Surviving Owasco
I love out of town races. To be honest, it's one of my favorite parts of this whole racing thing. I think bike racers living in our lovely but crowded city take a little more from it than the average suburban dude. It's a change to get out of whatever borough you live in, see a little greenery, and enjoy some competition. Out of town races also seem to be more challenging since there's no telling who's going to show up.
I'm no climber, so why in the hell did i even think about doing Owasco??
Well, i think a big part of bike racing is challenging yourself. As a newly upgraded cat 4 with minimal climbing ability (ie: not skinny), I had no illusions of how I would do at Owasco. My goals were to survive the road race, not get a DNF, and do whatever I could in the crit.
Stage races are tough, especially with the Owasco format. a Time trial Sat morning followed by a 30 km crit a few hours later. you've got just enough time in between to eat something and maybe shut your eyes for a few. If that weren't bad enough, you've got a 55 mi road race the next day with 5000 ft of climbing, 3 KOM's and a few sprints in the middle. nasty.
I broke my time trialing Cherry that weekend, but did it cannibal style (curse you, FSA K-wing handlebars)- i didn't expect to do anything spectacular. Chad and I took some time to warm up, which I've been told is probably the most important part of doing well in a TT. does anyone have any good TT warm up routines?
I used the just-don't-come-in-last mentality (while i used alot when i started racing 'cross) and concentrated on keeping my cadence high and the HR up. note: dropping your chain 15 sec before starting is less than ideal. I probably shouldn't have sprinted in a panic to get up to speed.
I'm toying with the idea of building up a TT bike. Question for all 8 of my readers in internet land: When is it appropriate to get one? It seems like a ton of money to spend on something you dont use that often. I figure i can build one up for under 1500 bucks (keeping in mind that i have to use campy)
The crit was probably one of the most interesting ones i've seen (out of all three of them)- there was a sharper-than-90-degree turn just a few hundred feet from the finish line. the rest of the 1 km course was pretty smooth, with a rise on the back end followed by a sweeping descent right before the final turn. After waiting at the start for thirty minutes (can you say cold start?) I found the crit to be pretty fast and just tried to stay close to the front of the pack and not get dropped. I didn't want a three-peat of crit crashes after Harlem and New Britain. as much as i like Campagnolo, i didn't' want to further add to their earning by buying a 3rd set of chorus shifters in a month. noooo thanks. interesting fact: While the internals of campy shifters are rebuildable and repairable, the housing that encases them isnt. if you crack the part that holds the brake lever pivots, you're screwed.
The race went without a hitch- I finished in the pack with a few of my teammates (big ups to Chris Price for nabbing one of the preems), and was happy to not crash for once in a crit. Also a great time for a very pro team shot.
after the crit, I chugged down some chocolate milk and we went to drive the road race course. I was glad we did that- it allowed me to take in the great scenery, cause there wasn't a chance in hell i would be appreciating it while trying not to die the next day.
As the road race began, the peloton stuck together pretty well. the first ten miles of the race were rollers and not too tough. I found the road to be a bit narrow, which made it hard to move around with a full group. no matter. This was going to get ugly in just a few miles.
I must have said the phrase "Son of a bitch..." about 25 times during that whole race. Those hills sucked pretty hard. I came off the back about halfway up the first KOM. I regrouped at the top with a few teammates and some CRBC guys, and off we went with our little chase group. Working well in a chase group is one of my favorite parts of a long bike race. It's great to work together like that with guys from different teams that also have the same affliction of sucking at climbs.
The craziest part of this race had to be the weather. It went from cloudy to sunny to pouring to hailing to sunny, and kept going back and forth. The temperature was all over the place as well. It was a bit of a trip.
Murray Hill was so steep it that it seemed like a joke. I distinctly remember reading the following phrase in the race bible that ht organizers had put together:
"The race IS NOT designed to beat you
into submission. Given the hills we’ve selected along with the distances for each race category, everyone
will enjoy this year’s road stage which allows for adequate recovery between climbs."
Riiiight.
To be honest, I'm glad it was such a hard race event. I was a hell of a challenge, and I had a great time in the process. Definitely one of my favorite race events this season. I'll be back next year for more punishment, and maybe a higher GC spot than 56th place.
Props to my Teammate Rob, Who did well in the road race, sticking with the 1'st chase group and doing well enough to hit up 26th in the GC, even with going cannibal on the TT.
Looking ahead, I'm pretty damn excited about cyclocross season being around the corner. My obnoxious green bike and I are ready to go, and what better place to kick off 'cross season than at the New Jersey State fair?!
Saturday night Fever
a 'cross race.
on saturday night.
in a demolition derby arena.
It's pretty fitting that this is taking place during a new jersey state fair, and I'm thinking it'll be even more fun after a few brewskis
Are performance -detracting drugs prohibited by WADA?
I kid!
