Racing Bikes & Cooking Good Food: July 2011

So here's my race report from yesterdays crit with a few pictures I snagged from Wheelsinfocus.com. Since I only have 1 upgrade point from my 10th place in the Queen Stage of the Capital Stage Race a few months back, it's been a priority to sneak in some more points so I don't have to race with all the clowns in the Category 4's and move up into the CAT 3 field. [For those unfamiliar with categories in bicycle racing, check out the USAC webpage here.] The "plan" for the Tacoma Crit was for me to win. I talked it over with the boys so we were all on the same page. There are only a couple ways you can win a bike race: you're a beast and you ride away from everyone or you get some help from a teammate(s) where they bust their ass to keep the pace high and you nice and fresh for the finish. I had been practicing some leadout sprints with Ted earlier in the week so that we'd have everything all dialed in.

-Day of Race
The day before race day, friday, Ted and I spun around Lake Washington for a few hours. Long rides the day before a race are not usually recommended because you want to keep your legs as fresh as possible, but it was nice out. Oh well. When I woke up and had my morning oats and coffee, Ted showed up at my door to see if i wanted to roll around for a bit to wake the legs up. I agreed, and I'm glad I did otherwise I'm not sure I would have felt as awesome as I did once that whistle blew. A proper warm up you might say. Today was also especially rad because it was the first time in months that all four of us Team Becher+ Radsport dudes got to race together. Marcus is a couple races short of upgrading from CAT5 to 4 (most races 5's and 4's are split, but sometimes they combine the two), and Jake has a conflicting schedule that keeps him from coming out more often. We all piled in Jake's new Trooper, got all jacked up on Clif Bars and Gatorade while listening to the Fugees on our way to the race. The jitters where still present but after talking team tactics I started to calm down a bit. It's especially nerve-racking to ask your mates to suffer for an entire race to help you win, because you NEED to deliver a win in return. I have never won a bike race. I have top 10'd quite often, and attack enough to make most of the pack hate me... but no wins.

-The Race
Lined up, whistle blows... and I do the classic maneuver where you forget how to clip into your pedals. Actually, there were like 8 of us just rolling down the course for the first 15 or so feet with one foot in struggling to get going. Rookies. It happens to the best of us, I think. As per usual, the pace is hot for the first few minutes but its important that I inform you about the back stretch of the course: it's slightly uphill (downhill finish). This works for Ted and I quite well because we are better at going up hill than most of the fatties we race with. Anyways, the pace stayed around 25mph for the first few laps then everyone gets tired and it slows. Normally this is where I attack and make everyone go fast again when they don't want to... today was different, I needed to conserve all my energy for the finish (smart guy here). So I just alternated between a few stronger dude's wheels when the surging would happen and successfully stayed top 10 the entire 30 minutes (top 10 is safest because there are less people in front of you when a crash happens).

-Down to Lap Cards
In a crit, if you're caught off the back of the pack and are likely to get lapped by the leaders the official will pull you from the race. This alone may explain why these are some of the fastest races in the world. Who wants to get pulled from a race for being too slow infront of a huge crowd of people? At 10 minutes to go, the clock is killed and the official switches the race to a countdown of lap cards, usually starting at 10 to go. At this point in the race, I was pretty confident not only because I felt super fresh and had done hardly any work (for once) but also because I could hear everyone breathing super hard around me, the incline was obviously taking its toll. At 5 laps to go, a criterium race usually starts to get pretty sketchy, in all categories, because this when all the teams want begin lining up to get their "leadout train" rolling for their main man. 75 people trying to organize and group up at 25mph? Yeah, it's dangerous. At 4 to go, I began to worry because I hadn't seen Jake or Ted and the pace was getting hotter and the gaps were closing. Just before I said fuck it and took off, Ted rolls up into the spot infront of me. I hold his wheel as close as possible for the next two laps to conserve my energy and make sure nobody else steals it from me.

-2 Laps to Go
We survived this far, now its time to "lay the hammer down". I've got Teds wheel in a vice grip as we cross the line for 2 to go. The pace is roaring fast going into corner 1, and we're sitting top 10 (perfect), we carry through corner 2 and begins the uphill. Ted looks over his shoulder to make sure I'm there, I nod and BOOOM! This motherfucker LIGHTS IT UP! We come around the left side of everyone and I can see some worried faces but mostly doubtful faces. To perfectly execute a leadout with only 2 guys, you must be EXPLOSIVE with your acceleration. That we were. After rounding corner 3 and 4, I began to worry because Ted pulled almost a bike length on me. He was doing his part of going full gas, but I needed to get in closer. I shift up and get out of the saddle to close the gap as we cross the line for final lap, now I'm sitting pretty and really fucking fast. I'm confident at this point that we've put quite the gap on the field but I know the sprinters are working hard to catch us. We round corner 1 and 2 and half way up the back stretch Ted pulls off to the left "GO BABY GO!" I dump a few more gears (I don't have much, I ride a 9spd, haha) and get on my horse, sprint to the top of the hill round corners 3, 4 and full gas it to the finish without looking back. Nobody comes around me, I win.

I have this phobia of looking back on an attack because it seems like bad luck. I mean, look at Fabian at the Roubiax 2 years ago(marker 6:30)... Beast Mode. Although, had I looked back, I would have seen my leadout, Ted, finishing 2nd! And 3rd place just rounding corner 4. Probably coulda slow rolled it, zipped my jersey up, and pointed to the sky like a PRO. Now I get to give my boys back that same effort I asked of them, and I can't wait. :)