Working Man Stage Race: Stage 2 - Circuit Race

Had a good recovery from Stage 1. Legs felt like a million bucks.

The circuit race course was pretty much the same as the time trial but with an additional little section that lengthed each lap from ~6 miles to ~9 miles. The new section introduced a new little hill similar in size to the KOM hill according to my garmin (which was only about 130’). Cat4’s went 4 laps, ~36 miles. There was a sharp 90 degree right-hander leading into a ~250m finish stretch. Yellow line rule was in effect until ~50m after the turn, which made the turn a bit sharper than it already was.

I only showed up 30 minutes prior to the start, so I was a bit rushed to sign up, suit up, and do the bathroom thing. No warmup other than doing a few circles around the small parking lot in a low gear. Got to the line and ended up pretty darn close to the very back. I hate jockeying for position before the gun goes off and just hung out at the back even though I’ve been told a million times “race at the front! race at the front!” Whatever dude.

First lap was nice and easy, was hardly breathing across the flats. The rode on the back stretch of the course had a deadly right side to it. I was dodging cracks and holes the entire time. The KOM hill was a bit of a push for me, definitely went anaerobic getting over it with the heart rate going over 185. Stayed on easily enough though.

Lap two things got more interesting. TPM and his young NHCC team did a nice job pushing their way to the front. Every time the pace picked up coming out of a corner I noticed Tim being on the very front, sweet. Well he’s cat3 now so I don’t have to worry about that any more.

Anyways, I thought I was moving up towards the front a bit myself which would have been good given the narrow course, however half way through lap two I looked back and no one was there. That sucks.

It was on lap two where my brakes started giving me some trouble. I was rocking the 44mm carbon rims but I didn’t take the time to set the pads with the proper toe-in before the race. The result was a big loss in braking power with the pads screaming and screeching every time I got on them. Talk about a good way to mark yourself as a guy to pass. The few remaining people at the back were working hard to stay ahead of me and rightfully so. I felt like a danger trying to keep tight on a wheel and was allowing way more space than usual.

This braking issue had me stressed out beyond belief. By the time the KOM hill came around I was pretty shaken up. I got on a familiar CCB wheel from the NEBC hill rides, but half way up noticed that a handful of us had been gapped by 5m or so.

Over the false flat I pushed up the power a bit to close the gap. I was almost successful, but couldn’t quite make it and completely blew up doing so, heart rate reaching 194 (196 max HR). My teammate Tom passed and urged me to push to close the gap on the downhill, but I couldn’t move.

In hindsite I should have let the gap stand over the false flat and picked them up on the downhill. The pace of the peloton slowed considerably here and I nearly caught them while gasping for air. Had I allowed the gap to gain another 2 seconds while they raced for the KOM I surely would have caught them.

Instead, I was off the back all on my own. Coming by the finish line Erica was there cheering for me to catch back on, as I was still chasing a 10-15 second gap. I destroyed myself trying but I just didn’t have it. What really hurt was knowing my error on the KOM hill and putting myself in that position.

On the plus side I felt very fit riding alone, averaging just under 21mph for the last 20 miles, not that it matters. I was close to pulling out of the race due to frustration, but in the end it felt really good to finish.

My goal for the day had been to stay with the field for the group sprint, as I think sprinting speed is my strong suite. Would have been nice to test it in the group finish, but maybe next time.

Teammate Mike Rowell (built Erica’s bike up) followed up his strong time trial with a top 15 performance, and ended up nicely in the GC as stage 3 was cancelled due to heavy rain. TPM picked up 3^rd in the GC being on the unfortunate side of a 2^nd place tiebreaker.