Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Deer Trail Road Race - 2012


I’ve done this race a couple of times over the past couple of years.  Each year it’s typically my first road race of the season.  I’ve had good results and not so good results but I am almost always in the top 20.  This year was obviously not my first road race and I was hopeful I could influence how the race turned out.  My team had a number of good riders signed up for the race and with that strength I felt like we would be able to accomplish something.  Nigel had won the race last year and I felt like he could likely out sprint most of the field, Michael is a great climber and Matt and myself I would describe as all-rounders.

Driving into Deer Trail was like returning to the scene of a nightmare I had had a few weeks prior.  Nothing has changed in that town.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice little town but all I do is drive out there to suffer.  Our early morning start had a cool morning breeze and temperature in the upper 40’s to low 50’s.  There was a last minute change to the course that morning because of a bridge issue which confused things but ultimately the race is just two straight roads with rolling hills.  The only technical obstacles are multiple 180 degree turn arounds, which can play havoc on a larger group.  The field size was on the small size, only about 40 guys.

Heading out of town for the start of the race things were pretty mellow.  The motorcycle judges did a fantastic job keeping a couple of loose dogs out of the group.  I have to admit they expertly put their motorcycles between us and the dogs keeping things safe.  I know they don’t hear this enough but thanks, I’m glad you were there!  Not too long after the dogs were behind us, a couple of riders were starting to get the itch and wanted to jump out.  We were going into the wind and they didn’t get anywhere but they were determined and I was happy to sit on their wheel.  If they were strong enough to go I’d go with them so the rest of my team could sit on.  But nothing really happened.  This went on as we hit the first turn around and started heading back.  As we turned left onto the main out and back route the wind became a cross wind.
I drifted back to find a good draft but soon found myself behind a few strong riders that were making their way forward.  So I stayed with them.  When they got to the front, the real pressure on the field started and by the time we reached the second 180, four of them had a clear gap and the riders behind were totally unorganized and shattered.  The group of four was made up of my teammate Matt and 3 other riders, all from different teams.  I would have to argue that Matt was our strongest rider, so when I saw him go with 3 others, I wanted to give him the chance.

Nigel, Michael and I were in the shattered remains in the group and fortunately we were close enough we could all start working together to ensure we all made it into the first case group.  We were successful and all of us knew we didn’t want this group to pull Matt back.  So we started blocking at the front.  I tried to keep it in good taste, I wasn’t just getting in the way.  People could pull through but when they did Nigel and I would sit on their wheel until they tired and made it more difficult for other riders to come around.  If no one came around, I’d set a false tempo.  Michael tried to make a bridging move up to Matt but ended up getting caught in no man’s land and never made it.

Towards the end of the race my legs were getting pretty tired from chasing everything down.  Someone made a hard effort up one of the last steep hills and shot me right out the back.  Nigel and Michael stayed in the group.  I chased with a few other dropped racers but my influence on the race was over.

In the end, Matt was dropped from the group but we had given him enough time to hold onto 4th.  Nigel, our sprinter for the day, took the group for 5th.  Michael was 15th and I out sprinted my chase companion for 19th.  In the end I felt pretty good about the race, the team had dictated how the race would unfold.  We showed our team strength and got two guys in the top 5 and four of us in the top 20.  This race is proof that riding with teammates can be incredibly beneficial even in lower category races.

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