Cat 4 Men, 48 miles, 4 laps of wide open farmland roads
Avg Speed 23.8mph
Max Speed 35.2mph
8th place of 64
The Tour de Dung road race series in Sequim, Wa is part of the official kickstart in Northwest bicycle racing. It's staggered with the Mason Lake road races so we can all size eachother up and see who upgraded at the end of last season and who's slacking. I'm bitter can you tell? Bitter or not, I am making progress - third race of my season and I seem to be placing higher each time (Eatonville: 22nd, Mason Lake #1: 11th, and Sequim #1: 8th). Back to the report you were so kind to check in on... Sequim, pronounced "squim," is located a couple hours North of Seattle in the 'rain shadow' of the Olympic mountain range. I'm telling you about this because a rain shadow determines whether or not we race in pleasant conditions or shitty ones. Fortunately, it was typical stormy weather on our drive out there and clear as soon as we descended from the pass into Sequim. Awesome, a dry-ish race.
Our minivan stuffed with bikes and racers missed the 7:10am ferry to Kingston which would have given us about an hour to warm up before roll out. We took the 7:50 ferry and made it to the race in enough time to register, kit up and spin the pedals down the road for 10 minutes or so. Typical. I was surprised to see my teammate Thorsten there, since he was having trouble getting a ride. But he made it and was pretty chipper and chatty, not really like him. As we "warmed up" I discovered he only needed 1 more point to upgrade into the Cat 3's, I'd be stoked on life too. According to USA Cycling, this means he only needs to finish in 8th place if there are more than 50 people racing in our field. We discussed tactics and headed to the start line.
Ready-Set-Race
Turns out we had 4 HSP guys in our race: Chris Carter, Jim Peterson, Thor and I so we lined up and rolled out together. Our said "tactics" were to stay in the front of the race, and likely sprint it out at the end. The roads were wet and if the right bunch made a move today, it could stick... painful, but it could stick. Immediately following neutral roll out the attacks started, which is impressive for a Cat 4 race. However, because this is a Cat 4 race, all moves were automatically covered. Most of this first lap averaged 23mph so when it jumped to 26 you knew someone was trying to get up the road. If it kept up like this, I knew everyone would be cashed out by the last lap. I crossed my fingers.
Typical Me
As we made our way onto the backstretch I positioned myself 10 wheels back for optimal pouncing leverage. I almost jumped six or seven times before I actually did, mostly because I wanted to try out some advice I read on Bicyling.com. Just after a Starbucks rider was pulled back I attacked with just about everything I had. This didn't work out like I had hoped. Honestly, I don't know really know what I had hoped. I looked over my shoulder and the field was atleast 300m away from me. I opened a bigger gap than I intended and I couldn't even tell if they were chasing or letting me go. I figured I would just put my head down and see what happened. Maybe 3 minutes later I looked back and noticed they were, indeed chasing and I was going to be caught quite soon. I didn't get a chance to warm up before the race so instead of sitting up I took my ass out of the saddle and gassed it a bit longer. I figured that I'm in better form than most of them so I could recover pretty easily. After they caught me a couple guys cracked some jokes about how predictable I am.
Public Service Announcement: Joking with me like that only gives me a big head, so don't say anything if you don't want me to do it again.
To my surprise, the attacks didn't stop after the first lap, or the second. This kind of racing (covering any and all moves) takes a toll on the field as you could imagine. It became the most apparent when a guy on the Audi team just kept rolling straight on through as the rest of the pack was trying to do a bike race and turn right to stay on the course. He was 15 or 20 wheels back so he almost took everyone out. That was interesting to watch, AND nobody crashed. Woohoo. After that Thor and I made sure to stay in the front to avoid any other shenanigans that may follow. Alas, on our way up to the front an Apex Racing guy almost took his teammate out RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I would have been pissed to be taken down for some dumb shit like that. Fortunately this was a sign that everyone was getting restless, because Thor and I felt great.
FINAL LAP
I did some work at the start of the last lap to drive the pace up a bit. I knew it was going to be a field sprint, and I needed better odds than last week. Good thing Thor was looking out for me because I was probably on the front for a little too long. Gotta save the legs. Position position. Once we made it to the backstretch Fare Start Racing and Cycle U started launching attacks to string the field out. It worked to my advantage and I landed myself a sweet spot 3 wheels back right behind Dean Jasper from Fare Start Racing. I know he's a strong sprinter so I stayed put. Thor on the other hand decided to lead out the last 4 miles? What the fuck? Apparently I thought they'd let him into a good spot in the final kilometers if he drove the train for a bit. And they did. Around the last corner safe and sound, 1.5k to go, and the pace gets roaring. 30mph to be exact. The problem I had with the final 1k is that not one team had the legs to lead out. It just turned into us riding 4 and 5 abreast with people squeezing into smaller spaces than they should at high speed.
Approaching 200m
The sign is in view and everyone is bumping shoulders, it's getting really sketchy. I don't like it. Suddenly there's a slight surge so everyone freaks out and speeds up too quickly. This now presents me with the following situation: a) Crash because I'm getting pinched pretty badly or b) cross a wheel and possibly take someone behind me out so I can take the spot that opened up in front of me. I decided to go with b) and not crash. Seconds after I took this new comfy spot prepared for me, I heard that horrible chain of sounds nobody should have to hear - squealing, snapping carbon fiber, screams and the sound of a dry chip-seal road tearing at the flesh of the innocent (or not so innocent).
This is bike racing. 200m is here and Dean jumps on the outside and I follow, then he goes back. Big Todd from Cycle U is huge and throwing his bike so I just go all the way around him and sprint it out with my nose in the wind. I pretty much lead Thor out. Final meters, Thor comes around me for 3rd and I try to give it every lest pedal stroke I have. We cross the line and realize that I have no excuses for why I didn't win. I simply went too early. If I had stayed behind Dean the whole time I could have snuck out later with more juice. 8th place, but it was a good race and I earned 1 upgrade point so I'm happy.
Redemption this Saturday for #2 in the series.
More pictures found HERE from ReedKJ
Thanks for reading.
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