Mason Lake Road Race Series #1 - Race Report

3/4/2012 9:30am
Cat 4 Men, 48 miles, 4 laps of rolling and narrow country roads
Avg Speed 23.7mph
Max Speed 38.9mph
11th* of 68


Just to get this out of the way, the *asterisk above is because the WSBA Racing results say that I got 12th, but after our race was over I took a picture of the results and tweeted a congrats to Thorsten for his 2nd place, as I had 11th. This is a short and boring Cat 4 race, and points only go 9 deep so it truly doesn't matter.

Roll Out
Anyways, to the report. After my pack finish at the Eatonville RR last month, I was eager to recover from being sick and get to crushing dreams again... which translates directly to "upgrade asap." The plan was to sit near the front the entire race and jump into a promising break (real original, right?) Because the wind is stupid crazy out on Mason Lake, you aren't going anywhere outside the pack if you have less than 5 strong dudes with you. I learned the hard way. After sitting in for the first 6 miles I got bored and feisty as usual and wanted to test the waters. The pace was only 20mph at this point so why not?

Dishing It Out
I moved up to about 6th wheel after Cycle U covered the first move of the morning made by someone on Starbucks (they're starting the season off right, btw) , then gassed it with just about everything I had. Of course nobody bridges, they all just freak out, yell at each other and start chasing me. I continue to TT it up the road but the wind is devastating. I really didn't want to burn all my matches on my first move that obviously wasn't going to end in a solo victory 40 miles later. My legs just weren't warm enough. I was caught about 3 minutes later and took a wheel in the front. The pace picks up and stays about 25mph for a few more miles. After a small roller climb I hear everyone wheezing (a bunch of pussies, I swear) so I follow up with another move. I get even further but the wind gets worse and I start to lose morale. To my surprise, 2 minutes later just before I decide to sit up, a UW kid rolls up next to me and yells "Lets go dude, c'mon". He pulls my tired ass very shortly before giving me a flick (not ideal, but whatever) so I pull through and realize I cant possibly keep this up in this kind of wind so I sit up. His teammate bridges and they both ride off into the wind, literally. After I'm caught I find a wheel next to Bryan Urakawa (Fischer Plumber Cycling Team) and joked around about when my next counter attack was. We've raced a lot together, he's a really strong sprinter and I'm a stupidly aggressive racer, so we always have something to chat about. UW was caught almost immediately after me.

The Boring Part
I sat mid pack with my HSP teammate, Jim Peterson, and collectively decided that sitting in until the last lap was our best bet. So we did just that. The unfortunate part about sitting in on a course like this with Cat 4's is the endless amounts of surging and braking. I think everyone behind the first 10 wheels went through most of their brake pads in this race alone. Lame, but luckily no crashes :)

LAST LAP
Jim and I begin moving up on the short back stretch because that's probably the "saftest" area to do such things before we turn onto twisty chip-seal road. We get into the front 3rd before entering said road where the pace ups to 26mph and continues to steadily climb. Luckily there was less stop and go this time around and our team Junior racer, Thorsten (15yrs old) positioned himself like a lead out right infront of me. Since he's a Cat 2 on the track I figured he would know how to position himself for the sprint. I, on the other hand, am a poor sprinter and prefer to take my chances in breakaways. 2k to go! I refuse to let go of Thor's wheel as we dangerously squeeze into what little spots open up infront of us. Everyone is getting giddy and we are now cruising at 28mph with riders taking their chances in the tiny dirt shoulder just to get into position. At 1k a couple guys thought it would be cool to ignore the double yellow line and cut infront of everyone. That didn't go over well as everyone was telling them to get the fuck of the road and out of the race, then again at 400m! WTF?!

*For the uninitiated, at 200m from the finish line on the last lap of a road or circuit race, the entire road is open for everyone to sprint it out. Before 200m YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED for riding on the wrong side of the road, no exceptions.

Anyhow, at 400m Sam Park (Hagens Berman Cycling Team) jumped over the yellow line and laid down the hammer. Lead outs immediately popped and next thing I know Thor and I are literally zig zagging from 20 wheels back through gassed out riders. It got really sketchy but I was set up for 4th place behind him! 10m before we get to the line, a gap of tired sprinters closed and Thor was the only one able to squeeze through. This was a disappointment since I had to brake and find a way to the finish that costed me 7 places. But that's bike racing. It could have been worse.

Lesson of the day: If you want to place well in the field sprint, you have to be willing to sacrifice your body at high speeds to attain the right position.

Bike racing truly is a hardman sport, I don't care what other stupid Americans say. Thanks for reading.

Pictures found HERE, complements of ReedKJ Photography.