Oregon Road Race State Championship - Bend, Oregon July 5, 2014
(written 7/9/2014 - gm)
A blow-by-blow of the Oregon Road Race State Championship held in Bend, Oregon. I raced the Men’s Masters 50+/60+ open category race. Race time was 9:10am, on a sunny Saturday in the low 70’s with winds 5-10mph. The race was 60 miles. My time was 2:41:28 @ 22.3 mph average. I placed 3rd in the Men's 60+ road race. I'm currently a Cat 5; racing age 65.
Here's how it went.
Trappers:
"Trappers," is a 4+ mile step climb about 12 miles out from the start. This is where the first set of attacks always happens, splitting the group. The plan going in revolved around how to handle this very tricky, 4+ mile Trappers hill climb. This time I was going to let Terry go and not follow him at 700 watts and blow up like last year. My plan was to stick with Ken R., Daniel C. and Russell M. (last year's 3rd place finisher) grouping to get me over Trappers. The good news was that I didn't blow up on the first of the step climbs of Trappers around the 12-mile mark like last year. The bad news was despite my best effort I couldn't hang on past the 15-mile mark of Trapper's and got dropped yet again! These boys were moving!
When I got dropped, Terry, Dana, Greg, Jeff, Mike, Ken were in the lead group and perhaps other 60+ riders that I didn't know. All I knew for sure was that Russell and Daniel were behind me.
Over Trappers & Beyond:
Over Trappers and down the road a bit, perhaps 25 miles or so out I caught Jeff G. We formed a 2-man paceline and worked it. We then caught Gregory H. and formed a strong nucleus of a paceline, then ran down Michael H. and Ken R. Now we had a solid 5-man paceline going and we were humming along nicely.
Then between 35 and 40 miles, we first dropped Jeff then Mike. Now there were 3. At around 43 miles out we dropped Ken. Now there were 2, just Greg (winner of the Mary's Peak Hill Climb TT in a blistering 1:03!) and I. We were paceling strong then caught first a 50-year-old rider, then a bit farther on a 40-year-old rider. Once we added the 40-year-old rider, the paceline slowed, which was making me antsy as I was kinda driving the pace a bit and wanted to keep the effort honest. On some of the rollers, after my pull, while drifting back, I noticed a tell. Greg's breathing was becoming labored. Duly noted. I keep the pace pressured as I wanted Greg to be wholly unenthusiastic about attacking or sprinting during the 7-mile climb as we turned onto Edison Ice Cave Rd. racing toward the finish.
Edison Ice Cave Rd - the final 7-mile Climb:
We turned onto Edison with 7-miles of climbing ahead, and I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The 40 and 50-year-old guys were dogging it. Well, there's no other way to put this. I forced my will on the group. I moved assertively from the back of the paceline up to the front establishing the minimum pace we were going to be doing this climb. If they were going to beat me, they were going to have to put in a serious, sustained effort. I was not about to let this come down to a sprint finish. We went a couple of rotations of the paceline, then with about 5k I showed my hand. I pushed hard on my pull, and the 50-year-old responded pushing hard on his and we dropped the two remaining riders. With about 1k to go the 50-year-old attacked and gapped me. I continued to pressure the pace and put about 250-300 meters on Greg by the finish. At the finish, I had no idea of my placement, but I was very happy with my effort, race tactics, and execution.
Coda:
WPhew! The road racing gods smiled on me out there today for sure. Bart, we've got to find a way for me not to get dropped so badly during the initial climbs in races. It happened at the Willamette Gran Fondo, the Oregon Gran Fondo and here. Bart, when I get dropped on an early climb so decisively like this, I have to rely on some luck that I'll catch a strong enough rider that we can go hard and bridge back - so far I've been lucky. I seem to do much, much better, on subsequent climbs once I've done an initial climb that opens up my legs. However, as a relatively new road racer, I can't be giving these Cat 2/3 riders this sort of advantage on those early climbs.
On the positive side, I was patient, persistent, rode smart and had the best on-the-ride hydration and nutrition during a race ever - all of which helped the cause. Progress!
It goes without saying, I have total respect for all the great competitors mentioned here, who have at one time or another, "smoked me like a fine cigar!" Some more than once. :)
:: garth ::