I knew nothing about the races, only that I wanted to go. I knew little about the area. I have been to Cincinnati just once, back in 2009 when I raced the Cincy3 Cyclocross festival. My only other time entering Ohio was when I passed through on my way home from an old NORBA National mountain bike series race in Mount Snow, Vermont many years ago. So Ohio was new territory to explore. While looking up a hotel to stay in, I noticed King's Island was near Cincinnati. Again, I knew nothing about the place other than it has a great reputation in the theme-park world. I thought I would just check in to see how much tickets were and it just so happened that they were running a special that day. Adult tickets were the price of kids tickets. So I splurged a little and bought three tickets, as my Mom was going with us again this weekend.
We drove up to Columbus on Friday. It was beautiful weather, especially in the evening when the races took place. We got there early and had time to check into our hotel. We got to watching the Bourne movies and almost were late for the race. You got to love anything Jason Bourne. He is one bad dude!
The Tour de Grandview is in the Grandview Heights suburb of Columbus. It's a nice area, but does not feature many places to park. We got lucky and found a nice spot straight away, but I saw many others driving laps looking for anywhere on the street to park. The course goes through a neighborhood. It's a big rectangle with all left turns. The start/finish straight was slightly downhill to a narrow first turn which was slightly tighter than a 90-degree turn. In pre-ride that looked like the most exciting (AKA best place to crash) part of the course. The course then went slightly uphill through turn 2 and down the backstretch. The backstretch was not wide by any means, but it got even narrower halfway down and was poorly lit once darkness set in. Getting to turn 3 was great. It was wide and flat all the way through the last turn and back onto the start/finish straight. It looked like my kind of course. It was fast and fairly easy.
Registration was great. They were quick and giving out free Sport Beans, Jelly Beans and the new Protein Sport Beans. I wanted to tell the check-in lady that my name was Jason Bourne, but I didn't think she would get it so I just laughed about it with Shannon and talked about how Jason Bourne would annihilate this race if he were here. The race would start, but only Jason would come around the first lap because he would beat down the rest of the peloton on the back stretch.
Our Pro/1/2 race featured 67 riders scheduled for 70 minutes of racing. I got a good start spot on the third row. Even with being up that far in the group I still almost came to a stop so we could all squeeze through turn 1 the first lap. The pace was fast early, but nothing crazy. It was dusty coming off turn 1. I thought the dust was from all the riders, but then I realized they were pouring concrete on the sidewalk along the course. I also saw landscapers unloading mulch in turn 2. I guess progress never stops. The pace started getting ugly after 4-5 laps. Attacks were going off every lap up the backstretch. I kept getting gapped out of turn 2, which was the worst thing I could do. After a few laps of chasing the entire backstretch, I started rolling through turn 2 faster and coming off the turn with tons of momentum so I could match the acceleration of the riders in front of me. I still am having a hard time matching the accelerations when we sprint out of corners. I'm still missing that pure power.
By the 15 minute mark, we were in full assault mode. The pace was wicked fast up the back stretch. We were dodging potholes and blown riders in the dark, yet still doing 35 mph every lap. I got gapped twice by riders in front of me who just sat up and I somehow managed to get back on. I kept thinking that each time sprinting up the backstretch would be the last time I could do it, but I surprised myself. I felt blown up, but I still dug deep for another 5 laps before I really started to struggle.
My focus the past few weeks has been on my heart rate, more specifically on achieving higher heart rates. I have seen a lot of improvement as I was able to hold 178-180 steady this past week at the Music City Crits race and even hit a new max of 188. Back in late-April I was unable to maintain 174 and maxing out at just 181. While I did not hit a new max in this race, I definitely saw the highest sustained numbers I have seen in a long, long time. For 18 minutes straight, I stayed between 182 and 186, mostly at around 185. I was going into turn 2 at 185 and still able to sprint to stay with the group down the back. I was so pumped, but knew that I could not hold that forever. I was gapped off the main group at 21 minutes. A quarter lap later they sat up. I gave my all to get back on, but could not get closer than 4-5 seconds from the back. I sat there for two full laps before they picked up the pace again and dropped me completely. It was a little irritating to see the moto official pacing local riders back on. I saw him do it not once, but twice. It looked like the group hammered about 5 more laps after they finished me off. Then they backed off, allowing a break to get away. I almost had it! That is for sure the closest I have ever been to making it through a big-time Pro crit. with good quality riders in the field.
I continued to ride hard for a few more laps before I was pulled. I finished in 44th place with a 27.0 mph average speed for just under 29 minutes. I was actually glad to be pulled. I felt awful. My stomach was knotted from the effort. I dug so deep! I am very pleased to have been able to push myself that hard. Also, it was safer to be pulled. The crossings were so dangerous. The volunteers were letting cars cross the course right in front of me, even when I was just a few seconds behind the main group! They could not see me because of the darkness. Most of the backstretch was completely dark. I really don't know how we didn't crash back there. It was a bit ridiculous.
Here's our race video from the night.
Video: Tour de Grandview
I felt bad the rest of the night and barely ate anything. My head hurt and my stomach was still mad at me for going so hard. The next morning I felt great. All the aches and pains were gone. Now it was time for some roller coasters! The HP Blast was not until the late evening so we had all day to take in King's Island. I expected the park to be crowded, but it really wasn't. We had to wait in line 30-45 minutes to ride most rides, but the rides were longer than any place I have ever been to so it made the waiting more than worth it. Besides, most of the time I needed 30-45 minutes between rides to get my head straight so I could do another one.
Entering King's Island. That's Shannon and me on the left reading the park map
I had not been to a theme-park of any kind since 2010 when I went to Lake Winnepesauka in Chattanooga. One of the spinning rides messed with my head and I have been a little afraid of theme-parks ever since. I never used to get car-sick, but since that day I have a hard time being a passenger in a car. It's been four years, so I figured it was time to test my head and see just how messed up I am. We knew nothing about the rides at King's Island. We just hopped on the first one we came to. It was called Diamondback. It looked a little crazy from the ground, but everyone seemed to be loving it. It was more than crazy. The first drop is about 150 feet high and taps you out at 80 mph at the bottom. The picture of Shannon and I that they took on this drop was priceless. I should have bought it. I looked like I was morphing into The Hulk and she looked like she was standing in front of an explosion. It was hilarious! The ride is super long, covering 5,282 feet of tack. That's just over a mile long. I was thinking that maybe King's Island was not for me after doing Diamondback. My stomach felt like it was now between my brain and skull. Lucky for us, this turned out to be the most gut-wrenching ride in the park.
The tall opening drop on Diamondback
Diamondback catches a little water at the end of the ride
I personally like The Beast the best. It is a classic wooden coaster that goes fast. You get two descents while on this ride so it's like getting a 2-for-1 deal. The Vortex was too rough for us. I think I sustained two concussions on that ride. It does a lot of slower twisting and inversions, but it is too jerky to be fun. I saw people crying when they got off that ride. The smoothest rides were The Bat and the new Banshee ride. The Bat is slower and shorter, but is was a lot of fun. Banshee had a 150 foot drop and multiple inversions and corkscrews, but it is so smooth that you hardly realize when you are changing directions. It gives you the cool G-forces and speed without tearing your head off. The only open ride we didn't get to do was Firehawk where you do the ride lying down. The line for it was a 90-minute wait and we ran out of time to get on it.
The Vortex track looks like a plate of noodles
Me (left) on Banshee. Shannon is next to me. It's about to get real.
Shannon and I on Banshee
One of many times we got inverted on Banshee
We wound up leaving a little early, but it was good thing we did. When we arrived at our hotel to check in, they were having electrical problems and moved us to another hotel a few exits further down the interstate. I was kind of glad because this hotel did not look very appealing. It was dirty and there were some shady folk hanging out in the parking lot. The replacement hotel was better. It was clean, but old. They were renovating one end and of course that's the end where all of the relocated guests were put.
Rain came just as we got ready to head down to the race. We drove through a downpour and then got wet again as I unloaded the car. The Hyde Park Blast takes place in the Hyde Park community. It begins with a 5K in the morning and then continues with bike races and a festival all day and into the night, followed by fireworks. Hyde Park is a difficult place to warm up. I should have just gotten out the trainer, but I like doing a road warm-up better right now. I have gotten my pre-race routine dialed these past few races. The roads here were short and congested. I had to dodge cars the whole ride and almost got run over a few times by people running stop signs.
The road was still wet when it was our turn to take to the course. I was expecting to get a few laps in before the race, but they closed the course and staged us early. Apparently, there was two different flyers and I got the wrong one off their website. We actually started 15 minutes earlier than I thought and raced 15 minutes longer. This race was a Pro/1/2/3 event so it was huge. We had 112 riders and they staged us in order of registration. I signed up late because I was supposed to being doing XTERRA Lock 4 Blast this weekend and not here. I was about 106th to be called up. The course was a very technical one and one you definitely should see before the start of the race. Just 150 meters after the start line comes a tight, 180-degree right turn with a concrete wall on the inside. You then have a slightly uphill stretch to a 90-degree left turn onto a narrow alley. The alley is uphill and on a steep grade, then curves right before turning onto another road and descending back down through a fast right turn onto the start/finish straight.
HP Blast Course Map
The first lap was my first time to see the course. We CREEPED through the 180 the first lap. It was just a big gaggle of riders. We almost stopped again turning onto the alley. It looked like the famous Liege-Bastogne-Liege picture as the group climbed the alley. I couldn't even see the road, just the backs of riders bobbing up and down out of the saddle. It looked as if we were about to ride right into a guy's garage at the top. I was starting to think that this was a driveway, not a road, but then the course turned and the road continued. I just held my spot the first lap, not doing anything stupid to try to move up. We were crammed in so tightly that there was nowhere to go anyway.
I was not even to the finish line to end lap 1 when the front of the group came out of the hairpin. I could see them and could see the pile-up that happened on the wet pavement. Now I had 10 seconds before I piled into the madness. I dodged a few fallers and stayed on the group, moving up a few spots on the climb. There was still little room to pass the first few laps. There was a crash in the 180 every lap the first five or so laps. I had no trouble there. My tires were gripping well in the wet and I was not scared of the turn. The hardest part for me was doing 10-11 mph through the turn and then hitting 33-34 mph on the following straightaway. I was not even racing the same race the leaders were. It's a whole different world at the back. You just fight to stay on the group as everyone around you explodes. After just three laps it was 49 seconds from the leader to the end of the line.
The 180 around Hyde Park Square
Two riders pass by an old church in Hyde Park
After 9 minutes the main group was in three pieces and I was just off the back of the third piece with riders scattered out behind me. I began to time trial and pick off people in the corners. Seeing the hill before the race scared me, but it turned out to be my strong point. The alley was quite enjoyable to race on when you were by yourself. I kept catching small groups, but they were off the back. I never could regain the main group. At 18 minutes I was pulled out, getting 90th place on the results. It was a tough race from a position standpoint. I had good legs and rode well, I was just too far back to have any chance of getting up there. I have to give props to Andy Reardon as he started back there with me and wound up finishing the race. Out of the 112 starters, just 38 made it to the end. The quality of this field was even better than at Grandview. We even had Juan Jose Haedo in attendance. He was a Pro in Europe for several years with CSC and Saxo Bank, winning stages of the Vuelta a Espana, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of California and Dauphine Libere during his Euro stint. It was a no-brainer who would take the sprint tonight after Haedo got into the winning break of four. German rider Helmut Trettwer have Haedo a run for his money, but came up a wheel short in the end.
Here's some video from the HP Blast we filmed.
After the race we grabbed some ice cream at Graeter's and then cruised back to the hotel, just in time to catch "The Matrix" on TV. Like the Bourne movies, I just can't turn off "The Matrix."
Sunday's race was in the afternoon so there was plenty of time to sleep in and then go to a late-morning church service in town. We still had lots of time to kill before my race, so we pulled up a chair and watched the early races. I got to cheer on my friend, Keith Lucas, as he rode to a 3rd place finish in the Masters race. I grabbed some food from the Pit To Plate BBQ food truck in the festival area. It was good barbecue and their mac-n-cheese was Shannon-approved. She likes her mac to be extra cheesy.
I had tired legs in my warm-up, so I took it slow. The legs need time to wake up on days like this. I'm not sure if they were tired from racing the past two days or from standing all day in line at King's Island. Probably a combination of both. I did get to pre-ride the course today and it was another technical one. The first and last turns were right-hand 180-degree turns. You started on a small uphill on Miami Ave., then took a right 180 to go back down the same road. Next came a blind left turn that was sharper than 90 degrees. The backside of the course was flat and fast, but it was narrow and had several small corners in it. A 90-degree left took us back onto the main road for a tough climb up Miami Ave. Then we took the second 180 and bombed back down Miami Ave. to the start/finish line. The Pro Women had a lot of difficulty with the first 180. They had several slow-speed crashes there. It made me worried for what would happen in our race with such a big group present again today.
Madeira Centennial Criterium course map
Crash at the end of the Junior race coming out of the last 180
Women in the first 180
It was again a stacked field. We had 76 starters today, including Haedo. Again, we were called up in order of registration so I was at the back once more. As we took off, the rider ahead of me clipped a wheel and lost control of his bars. He stayed upright only because we were so tightly packed up. He bounced off of riders and eventually got hold of his handlebar again and regained control. I had nowhere to go while he did his bike dance. I found myself last going into the first 180. I cruised around the outside of the turn and picked off a few riders to at least not be the very last one in line. It took a few laps of jamming up in the 180s before we finally got single-file. It was so hard to pass here. The 180s were tight and the backside was so fast that you could not make a pass. People were doing dumb things like dropping bottles and overlapping wheels. There were several crashes in the first 180 just like in the women's race.
There were not as many gaps as I anticipated, but I still got dropped early. I could not handle the accelerations out of the 180s today. There was no spot to rest on this course and I was dying every lap. My stomach was knotted up again from the intensity and off the back I came after just 12 minutes. I kept pushing hard until they pulled me at 18 minutes. It was an earlier exit than I had hoped for, but I just did not have it today. I finished 70th. I was surprised to have a 24.2 mph average speed. That is pretty fast for such a technical course, especially when I rode half the race alone.
Off the back in madeira
Pro/1/2 Men on the backside of the course
Me chasing
We stayed for the finish and again it was Haedo winning from a break. These races paid big money so he walked away from this weekend with a fat wallet. Andy did great again, finishing the race after starting in the back again just like last night. More pictures and our race video are posted below.
The winning break of three
The blur of speed down Miami Ave.
Video: Madeira Centennial Criteriium
I took two easy days and then it was back to racing on Wednesday night at the Music City Crits race. More about that in the next blog...
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