I meant to post this September 6th and forgot....
It's been a busy month since the Hines Time Trial. It seams I have been on the road for almost every week making training and life just difficult. After Hines I was really excited for Cherry Roubaix and the state road race. Since its a long haul to Traverse City I decided to do all three races. One to try and snag some MBRA points and two, just to race. Looking back now I probably should have cut out the crit, but I will get into that later.
Friday's time trial in my mind was mine to lose. With cash prizes on the line I was excited to snag some cash. The course was a 6.2 mile loop located on the peninsula that splits Traverse City's bay. Surprisingly this made for a very hilly and extremely windy circuit. More complicating was the start order, for some reason I had to start 2 minutes after the junior waves finished starting. That would mean that not only did I have to deal with wind but also passing slower junior riders. Passing juniors was never an issue however. I started hard, maybe to hard and almost crashed because I missed the first corner. I forgot it was a super tight right bend, oops. After the panic I settled in and just hammered it. The back section was a real struggle with the hills and wind. On the first hill maybe two miles in is when I started to pass the first junior riders. At the end I came in slower then my goal, I still averaged 25.8 mph which was good considering how hard the course was. I ended up second, behind by 9 seconds. I still won $50, so I couldn't complain.
The criterium Saturday I was looking to add to Friday's success. The race just never got rolling good for me though. I started with asthma issues and got stuck in the back. I fought hard but ended up losing contact with the field due to riders sitting up in front of me because they blew up. I managed to pass most of them, but constantly bridging gaps is not healthy and costly energy wise. I learned a lot though for next year. The legs also hurt from the TT's last Sunday and Friday.
Sunday road race was just going to be a suffer fest. I kind of got a feeling the legs would not have the gas to make the full distance the day before. You can only dip in the pain bank so much in a weeks time. Two TT podiums probably used that up. The course was new for '12 being 3 laps of a 23 mile course. The new sections of climbs proved to just be ridiculous. The area near sleeping bear dunes is very hilly and just rolls non stop. I made it through the first lap fine and comfortable. However I was having shifting gremlins, this ended up becoming serious on the second lap. On a long decent I just couldn't get down to the gear I needed and watched the pack slip away at 45+mph as I was stuck at 40mph spinning. I finished the lap and called it a disappointing day. Next year I have a better idea for how to train for this race and what to expect. I also got the shifting issues fixed, turns out I made a mistake putting my new cable housing in a few weeks prior. I just hadn't been on the bike enough to figure this out.
Gaslight criterium I remembered being a lot of fun in '10, I didn't race it in '11 so I was a bit rusty on what to expect. However this kind of criterium circuit suits my skill set better. Its very fast with ample space to move and attack. With the Michigan Challenge point series coming to a end I still just needed 6 points to tie for first. However luck was not on my side, as the race was started the skies opened up and it started to pour. My tires on my race wheels are old, I was hoping to get them to the end of the season and replace. So my wet traction was alarmingly bad, I had hoped the race would start cautious, but it didn't. From the line the hammer was dropped, and in the first two corners I fought fish tailing badly. It never got any better and the field went single file. I keep with it though but it seamed every lap a crash happened mid pack causing the field to split leaving me to catch to the front group. Several times I time trialed solo back into the race. However the fourth crash just left me in a bad spot with a huge gap to close, the guys around me didn't want to help much. My biggest issue was the time I would loose in the corners due to my crappy traction. Eventually the race just became me fighting to finish hoping I still might have a decent place. After 50 soaking minutes the race ended, I got lapped but crossed the line 17th. It was a truly messy race, next year I will have some better rubber options for days like that.
So this leaves me with Debeats-Devos this past Monday, my last ditch chance to snag the needed points for first. I hadn't been training much but still felt I could do it. These matters got complicated a bit more when mountain biking this past Saturday I hit a tree...hard. I was doing a fast paced ride and on a downhill my line pushed wide and bam. The tree knocked me backwards off the back, enough to bruise the back of my shoulder. I got some nice gashes on my left forearm and leg. Along with some massive bruising and neck whiplash, my sunglasses flew like 15 feet. Sunday would be all about rest and ibuprofen. Monday I lined up with my arm and leg bandaged. Despite the damage I felt ok, other then not being able to move my neck or shoulder.
Because of the crash my mindset was a little more reckless, it was all or nothing today and I had to make my moves and leave nothing on the table. So on the first lap I made it a point to hit the front and drill it. In the laps following I attacked several times trying to start a break away, that's what I really wanted. All I needed was a top 10 and a breakaway would get me that. So up until the 30 minute mark I pushed hard to stay near the front and ended up with 4 attacks I think. I went for one sprint bonus but was heavily marked. No one seamed interested in racing a break with me. So I sat in for the sprint. The last 3 laps was a mess of movement, I had to really fight for spots. Didn't help much, on the last lap I had a lot to do. The back stretch I couldn't get what I needed. I knew there would be a crash remembering last year so I made it a point to have the inside line the last two corners. I used this as my spring board. As the crashes happened I just sprinted and found myself around tenth after the last corner. I gave it everything I had a lunged the bike at the line for 8th. Looking back without all the attacks I would have had more gas to maybe break into the top 5 or better. Oh hitting a tree two days prior probably didn't help either. However I still won $65 and had put everything out on the table. I was completely gassed after the race, but I got my 8th place Michigan Challenge points to wrap up first for the year. Its been a tough but rewarding year, now I just need to find some focus to get to Iceman.
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