Most of the races have ended in field sprints, and unfortunately, I haven't really spent time and research in developing my sprint. Most of my winter training was spent developing muscular endurance and raising my aerobic threshold - both great for breakaways, not as well for sprinting to line after a long day in the saddle. This yielded pack finishes for me all the way until Vance Creek. Finally, I get to do a race that has an uphill finish. A long uphill finish consisting of rollers and headwind into a 1k climb! Woohoo! My partner in crime, Ted Schwartz, agreed to lead me out for a victory in this race. Francis Atkinson (SCCA/Starbucks Cycling) ended up with a solo victory so it was a race for second. Anyways, Ted led me out, but being that his is the superior climber, he ended up passing me and snagging 3rd. I walked away with 5th. It was close. Fun race, and that result (after being in the breakaway all day then getting caught on the last lap) got me amped up for my first trip to the Tour of Walla Walla. I just finished building my time trial bike, with the help of Bryan Smith (Emerald City Bicycles), and felt like I was in good form to be a GC contender.
Stage 1's road race, ironically, featured a beautiful 3k uphill finish with 30+mph cross/headwinds. "2013, the year of the wind" my teammate "tweeted" recently. Painfully true. The cluster-fuck that formed during an agonizingly slow finish to this stage left me playing bumper bikes 4 wheels back and I never really got to sprint. My friend, Nate Pitts (Recycled Cycles), was next to me during the last 3k and managed to find a hole to escape at the last second so he could snag 4th place on the day. Being stuck behind a bunch of people that suck at riding bikes uphill, when you can do it just fine, is probably the same feeling people get while driving in rush hour traffic.
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| Hilltop finish in Waitsburg, Wa |
Stage 2 was the 9 mile time trial that started at the Walla Walla Community College. Like most TT's, it pretty much dictated the results for the rest of the stage race. Although entirely possible to gain time on any given person in a road race, it is quite difficult to gain time on people that are faster time trialists than you. Fortunately, I fared pretty well during this stage, despite yet another appearance by the feared 30+mph cross/headwinds on the open course. 6th place. 21:35:07, I believe was my time. We got there a little late, surprise right? So I had enough time to kit up, poop, spin around the parking lot for 10 minutes, roll up the the startgate, forget my frame number, sprint to the car, stick it on, and sprint back to the startgate with 16 seconds to spare! I'm an idiot. I really need to get to a TT on time someday, maybe I'd perform even better? Did I mention that I have only ridden my BMC 3 times before this?
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| Moments out of the startgate. |
Stage 3 offered a 9 corner crit course in downtown Walla Walla. Rad course, nice and technical, just how daddy likes it. They did top 10 call-ups before the start so I was guaranteed a nice starting spot for this fast course. Ted and I had plans of our own for the crit, you see. We are both poor people, so we went out to this stage race with less than $100 bucks in each of our wallets. That was our entire budget. I brought an ice chest with vegetables, pb&js and some protein mix - oh and a juicer. This meant we probably couldn't afford gas to get home to Seattle unless we won some cash. Exciting, right? Go for cash primes and a stage win. I went for a time bonus, got it. I went for a $100 prime, didn't get it. Ted went for a $75 prime, got it. I went for the win, didn't get it. Luckily all I had to do was survive the next day's road race and finish in the lead group to hold on my 6th place in the GC. That would get me like $50 or something.
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| Sprinting for $100, and not getting it. |
Stage 4 was rad. Hills, hills, hills. And wind too, of course. Year of the wind, remember? 64.5 miles and 4,400' of climbing - http://app.strava.com/activities/50051738 not too shabby. Our first time up the first climb we dropped over 60 riders. The race immediately consisted of 20 people, 10 of which were definitely in the top 10 GC. To my surprise, we left behind my favorite race buddy, Jeff Reed (SCCA/Starbucks Cycling) whom was in 3rd overall. Bad for him, good for me. Everyone stayed pretty comfortable with the race ending with 20 of us instead of a select few. They chased everything or would just let one person dangle off the front after an attack at a time. Pretty frustrating. I sucked at the sprinting part of the end of this race, picking slow people to ride behind an all. I learned that if I want to win a sprint, I need to get out there an put my nose in the wind sometimes. BUT HEY! I GOT 5TH ON THE GC! 12 upgrade points towards my Cat 2, and $70 cash.
Yes, that meant we were able to afford gas to go home. It was a good weekend.
Photos via reedkj.smugmug.com
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