The outlook calender was set for an 8am appointment back in February to register for this race and last Saturday the race finally happened, and then the pain happened. This race was all that I expected, hilly, rough roads, tough turns and the bricks, oh the bricks is where it all went wrong for me.
We traveled to Hillsboro on Friday afternoon. I rode down with my teammates Dan and Bryan. Its always fun to go on a racing road trip, except of course for the hotel stays (avoiding the Super 8 next year). When we arrived in Hillsboro Dan, Bryan and I went for a pre-ride of the last hill and the bricks section that lead to the finishing straight. The bricks didn't seem that bad, I had been making a point of riding a brick section on my training route to ready for this race. The last hill was bigger than I expected, but all and all I wasn't too concerned about the finishing loop, mistake! This loop would turn out to be the end of my race on the first lap.
Race day arrived and the excitement my was high, we had our morning coffee and breakfast and heading out to the course to meet up with the rest of the team (Ben, Trent, Drew, Brandon, and Chase). We had a six man Cat 4's team for this race, my game plan was to hang on for the first lap and then see what I had left. I had packed myself with food that morning and had three bottles (2 gatorade 1 water), 4 gu's and 3 shot blocks with me for the race. At 58 miles eating and drinking on the bike would be critical to success.
Dan making a nutella and banana sandwich and the rest of our prerace supplies.
We all started staging for the race about 25 minutes before the start, everyone wanted good position to start the race as the roads were narrow and moving up during the race was going to near to impossible. Standing in the staging area for that long was torture, I tried to stay loose before the race and luckily I was staged next to a bunch of the cuttin' crew guys those guys bring the fun, I mean come on they come on a bus!
The race started and we set out for a 58 mile race, the longest distance I have ever raced. We weaved our way out of town and when the neutral start was over we hit the gas, well kind of. The field seemed to slow regularly and taking the turns in the middle of the pack was unnerving, around one corner I lost my back wheel a little and felt the bike start to go sideways, I un-clipped the the inside pedal to stabilize and steadied the bike saved the turn and sprinted back into the pack. I found my teammate Dan and he helped me find a safe postion about mid pack where stayed for much of the first lap.
The turns didint get any easier as pace picked up, I looked down and realized we were coming into the last 1/3 of the first lap. The race was stressful, I buzzed a wheel, the roads were tough and life midpack was not easy. I remember looking up at Bryan and Chase who sat top 20 nearly all day and thought, those guys are riding great races, I need to get up there. However moving up at Hillsboro is no easy task (unless you are too cool to obey the center line rule, there were a bunch of you out there). As we came into the final hill I made a move to try to gain position, I shifted into my small ring. This may have been a mistake, but I had to keep a high cadence and dodge all the riders who couldn't keep the pace up the hill. I thought I had climbed up the hill well, but a small gap had developed between my front wheel and the group that would decide the race.
As we turned towards the down hill leading into the bricks the gap had grown, I wasn't paying close enough attention to the race ahead of me, and then I realized the race was riding away from me. It was all about to be over, it was crushing. As we flew towards the bricks I remember thinking "I should be freaked out, I flying down this hill on a piece of really expensive plastic toward a road made fully of bricks" but that thought went away quick. As I hit the bricks I made a last ditch effort to try to get back to the group, I hammered across the bricks, losing a bottle full of gatorade to the bricks, damn!
As I made the final turn off the bricks into the finishing straight I was done, I had gone so far into the red trying catch back on I could barely turn the pedals. As the pack continued to ride away from me I thought how cruel of a sport cycling is, its so demoralizing to watch a group ride away, they look so close but they just keep getting smaller, and then it hurts more.
Off the back a gruppetto formed, we attempted to start a rotating pace line, it wasn't until this day that I realized not every team practices rotating pace lines, thanks for Bryan Merrill for teaching me how to do this it saved my life that day. Our gruppetto grew in size and but the number of people wanted to actually pull threw did not. I put a lot of effort into pulling the gruppetto, as the pack rode away I promised myself that I would finish this race and I would not stop racing my bike. A big thanks to Paul Miner from Spin Doctors for monster pulls that saved me during the last 5 miles. As the gruppetto came to the final hill I gave it everything I had, made it into the final turn with four others and as we raced our way across the bricks I looked under my arm and saw that the spin doctors rider was spent, I felt bad that guy worked his heart out. I finished 44th out of about 110 or so riders, I had finished the race, worked as hard as I could. I crossed the line in terrible pain, and felt empty, if it wasnt for the 20oz coke I had in the cooler and the cliff power protein bar Nate threw at me i am not sure i would have made it. The coke was so good that when I saw my buddy Jared from xxx (whom I had just spent the last 1 1/2 hrs riding next to off the back with) I told him "you got to try this, its the best thing I have ever had.
This race was epic, it really felt like i was riding a classic, with the narrow roads, dodgy turns and brick roads not mention the daunting distance. Thanks to everyone who was involved with putting this race on. I can't wait to go back next year!
The most impressive feats of the day came after the race, on the way home all the Burnham boys and spidermonkeys stopped at the steak and shake for a feast, it was a great meal and a very impressive displaying of eating. I am not sure that I tasted my food, quite frankly i think i inhaled everything they put in front of me. In the picture notice the veteran move on Dan Pollards part, he ordered a chicago style hot dog as a side cart to his burger, we were all envious of his brilliance.
We flew what Eric tagged Air Iden on the way home, we sat coach, but it was still a smooth ride.
Later that night I ventured out for a night on the town, that's right my roommate and I completed a 58 mile road race, drove 4 hrs home, and then went out to party for his birthday, the picture below was taken about 230 am, a mere 18 hrs after the day started.
Well next up another Tuesday in Matteson!
Keep the Rubber Side Down
Zens
