The Electric City

     After a tough night of racing in Spartanburg, it was nice to have a full day to relax. I think the entire peloton shared with me in this thought, especially those who had raced the full Speed Week. We were able to secure a hotel less than 5 miles from Saturday's race in Anderson, SC. The race took place in the middle of the afternoon so we had all morning and most of the evening to rest and relax. It was nice just to not have to drive several hours.

A very nice room for a very low price.

     The Electric City Circuit in Anderson was the next-to-last stop of the week. It was way different from the other races that made up the series. The race took place in an open park. There were no buildings, no trees, nothing. Originally, according to a YouTube post, the course was supposed to be in downtown Anderson. I'm guessing they moved the race because there was a large country fair going on across the street from the park. If they moved it in hopes of getting more spectators it didn't work. We went from thousands of spectators lining the course in Spartanburg to maybe 50 people watching in Anderson. It seemed so weird to have so many top riders in a race like this. I felt like it was a training race. It just didn't have the atmosphere of a top-tier race.

     My legs were tired today. I did a long, slow warm-up to ease the legs into the day. They started to come around after a half hour of easy spinning. By the time the race started, I actually felt pretty good. The course was boring. It was a one-lane loop around an open field in the hot sun. The start/finish was on a straight stretch that descended slightly to turn 1. The first turn was a 90-degree left that sloped away from you. To add a little more excitement, the pavement through the corner was fresh and still soft. Walking across it in cleats caused pieces to come up. Following the turn came another straight that then gently curved left, making a big D-shape if you were to look at the course from overhead. It was slightly uphill as the loop rolled along the edge of some small trees to the last turn, which was another 90-degree left. The final corner came just 100 meters from the finish line.

Electric City Circuit course from the satellite. The one stray mark came from my trip to the pit following a crash.

     There was a stiff breeze blowing as we lined up for our race. With the temp hovering around 90, the breeze was the only thing keeping us from sizzling in the sun. The Pro Women's race ended with Kendall Ryan lapping the field solo. I was expecting a similar thing to happen in our race with a short course and lots of tired legs. We were set for 50 laps of the 1 km course. There was lots of complaining heard on the start line. Several riders were wishing they were sitting back in the hotel with the AC running and the TV on.

Pro Women strung out

Kendall Ryan on her way to lapping the entire feld

Women coming toward the finish line

     The front row jumped the start so we had a slight pause before real racing actually began. I had a good starting spot, again on the third row. We had about 100 riders that started. The first turn was kind of scary packed up like that. I wasn't too convinced that the pavement was going to hold up in the heat, but it seemed alright as we rolled through the turn and began the usual sprint repeats that come with Pro crit. racing.

The early leader getting a little close to the edge of the road coming out of turn 1

     I was very comfortable the first 5 laps. We were single-file hammering from the last turn down the start/finish straight, through turn 1 and down the next straight, but then things would bunch up and allow for a few seconds of recovery. The wind was a cross wind coming out of turn 1. If you could sneak out to the right of the rider ahead, you could really get a good draft and save some energy.

An Exergy rider off the front alone

Single-file hammering

     About 10 minutes into the race, there was a crash just after the exit of turn 1. Some of the Kenda riders went down. I darted off the right side of the course down the hill in the dirt to avoid the mess. I hadn't planned on doing any mountain biking today, but it was kind of fun after riding so much pavement lately.

Still shot from the helmet cam. We raced under a sunny, blue sky.

Exergy rider still out front

Crash ahead

I went off in the grass to avoid the crash. That's the one good thing about crits that aren't in the middle of a city.

Riding back through the grass to the pit following the crash

 

Aftermath of the crash. One Kenda rider got to go home with a brand new sling and bandages!

     By the time we all got back to the pit and were put back into the race, we had missed two laps. I think we got put back in on the fastest two laps of the race. The group was one long line of about 90 riders when I jumped back in. They were all driving the pace trying to catch an Exergy rider who was about 10 seconds ahead. My legs really pumped up and I thought I might get dropped, but then the pace began to settle down again. I was recovering quickly. I'd say in 20 seconds I was fully ready to go again, only problem was that I couldn't hold it for very long before needing another 20 seconds to recover.

Competitive Cyclist sending riders off the front

United Healthcare chasing

Me hanging onto a wheel at 30+ mph

One very long line of riders ahead

     I felt really good at 25 minutes into the race. We were nearing halfway. Much like the night before, I was gaining some confidence in my ability to finish this race with the group. I was in no difficulty at all. Then Competitive Cyclist started attacking and the pace went up again. This time it stayed up for several laps. In three minutes I went from feeling great to off the back. I just couldn't hold that pace. My heart rate got up to 179 for a whole lap and that was it for me. I just can't hold those high heart rates like in the past. The most irritating thing was that they only hammered about two more laps after I was dropped before finally letting a break go clear. Competitive Cyclist got their gap with David Williams going off solo and lapping the field.

David Williams on his way to lapping the field

A Jamis rider rolls by with the Anderson County Fair in the background

Not where I had hoped to be in the closing laps of the race

Competitive Cyclist on the front protecting David Williams

Ivan Dominguez out front with a few laps to go

    Many riders dropped out before I did, especially in the two laps prior to me getting dropped. I wound up getting pulled after riding by myself for two laps. They gave me 77th place, though it was recorded as a DNF officially. I hate that. Getting pulled and a DNF are two separate things and should be recorded separately. The results are always misleading anyway. We had almost 120 riders last night, but only 85 were posted on results. It made it look like I was 81st out of 85. Then today, they post the 67 finishers and only 11 others were listed below out of 100 riders. All those that didn't make the full race were listed as DNFs. I know there were a ton more that were not listed because none of the Kenda riders involved in the crash were even listed. I know they are minor places, but we all pay big money to enter these races. I think making sure everyone gets listed correctly is the least the officials and promoters could do to give us our money's worth.

     My stats for the race were max heart rate of 179, hit as I was dropped. Average heart rate was 169, a tad lower than the past few races due to the free laps I got and the shorter race time. My race time was 31:48 with an average speed of 23.1 mph (also including the time spent sitting in the pits which lowered my average speed considerably). I lasted 22 of the 50 laps.

    I used the GoPro on my helmet again today. The full race video is posted below. You can see me dodge that crash at 10:10 into the video. There's also a video below of some clips we shot during the Pro events. Thanks again to Shannon for taking pictures and getting sunburned so I could ride my bike around in circles with a bunch of other guys.

Video from my helmet cam during the Pro Men's race at Anderson

Video clips of the Pro Women and Pro Men

    After the race, we zipped back to the hotel for some rest, cold drinks and an ice bath with the water as cold as I could stand it. Have to get the legs ready for one more day of racing. Sandy Springs will finish off Speed Week tomorrow.

Two coolers full of ice will do the trick