A pic from Thursday's road ride to see how the lungs felt
Sunset near the end of the ride
Racing began a day earlier this weekend with a Friday night crit. under the lights in Spartanburg, SC at the Spartanburg Regional Classic. I love this course. It's short at just 0.5 miles, and very fast. The course is a rectangle with four 90-degree right turns. Turn 4 is the tricky one because it narrows up on the exit. There is only one small rise on the backside after turn 2, so there isn't much to slow us down. There's also some rough bricks near the start finish which is really fun to ride. I don't mind the bumps. It's kind of cool to me to hit them going that fast. Maybe that's the mountain biker in me coming out.
Crit. course in downtown Spartanburg
Before getting the full-blown sinus infection, I decided to sign up for the Pro races at Spartanburg and Anderson. Getting 57th and 30th last week was not what I was looking for, so I figure it's time to move up and see how things go in the big race. I'd rather get dropped halfway through the Pro race than finish at the back of the Cat. 2/3 race again because I got blocked in. I'm not getting any upgrade points anyway so there is really no benefit of racing the Cat. 2/3. I may have looked at things differently had I not registered before the sinus infection peaked. Too late now! Time to get me some!
The drive to Spartanburg was not the best. It's about 6.5 hours away. We did the full drive the day of the race. Thanks to an 8:30pm start time, we even got to sleep in a little before departing. I've had this annoying creak in my crank/bottom bracket area the past few weeks, and I was able to give my bike the once-over and fully grease it up before hitting the road. We got stuck in traffic several times along the way, but still got to the race with plenty of time to spectate for a while before getting down to business.
The night races are always a blast. There's just something about racing under the lights that brings the adrenaline up a little higher. Not to mention the cooler night temperatures feel better on the body and let us go harder with less effort. We had well over 100 riders in the Pro Men's race, set for 70 laps around downtown Spartanburg. I had a good time coughing up my lungs during warm-up. Actually, I got them fairly clear by the time I got to the start line. I was one of the first to the staging area, nearly 20 minutes prior to the race. I knew I had to get a good starting spot. Being at the back means constant sprinting and I didn't think my lungs would be able to handle the high heart rates and breathing that comes with sprint repeats.
I saw Erica Allar crush the sprint and win the Pro Women's race before we lined up for staging. I was on the second row at first, but got shuffled back to the third row before the start. It's really irritating how riders from big teams can come up late, riding backwards on the course, and are allowed to just turn around in front of the group and get a front row starting spot without a call-up. Favoritism drives me crazy and it's one of the things I hate about bike racing. The rest of us worked just as hard to be starting that race.
A runner during the 1-Mile running race held before the Pro races
Runners sprint through turn 2
Front of the Pro Women's field with a few laps to go
Nevertheless, I had a good starting spot. The excitement started before the horn sounded. They were about to start us when one of the riders noticed there was a dog mingling around the feet of the riders on the front row. After announcer Chad Andrews cleared the dog off the course, we took off and began a dizzying race of speed and mayhem. I stayed top 30 the first few laps and was very comfortable with the pace of 31-32 mph. You get a great draft when you are in the middle of that many guys. My positioning was key. I wasn't having to stand and sprint off the corners and was even coasting a lot of the straights.
About to start
6-wide through the corners
There was a big slow down after a few minutes and then the attacks began. The pace picked up a lot. I slid back in the group after picking the slower line up the small rise coming out of turn 2. I was now having to work much harder coming off the turns. But we were still very much bunched up in the corners. It was insane rolling through the corners 6 and 7 riders wide at 33 mph. I couldn't even see the road most of the time. All I saw were backs of the riders and I just judged my line off of them. I really never knew where the inside or outside of the course was when I was stuck in the middle.
Pro Men early in the race
Things got hairy about 10 minutes into the race with a touch of wheels in turn 2. We all stayed upright, but the group was getting strung out. I started sweeping the outside in turns 3 and 4. Like I always say, it's the dangerous line, but it's usually clear and an easy way to move up without hurting your heart or legs. It was sketchy coming through turn 4 because you never knew if somebody would run you wide into the curb that jutted out on the exit of the corner. There was also a little curb that stuck out on the outside of the course about halfway down the front stretch. It was impossible to see once it got fully dark. The barriers were actually sitting on top of the curb, a few inches behind it, meaning if you were hugging the barriers you could hit the curb straight-on without even scraping the barrier.
Cruising along with a Kenda rider ahead of me and a United Healthcare rider to my right. Nice to be racing with these guys instead of watching.
That curb on the straightaway caused two crashes before the night was out. The first came 13 minutes into the race when the bunch slowed suddenly and fanned out coming off turn 4. The guys on the outside had to check up hard to miss the curb and that sent a ripple all the way back through the group. Guys were locking up their brakes trying to slow down. A rider ahead of me slid sideways under the heavy braking and hit a rider to his left, sending the guy down. I just slipped through before other riders piled in. The crash was huge and blocked up the entire road. I could hear the banging of the metal barriers behind me as riders went through it and into the crowd. I was left with a gap to close down and had to dig hard to get back onto the group. The big effort was pointless as we were stopped on the next lap because the road was still blocked with bikes and bodies. There was still three pieces of barrier flipped over when I went by. The officials totally stopped us for several minutes and then made us a do a slow lap to allow all of the 40 or so riders who were in the pits to rejoin our group. The front stretch was very narrow and sticking that many riders back into the race at the same time would surely be a disaster.
Rider going down at the bottom left corner of this shot
I felt really good following the stoppage. My legs were better and I wasn't coughing at all. We had another crash after 4 or 5 laps. This one came after a touch of wheels at the top of the small rise on the backside of the course. Two riders went down in the middle of the road, with one staying down for several laps. Again, I was just behind it, but slipped through unscathed. This time the gap wasn't big and I expended little energy to rejoin the group.
Two riders down
I just squeaked by on the right side
The rider was down on the back for several laps. The officials moved us over to the right each lap to avoid the scene while the medics tended to him. That kept the pace down a little on the hill, but we were still rocking it out of turn 4 and up the home straight. I was very comfortable in the group and still hanging in the top 40. A few attacks went off the front and we chased them down. I wasn't put into difficulty and was starting to think that maybe I could finish this whole race. Then the pace picked up again. I was good for 2 laps at max effort, then I needed recovery. At first, the group would slow about the time I would start getting into trouble. I was getting more confident about being able to finish this race. My legs were still good and I was holding the fast pace. We were flying over the bricks at the start/finish line. I could feel little gravels hitting my face as the riders ahead kicked them up off their tires.
Blur in the night
Then the speed picked up and stayed up for many laps in a row. They were throwing $100 primes for 3 and 4 laps in a row. I started to backslide. After a few laps, I couldn't sprint out of the corners anymore. My heart just couldn't hold over 180 bpm for very long. The high efforts were causing me to cough now as well. I dropped to the back, with only one rider behind me. I was definitely coming off the back on the next straight, but then there was a slowing in turn 4 and we bunched back up. Then came that awful sound of metal grinding on pavement and the gunshot-like sound of a tire blowing. There was another crash, this time caused directly by the curb jutting out on the front stretch. I counted at least 12 riders down as I rolled through the aftermath. Several of them were down for a while, one holding his right collarbone. There was crap all in the road. I ran over glasses, lenses and pieces of bikes as I tried to slow-roll through the crash scene and get to the pits.
Third crash of the night
Crash video: clips of all three from my point of view
I hate to see crashes, but it was just what I needed to recover a second. I sat in the pits for a lap and then 30 or so of us were stuck back into the group. I was back towards the front again so it turned out to be a big break for me. We soft-pedaled a lap and then found that there were still many riders down. They stopped us yet again to get everything cleaned up. Once we started back, it took one lap for the pace to return to full-gas. There were constant attacks, numerous primes and riders coming out of the pit every lap. With the narrowness of the front stretch, it was hard for one rider to come out of the pit and merge, I can't imagine how it would've been had they not stopped us for 30 to merge in.
The pace is cranked up now. Single-file through the turns.
I may have recovered in the pit, but that pace was still too much for me. I was coughing a lot now as we reached halfway. I made it 36 laps last year before getting pulled. I was determined to go farther than that this year. There were gaps everywhere now as I slid back. Lots of riders had already been dropped. My poor heart simply couldn't take it anymore and off the back I went on the hill on lap 39. I was immediately pulled. That was 3 laps longer than last year and running on one lung no less!
I think I coughed up my lungs after I came out. My legs were still ok, but my anaerobic endurance just isn't there yet. I have the speed to run with them, but I'm only good for about 30 minutes of it, then I fade. I managed to hold on for 50 minutes tonight with a max heart rate of 183 and an average of 170. That's still a high average heart rate considering we stopped twice and I was in the pits one lap. I hit that max at 20 minutes into the race, just after the first crash restart. My average speed for the 50 minutes was still 25.8 mph despite the two stoppages and sitting in the pits for a lap. The GPS was still counting during the stops. Max speed hit was 34.9 mph. I wound up 81st on the results despite getting pulled, which is way higher than I ever finished last year. There were a lot of guys dropped long before I was.
Jake Keough got the win for United Healthcare. It was cool to get to ride with the Pro guys for one. I was surrounded by Kenda/5-Hour Energy, United Healthcare, and Exergy guys quite often in the race. It's nice to ride with them instead of just watch. I am much stronger this year and see now that leg strength is not my problem. I'm still lacking top end and endurance at those high heart rates. I guess that comes with missing a month of training and racing. I ran the GoPro on my helmet again and got some great footage, including the crashes. The crash video is posted above, full race video of the 50 minutes I lasted is below, along with other highlights shot on a couple of different cameras. Thanks to Shannon helping with the videos and pictures. I also have to thank her for being so supportive of my racing and for being willing to run all over the country with me each weekend. She is so awesome, even willing to nap on a sidewalk yesterday on nothing more comfortable than a single quilt laid out over bricks.
Video: full race from my helmet
Video: Clips from the evening of racing
I am grateful to have had the chance to race Pro last night and to come out of the race with all my skin intact. If nothing else, it was a great workout to help me return to full race form. I mean, where else can you fly around a town with over 100 guys at over 30 mph? Nowhere...except maybe at Anderson later today and Sandy Springs tomorrow.
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