Ups and Downs

Waking up this morning I rolled over onto my side and was reminded by my road rash that I raced my bike this weekend. Looking at my skin stuck to the bed sheets it was quite difficult to manage myself out of bed this morning. But in the end it was all worth it. Cause in the end I got a 4th place on GC at San Dimas Stage Race, in my very first Category 2 race. It was an exciting weekend with lots of ups and downs to say the least.

The three day stage started off with the up hill time trial on Friday.  It was 3.8 miles from the bottom to the top on a gradual ascent. I had a reasonable warm up before my start. I was very tired for some reason I couldn't tell you at that time. Fifteen minutes before my start I consumed a caffeine enhanced shot took off some clothing and went to the start. Whenever I hear the countdown, every little detail around me gets zoned out. I have a hard time remembering conversations and what not. Anyways, I rolled out of the start house getting up to speed and I was feeling comfortable. Too comfortable. So ramped it up to get my heart up a little more. This was mistake number one. I put myself into one of the worst positions possible. I was cracked within the first half mile of the course and I hadn't even begun to climb. I spent the next half a mile just recovering. The only upside was that I past both my 30 second and minute man before the first switch back. Passing your opponents  in a TT is always a good feeder for your confidence level. The last half of the course I cracked again going into a head wind section. So once again forced into recovery. Finally I saw the 1k to go banner and proceeded to completely turning myself inside out. I crossed the line at 14:19. It was three seconds faster then last years winning time set by Cal Giant/Specialized's John Bennet. I was quite confident that I may have won until I saw the results. Someone managed to best my time by five seconds. Even though I was second it may have been the most poorly performed TT to date. My pacing was awful. It upset me that I was able to wear the yellow for the next stage, but I was able to pick up the white jersey for best young rider. My teammates Alex Brookhouse and Jason King finished 5th and 14th.

The next stage was the road race. I woke up with an excess amount of phlegm in my nasal cavities, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good day for me  It was a very short road race for a Category 2 field rounding out to 56 miles. It was a 7 mile course, and we were doing 8 laps around it. By no means was I complaining about the distance at the end. I got to the start of the road race in my white jersey and I was really tired. I managed to get a total of 5 hours of sleep. I've always had a hard time sleeping before race day, mainly cause I have a bad habit of processing every scenario that can possibly occur. Although for this race,  that was not true. What happened in the road race was unpredictable. A break of two riders got away second lap and got a gap up to over a minute. On the five lap, our field was neutralized for the pro/1 field to pass us. The race coordinators couldn't have picked a worse place to neutralize us. It was on the skinniest part of the course. Squeezing  200 plus riders onto this narrow strip of road, there was bound to be miss communication somewhere. Towards the back of the field some pro/1 riders crashed into the back of our field. I was near the front so I wasn't able to see or hear anything. The race got back underway and I feeling terrible. I had a hard time getting my heart rate up. My legs were burnt up. The last 2 laps of the race I felt like I hit the wall and I was just hanging on by luck. The break was never caught and finished about two minutes ahead of the field. I managed to finish with the pack so I got the same time as everyone, except for the people in  the break. However, when the mixed pro/1 and 2 riders were managing themselves back onto their bikes during the neutral, me along with some others believe that there were 3 category 2 riders that left the field and hitched a ride onto the back of the pro/1 field. Unfortunately, it was never really proven because race officials said they really didn't have the time to investigate. Because the break survived I ended up dropping down to 4th on GC, and I lost the young riders jersey. The rider who took it from me is believed to be one of the riders who hitched onto the back of the pro/1 field while we were neutralized. In my book, that's an automatic DQ. But whats done is done, so my main concern was to just recover for the next days stage.

The third and final day was the criterium. It was a six corner crit with a slight uphill and a slight downhill. My goal was to hold on to my 4th place on GC so I could stand on the podium for my first category 2 stage race. I was fortunate to get a little better recovery then the previous night. Although the phlegm was still there, I was feeling more confident today. Still very tired, I took lots of caffeine enhanced drinks and foods to get my body going. The crit started out fast as crits usually are. The first couple of laps was a good test to see how my legs were doing and they were performing much better than yesterday. I was able to move up through the field  very easily. I didn't have the legs to contest in any hot spot sprints so I just tried to stay in the front. Once I saw the lap cards say 5 to go, I started the fight for position. Going into the last lap I was 3rd wheel. Not ideal, but safe. I didn't have contentions on winning. I just wanted my 4th on GC so I could step on the podium. Going into the final turn into the finish I was sitting 8th wheel. This was it. All I had to do was go through the turn and sprint to the line. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. A rider in front of me took out his front wheel by attempting to swerve around a bot dot. I'm not hear to tell people how to ride their bikes, but after getting front row seats to this spectacular crash, riders like this need a little bit more experience with the bike before doing one of  the biggest stage races on the west coast. I ended up, from what others observed, doing a complete front flip over the bars and into the barriers head first and then sliding on the pavement on my right side. I got up within a second got on my bike and crossed the finish. Lucky for me the crash was within the last 5 laps so I got the same time as everyone else and kept my GC. Although I was in contentions for a top ten, I'm still happy with my efforts. Sorry I didn't elaborate as much as I wanted to, I've been really tired.

Stepping onto the podium yesterday was quite the experience. Even though I wasn't at the top of it, I believe I could get there easily. Getting 2nd in the time trial alone is a huge result. As of this weekend I'm now half way to my category 1. There truly were a lot of ups and downs this weekend, but in general I'm happy with my progression. All in all, things are moving fast. Thanks for reading,