Wells Ave: July 8th

Raced at Wells Ave today. Haven't been racing much other than local training races the past couple of weeks, hoping to spend more quality time in the saddle and less time driving to races. Besides, when you have a great training race like Wells Ave less than 10 miles away it's almost too convenient.

Legs were a little tired coming into the race, the result of a few too many miles on Saturday (although they were easy). That being said, I wasn't exactly 100%, but my intent is to prepare for some upcoming stage races in the next month or two, so I did my best to deal.

Seems like just about every race during this time of the year is a combined A&B race and today was no exception. It's not a bad thing because it seems like there's a lot more "B's" than "A's", but 32 miles is sure a lot longer than I'm used to for a crit. Oh well, I'll get used to it fast at this rate. I'd also be interested to see the makeup of "A" racers and "B" racers. When I signed up there were only 5 or 10 A's on the list, but those guys probably come a bit later so who knows.

The plan for the day was to sit in for as long as possible at the front, not go for any primes (I don't have the legs yet to recover from these), and maybe make a bid at the finish if I get that far. Honestly, I have trouble feeling too competitive at most of these races, especially the training races, it was a perfect day out and I just wanted to have fun and do some good racing.

I sat in most of the race around 1/4 or 1/3 of the way back, not really interested or having the legs to get right up at the front. Actually, about 8 (of 40) laps in there was already a group of six off of the front, and another NEBC rider went to the front and I just kind of ended up there too. Pulled at maybe 90% max effort for a minute or so before fading back. That was my big excitement for the day at the front.

For most of the race I felt way better than I typically do. The big thing was that when it got to be crunch time, it didn't hurt half as bad as usual. That's a real nice change, and a good sign that the training is paying off too. Two riders were off the front and eating up a lot of the primes for most of the race. There were a couple of pack primes that predictably stretched things out, but for the most part the attacks seemed a lot more random that usual. The pack would stretch out just about anywhere, whenever someone with some strong legs felt like making a big pull I suppose.

The heat was kind of nasty though (83F with high humidity). A few racers went as far to start the race with the full zipper completely undone. I started the race with my jersey zipped all the way up, and when I went to unzip it some half way through the zipper got stuck. Like an idiot I wrestled around with it so much that I accidentally clinged spokes with a rider in front of me. Next time I'll give up my position and pull off to fix such a thing. Sorry to the riders around me that I put in danger.

With about 8 or 9 laps to go I completely ran out of gas. The pace didn't pick up or anything, I just died. At first I just had trouble keeping the wheel in front of me up the hill on turn 2. It took what seemed like a huge effort to close that, and not half a lap later it happened again and I was toast. I sat up for a lap and tried hopping on the back, but I was spent. Not sure if it was the heat or a few too many miles in the days prior or what, but it felt kind of funny to drop out that close to the finish.

It was a great day for a race, and despite dropping out close to the finish I had a lot of fun. Erica and I stopped at Panera after the race and soaked up some sun on their patio.

I'm headed to Colorado next weekend for a 3-day trip. Never been on a cycling trip but that's the plan this time. We plan to rent bikes in Boulder, but I'm not sure whether to do road or mt biking. Climbing Mt. Evans is high on the list, but so is the Monarch Crest trail. I'd like to try and keep the traveling within 2-3 hours of Denver if possible, and I haven't been able to figure out what exactly is in this range. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it.