The weather for the Auburn Road Race was terrible. Mid-50’s and pouring down rain. At times the rain was coming down so hard it hurt. Motivation to race was low. We had a nice relaxed breakfast in the morning at our motel, and we made several jokes about just driving back home. The rain did ease up from the time we drove from the motel to the start, right up until the start of the race. Once the race started, the rain started. At least it held off long enough to get us going.
The cat 4/5 race was 3 laps, 35 miles, and had 60 starters. The course itself is relatively flat for a road race, but does feature a couple short and steep power climbs that are a little selective. There is also a few sharp 90-degree turns that wouldn’t be a big deal in a crit, but in a rainy road race people slowed way down for them and sprinted out hard. The finish is a long straightaway with a very slight incline that is about a mile long that starts just after a series of steep power climbs. The fastest sprinter to stay intact over the power climbs would probably take the race.
Once again I lined up at the very back of the field. I just can’t seem to get to the start of the race in time to get a decent position. It wasn’t raining yet so I tossed my rain jacket into the bushes and off we went.
First lap pace was slow as slime. Racers were a lot more patient today than at Sunapee, and not once did I see anyone bump each other or lock up a wheel or any of that sketchy stuff. There was one guy who was very vocal about how slowly we were going, and pushed himself into every hole he could find to move up a position or two when we were bunched up. I was pleased to see he ended up dropping off the back on a hill before the end of the first lap. I moved up a few positions from the back during the one or two times on the first lap when we got stretched out, hoping to avoid getting caught behind a split in the field through the power climbs. Coming up the climbs the pace got hard, but was still very manageable. Coming over the finishing straight the pace stayed quick, and it kept anyone that was dropped from rejoining the field.
Coming down the decent after the first lap I ended up behind some nervous descenders that let quite a gap open in front of them. I had to make a big effort to come around and close the gap on the flats before the first power climb. The pace up this first climb ended up being a lot harder than the first lap, and then stayed hard around the sharp corners and into the downhill. Other than the finish, this was the hardest part of the race for me. I think a lot of riders got shelled here because when things finally settled down, I was once again sitting on the end of the pelican.
The rain was on and off at this point, and when it was on, it was really letting loose. The rain was falling so hard at times it hurt. My glasses were fogging up so badly I could hardly see. I kept switching to having my glasses low on my nose so I could look over the tops, but nothing seemed good. I was sitting on the back with a good ten foot buffer to the wheel in front of me. I can’t imagine everyone else could see as little as I could and still ride so close together without crashing. I’m sure I would have taken someone out if I were riding elbow to elbow.
The cold rain was also really draining on my muscles. Towards the end of the second lap and then again in the middle of the last lap the pace got really slow, and my muscles really froze up. It was hard to force my way up the power climbs with such cold muscles and the lactic acid was really building up. I never got in real danger of being dropped but my legs didn’t exactly feel great by any means.
Half way through the last lap I was still sitting on the back. We were bunched up on the narrow course, and the only people that were moving up were violating the yellow line rule. Thoughts began running through my head of just rolling through with a pack finish. Luckily for me, with somewhere around half a lap to go, someone must have attacked out of a corner or something because the pelican stretched double file. I hadn’t done any work to this point and felt great, so I took the opportunity to move up significantly, all the way to about fifth wheel.
So with half a lap to go I was sitting out in the wind but only five wheels back. I felt strong enough to ride on the side of the field, even though it was more work, and kept my good position. I was blocking off the yellow line the best I could to make it difficult for anyone else to move up and the plan seemed to work well. With the power climbs coming up in about a mile, a few of the bigger looking riders started launching attacks and really stretched things out. This forced me to grab a wheel and stay sheltered, but I never came back more than 10 wheels. The attacks didn’t work, and the riders were brought back in before the climbs.
As soon as we hit the climbs the pace went from hard to crazy. Attacks were coming left and right, and I was losing position trying not to blow up on anything stupid. I was hurting after the first pair of camelback climbs, but had a good wheel and was intact about 10 wheels back. Coming up the last rise before the finishing stretch everyone went really crazy, and I felt like I was practically sprinting. There was a crash on the left side near the front, but I was far enough behind it that it didn’t really affect me.
Cresting the top of the climb I was really blowing up, and was sure I was about to get dropped. To my surprise, the ten riders or so that were in front of me practically stopped, and I was able to just maintain contact. They must have hammered up the hill way too hard, because we were crawling along the flat straightaway. I got a good rest in, and all of the sudden felt like a million bucks. Feeling good, I made a move up the left side and was third wheel before I knew it. I could barely see, and thought the finish line was coming up, so I made a big effort up the left side moving up into the wind. At this point I really thought I was going to win, or at least podium, and was full of adrenaline. As I crested what I thought was the last little rise before the finish, I realized I was still a good 300-400m out. I tried to keep pushing my big gear the best I could, but I was totally redlined. As we passed 200m to go, riders begun coming around either side of me. With 50m to go I could barely turn over a pedalstroke and I was being completely swarmed. Two or three riders came around me right at the finish, and I ended up in twelfth. My legs felt more charged with lactic acid than ever before.
I was really happy to finish twelfth, especially in a road race, and am sure I could have done much better if I had timed my finish well. The numbers for the race are a little deceiving due to the cold weather. Finishing power was especially low relative to my perceived effort. I think this may have been the effect of the cold rain. Average heart rate was relatively low in the 150’s, especially given the normalized power of 280W for the entire race. This also may have been due to the cold. Maximum heart rate was 185 bpm. I was almost dropped over the last climb and that usually doesn’t happen unless my heart rate is well into the 190’s. The point is that data analysis is useless because the cold rain obviously had a significant effect and I have no baseline to compare to.
My form really seems to be coming along right now and I’m anxious to get into some more races. On Sunday I did a solo 95-mile ride out and back to Wachusett for hill repeats. I was very happy with my power output on that ride and felt strong even when I got back, able to do 1000W+ sprints still. It’s too bad that there’s not more races on the June calendar.
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