn’t find safety pins from last week so I quickly grabbed some more, did a pit stop then mounted my numbers with a little help from Mark. Time for a quick warmup.

The parking lot of the venue is sandy, ugh. Spin down the road to check out the finish line. I had driven through that way. The final 1km contained a slight S turn then opened up into a straight to the finish at 500m. It was into the wind. I decided that if I was going to sprint I need to wait to 200m for sure.

Warmup was lacking, but I figured the first lap or two would be easier and I’d be able to settle in comfortably and pour it on the last half of the race.

9:00 am — I straddled my bike at the back of the Masters 4/5 pack with two teammates, Dave and Erik and listened to the instructions being given -centerline rule, wheel in wheel out, centerline rule, day is done if you cross it, 500m to go last lap no centerline rule, got it. It seemed to me that the lane was really skinny. It seemed only 4 or 5 riders could ride abreast in it. Smile for a few pics, or not…lets just look serious like, “yeah I’m a badass”. I’m sure that didn’t work well.

It dawned on me that if I punctured I would probably not be able to get back into the group. I quickly threw my repair kit to Mark. Others joked about how heavy it sounded. I silently prayed for no punctures.

The plan was to ride together and take cues from Dave since he was the experienced one of us. For Erik and I, this was virtually our first bike race of our lives. If we were together at the end we’d work to lead out Dave.

9:05am — RACE The group moved out as if it were shot out of a cannon. The first turn put us into a heavy crosswind and a break had already began to form. By the next turn we found ourselves in the third group on the road. What the heck was going on?

We began to chase, to at least close the gap to the second group. Each of us took turns at the front, but we failed tactically in that we did not require others in our group to take turns with us. The work was hard but I wasn’t in the red pulling the group back. I wanted to make sure we didn’t continue to fall behind so early and so I was willing to do the work. Dave and Erik took pulls in the same way.

The wind was fierce. It was a heavy crosswind splitting our line up on two sides of the race, a tailwind down the back side and then in our faces on the start/finish side. There was no group…it was a strung out paceline with Team Planet X doing the work up front.

We nailed that group back by the end of the first lap. I turned to Dave and said I needed to sit on, let others work while I got my strength back. The group turned to go into the wind and I immediately felt like it lacked the firepower to have any hope of catching the leaders. We tried to sit in, but still fell into doing too much work at the front.

The group worked together but not as it should to catch. By the end of the second lap we were 1:30 down from the leaders. Erik was hurting, I could not read Dave. I told Erik to not pull, just roll through. Hide in the wind. Recover. We headed into the wind and I just could not get a good consistent draft from the guys in front of me.

Into the third lap the group absolutely shattered. I watched as riders literally leaned into the wind to go straight. The leaders in our group had us on the centerline with no room to get shelter from the wind. Surely this was not on puropse? I yelled at them to get off the centerline but none seemed interested. The wind pushed us to the limit. There was no shelter!

As we turned onto the tailwind stretch I was relieved that I’d made it through that. I took a pull then came off the front and turned to look for Dave. He was supposed to be on my wheel but was not there. One rider, two, three, I looked back and did not see Dave. Erik was no longer in the group either. How did I miss that? Had they crashed?

Another left hand turn and the wind came at me again. I got some shelter in the group but the thought crept into my mind that I would not be able to hold on. 45 minutes of racing at threshold with such little time for recovering; none of my training had been this hard. I was not prepared. I got a hold of my thoughts and kept pushing. I did not just spend 60 hours of my life this year on the bike only to get dropped in my first race. I hardened up, got in the drops and searched for that draft.

We continued to shell riders off the back for a lap and picked up two from the lead group. They looked strong, this would help us. There were 6 of us now still chasing.

I heard 1:00 gap when the bell rang for the 4th lap. We had snatched 30 seconds back from the lead group! Were they fading? Our group was only 6 now but we were energized by taking those 30 seconds back. We pushed hard, rotating through in short pulls now. People yelled if you didn’t work, I was silent and did my time, perhaps too much time. Each pull put me over my threshold and with the wind there was rarely a time when I could soft pedal and recover.

We approached the final corner and I took my pull. Was that the lead group right there making the turn? They looked 300m or less in front of us! That couldn’t be them I thought. I looked hard…but I never saw them go so I couldn’t identify any of them. Is it? Should I attempt to make the gap? I decided against it, we needed the group to keep pushing together into the wind to close it. It was at least 5 minutes into the wind pedaling I would have to do solo if I went.

My turn was done and I pulled off. I waited, but nobody pulled through. I looked and a small gap had opened. Had the group given up? Was everyone saving themselves for our sprint? More importantly, should I go now since I already have a small gap? I soft pedaled into the corner and let the group pass.

The final straight was a big old lesson in lollygagging. All 6 of us did pulls but that was it. Unfortunately I was number 6. When I pulled off again, the guy behind had gapped like before. I complained to him. We were still 1k out and these guys had turned off the gas. It was obvious now that they were settling. I didn’t like to settle but what could I do? My 2 minute power was one of my weakest time periods.

I parked it on the right side and slowed down as well, although I was still doing 300 watts into the wind. I waited. My plan? When the sprint started I would grab a wheel and then try and whip around at the end. I felt like I had something left in the tank for sure but when would it start?

The truth is I don’t remember when the sprint started. I saw three guys get a jump, I fell in behind the 4th. He turned out to have no gas and then the 6th rider whipped around. I jumped on his wheel, then spun out my gear. Luckily it was enough to get him at the line by a bike length.

10:10am — And just like that it was done. I sat up and gasped for air and felt my legs relaxing with each easy pedal stroke. The suffering was done.

There were 7 in the lead group, 6 in ours, I finished 4th in the group, 11th overall out of 29. I pedaled back around to the start to flush the legs a bit and wait for teammates. After a few minutes of waiting without seeing them I headed back to home base to see if they had already made it back. Eventually, all made it back to the tent and we shared post race stories while sipping and eating some recovery. Good camaraderie.

It was a tough race. It lasted almost 1:05 like I had thought. Avg heart rate 172, NP 272. No crashes, I wasn’t dropped…sans missing the break early on. Was a good day. Most importantly though is I need to do better tactically individually and as a team. Lots to learn.

Time to go train.

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