That Dam Race

The second race of the season was located at the Perry Lake Dam in Perry Lake KS, which is located just northwest of Lawrence.

Thunderstorms came in the evening and dumped a whole lot of water. The power had been knocked out, while we were sleeping; thankfully, we were able to get up in time to get some grub and head to the race. I had hemmed and hawed over doing 2 races on this day. The masters race at 10:30AM and then the cat 4 at 2:00PM. The morning temp was 41 and falling with 25+ mph winds, not to mention the roads were soaked. After standing in line for what seemed an eternity in the cold, chilly air, I opted to just stick with the cat 4 race. Craig Harding decided to do the same thing. Since we wouldn’t be racing for another 4 hours, we headed back to Lawrence for some place warm to sit and get some nutrition.

We arrived back with an hour till race time, at which point the temp fell to 39 with 20 mph winds gusting up to 27mph. The only difference was that the sun was peeking out from time to time. We kitted up and got warmed up. There was a fairly good showing of riders, there were 29 in our cat, and it looked like about the same for the cat2/3 race which went off 2 minutes before us.

Lap 1, everyone seemed to stick together, I was sitting in the best I could to save energy for the climb to come, not knowing how well I would do. My legs engine were feeling very strong. We made the fourth turn onto the big hill climb to the start/finish line and I felt like I was flying up the hill. I’m pretty sure I was in the top 10 or 15 to crest the hill.

Lap2, the pack had spread out a little by the top of the hill; however, everyone seemed to have regrouped on the descent to the dam. Stayed close to the team mates and toward the top third of the pack. On the third turn everyone seemed to be slowing up a little, probably in anticipation of the hill climb and wanting to save energy. I didn’t do anything, still trying to gauge the race. Fourth turn onto the hill and I notched up the effort a little more; about 25 yards from the top I was feeling some of the effort. But made it up, I believe, still in the top 15.

Lap 3, made a slight mistake in letting up at the top of the hill. About 10 or so riders off the front had kept the pace and opened up about a 50 yard gap. I had to close it now and didn’t want to wait until the second turn into a head wind. It’s not easy bridging a gap with a tail wind, but I caught back just before the end of the damn. The rest of the pack behind me caught up too as we were making the second turn. At this point I just sat in and did my best to conserve as much energy as I knew I was going to make. Through turn 4 onto the hill I decided stay in the saddle and go up with the pack and not let any gaps form. This was definitely my best climb of the day. I felt like I worked it but I didn’t feel like I killed it. Stayed in the top 15 through the top and onto the last lap.

Lap 4, final lap. Riding next to fellow teammate Dan Spray, we were talking about when and if we wanted to initiate an attack. We had been discussing that turn 3 was the best point since the pack usually slowed down for that stretch of road. I told him that I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to try and go off the front, so we sort of let it go at that point. Approaching turn 3 I made the decision to go on the attack and up the pace. I was sort of hoping my teammates wouldn’t try to join me, because I knew that I was going to probably blow up. For the next half mile I was pushing the pace hard and into the wind. Then Zack (KC State guy) wanted to do another attack before the turn, so I thought, what the heck. So out of the saddle I went to up it one more time. Zack took point and I was on his wheel into the turn. I was ready for the climb, about halfway up is when I blew up. I just settled in and pedaled my tired butt up the hill as the pack began to pass me. Just no more energy, I used up all my matches. However, as fate would have it, my team swept the podium. Vaughn Pierce, Dan Ertz, and Dan Spray took the first three positions. WOO-HOO!!! I would like to think that my efforts helped push them up there.

This was a fun race. These last two days of racing I have learned some valuable lessons on what I need to do to prepare and race this year. One of them being not to burn all my matches. My hill climbing is much better than last year. If I did this race last year, I would have probably been off the back after the second time up the hill and never would have caught back on. I think my nutrition is pretty darn close to being spot on. Probably could have used an extra gel back before or during the race. Now the build phase of training begins. Next race I am going to do will be the Twin Bing Road Race on the 21^st of March, then the following weekend is team training camp.

The road season is now in full swing.