Outgunned

     I'm sure everybody in the U.S. was aware of the total solar eclipse on August 21. It was well publicized and an extra big deal in our area where the total part was set to last a little bit longer than the rest of the world. The eclipse happened on a Monday, the day after the DINO finals in Indy. I had the day off work since our home health agency was asked to close to keep traffic off the roads of Clarksville, where 30,000 people were expected to come to town to view the eclipse.

     The panic and warnings from our local government officials freaked out residents and prospective visitors. People bought up all the groceries and gas like it was the end of the world. We only had a max of a few thousand visitors combined between Clarksville and Hopkinsville, the latter of which was supposedly going to see 70,000+ visitors. Some projections were as high as 200,000 visitors to our area for the weekend. I didn't see exact numbers on how many came, but it was minimal. Traffic on that day was some of the best Clarksville traffic we have ever had, especially on a Monday. I spent the day viewing the eclipse from home, while Shannon watched from work. She was given a long lunch so they would have plenty of time to view the totality portion. While most of the people stayed away from our area, probably to avoid the forecasted huge crowds and madness, they crammed to other places like Chattanooga and north Georgia, causing some major traffic headaches on I-75 between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

     Speaking of totality, I have never heard that word used so much as I did in the weeks leading up to the eclipse. It sounds a bit menacing, but simply means to portion of the eclipse where the sun is completely blocked by the moon. We were in the path of totality and would get 2 minutes 21 seconds of totality. Supposedly, it would get completely dark, birds would get quiet, street lights would come on and stars would become visible like it was night time. Other phenomena we were looking out for were the shadow of the moon moving west to east across the sky and landscape just before the totality portion began, and crescent-shaped shadows just before and after totality.

    I set up my GoPro in the field next to my parents' house to do time lapse photography of the entire eclipse event, from the initial start of blockage all the way through totality and back to full sun again. The full phase would last 2 hours 56 minutes. I viewed the full thing there with my some of my family. My grandparents came down here to view the eclipse as they were just outside the path of totality where they live. My grandfather loves photography so he was pumped to take pictures of the event. I sat with them through the first hour as the moon slowly started to block the sun. It was a slow process at first, barely even visible when wearing the solar eclipse glasses and staring right at the sun.It's amazing how bright the sun is. I didn't notice any difference in the light until it was at least 90% blocked, then things dimmed slightly. I was entertained during this less-exciting period by grandpa calling a granddaughter and trying to describe to her what to look for. From the one side of the conversation I heard, she not only was confused about what was happening, but was not sure how to find the sun. He literally told her to go outside and look up for a bright thing in the sky. She couldn't find it because it was behind a cloud...

2/3 of the way blocked

     My Dad arrived to watch the total portion with us. My mom and sister were not there as they were headed to Florida for some beach time and saw only a partial eclipse from the road somewhere in south Alabama. I was expecting it to gradually darken like a sunset, although a bit faster than normal, but it all happened within a few short minutes. The light became a weird tint in the final few minutes before totality, with the darkness only coming in the final 30 seconds before the sun was fully blocked. Even with the blockage it was still lighter than night time. I could see some stars and the street lights did come on, but it was far from dark. The corona of the sun visible around the moon was spectacular, as were the first rays of sun shooting through as the totality ended. I missed seeing the moon's shadow coming across the landscape just before totality, so I hope I get to see another solar eclipse one day so I can look for that again. Some of those stars that were visible were actually planets, as Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Venus were visible during this time.

Picture I snagged during totality

According to maps of the eclipse sky and knowing which direction I was facing at the time of this picture, I'm pretty sure this is Venus during the portion of totality.

During totality it wasn't completely dark, but the western sky looked like sunset and the street lights did come on.

Caught this just as totality began to break.

     My Dad and I had planned to ride during the dark portion, but with it being only a couple of minutes long, we decided just to watch it and then go into the woods for a lap on the trail. I had completely forgotten about the crescent shadows. Upon entering the woods in the dim light, it was like entering into a kaleidoscope. I could barely stay oriented  the first minute or two until the full light came back. It wasn't the darkness or even the strange tint to the light that caused the disorientation, it was the shadows. There were thousands and thousands of little crescents everywhere on the ground and on the trees. It really messed with your eyes. This was by far the best part of the eclipse experience for both of us. It's another thing I wouldn't have experienced without having bikes in my life. I rode for a couple of minutes, then went out for my camera so I could grab some pictures. The crescents gradually grew in size as the sun became uncovered again until they were gone about 15 minutes after totality ended. I hurried back out to show my grandparents the pictures, but they had already left. Grandpa was very frustrated as he did not get the pictures he wanted during the eclipse, so they just threw everything in the car and hit the road for home.

Crescents all over the trail

It looked like this all through the woods so you can imagine how it messed with our eyes

Time lapse video from my GoPro during the full eclipse process. The darkness is very brief when compared to the whole as you can see here.

     Two days after the eclipse was the final Music City Crits race of the season. The finale always includes a Fat Tire Crit earlier in the afternoon. I have never been able to make it from work in time to get to the Fat Tire, but I finally did this year. The course for the night was the fast kidney bean loop. No slicks were allowed in the Fat Tire race, so everybody had knobbies, which made for an awesome roar when the pack got going in the race. I left on my normal 2.2" tires, while others went for a narrower 1.75" tire. I could tell in my warm-up that I was feeling good. The race was only 15 minutes long so you had to be ready to go from the start. We had about 25 starters of all ability levels. The start was fast and after two laps we already had split the front group down to less than 15 riders. The Hattie B's team had brought six or seven riders, most of them being strong enough to win the race. They played their cards well, sending rider after rider off the front. Everybody left it up to me to do the chasing. I didn't want to do all the work, but I also didn't want to let two guys from the same team just ride away to an easy win.

On the front of the Fat Tire Crit

photo by Tammy Richardson

     I focused on pacing myself to bring back the breaks. I closed on them slowly and left enough in the tank to keep going when the next attack went. After pulling back two or three breaks, I knew I was having a super night and had to keep things together because I could win this thing. I was holding what is normally my max heart rate. There was a big attack at two laps to go that looked like I might not be able to pull back, but this time the two up the road were not on the same team so they began to try to shake the other and that let me drag our group back up there with just over a lap to go. As I made the junction, the others began to attack me and it finally let me get on a wheel. I think I spent about three minutes of the 15-minute race drafting. The rest of the time I was leading the chase after a breakaway. I was hurting as we hit the backstretch the final time. I looked down to see my heart rate at 185, which is very high for me. I knew I only had to hold this for 40 more seconds and it would all be over. Guys started to fade as we reached the end of the backstretch. I was sitting about fifth in line and moved up to second as we dropped off the banking. Arvin Jansen had a bit of a lead, but I got to him just as we entered the final corners. I swung around his outside going into the chicane and was able to make the pass and then had the inside onto the final straight. I pushed hard to hit 186 heart rate and hold on for the win. Some guys were close to me, but I did enough to hold them off. There were people in the grass trying to cut the chicane coming into the sprint so it was a wild finish. I would expect nothing less when a group of mountain bikers gets together to race on pavement.

Had just enough time to celebrate as the Hattie B's swarm came up behind me.

photo by Tammy Richardson

     It was an awesome win because I worked so hard to get it. I have never done that much work in any crit. in my life! My average heart rate was over 180, which is normally my max, not an average. It was the ride of the year for me for sure and felt like the old days when I was a Cat. 3 racing against a tough field full of Tristar/Juris riders. Hattie B's brought out the guns tonight, but I still had more firepower. These kind of wins always make you feel good because on paper you shouldn't have stood a chance with a team like that. Thanks Tammy for the pictures!

     I still felt good in the Pro/1/2/3 race later in the evening. I stayed off the front early on to rest my legs a bit more and ease back into a hard effort after having some time off between races. After the 15-minute mark, I started following moves to try to make a breakaway. I went with every move for 10 minutes and the group was giving no slack to anyone. It looked like nothing was getting away, so I stopped following the moves. The next attack then went away and we had our break for the night. I was irritated at missing it, but the group did finally respond and brought the break back with 15 minutes left to race under the lights in Nashville. Brent Ferrell slipped away in the closing laps to go solo for an impressive win, while the rest of us readied for a bunch sprint for second. I was a bit too far back with four to go, but worked my way up to a good spot as we took the bell for the last lap of the Music City Crits season. I chose a bad line and got hung behind a few riders on the backstretch that were not going to sprint. I had to sprint the entire second half of the final lap just to get back into position for the sprint, which was already happening as I joined the front group again. I ended up 8th, which is my best finish of the year out here. It was a good way to end the local season and gave me a little confidence heading into the upcoming crits that I planned to end my summer with.

     The first of those crits came just three days later in downtown Chattanooga at the Goss Insurance Criterium, part of the River Gorge Omnium. We had to have our farm stand open Saturday morning, so it worked out good that the Cat. 2 race was later in the afternoon, and the Pro/1/2 was at night. The Cat. 2-only race was new for this year. I am not a huge fan of this course and have been slaughtered on it in Pro/1/2 in the past, so I was excited to get just Cat. 2s out there and see how it went. The course is a rectangle with a gradual uphill on the front stretch and gradual downhill on the back. The corners on each end of the course come very close together so you don't get much rest if the group is going hard, which is exactly what happened. It was fast from the start and there was a headwind up the slight incline on the front stretch that made things even harder. We had a 28.3 mph average speed after 15 minutes. I couldn't get recovered and guys were popping off on every straightaway. I finally got hung behind a gap that pushed me to my breaking point. I wasn't able to respond coming off Turn 4 and that was the end of me.

Cat. 4/5 Women

Missy Cundiff in her first crit!

Cat. 2 Men rolling through Turn 1

Me in the black/blue/orange

I'm drifting to the back here

Turn 2. Shannon was smart and hid behind the hay bales here.

     I rode a few laps by myself and then joined forces with another guy off the back. The group wasn't all that far ahead for a few laps, but then we faded. The next time we saw the group was when they lapped us at about 30 minutes into the race. The rider that was with me called it a day, but they didn't pull me so I kept going. I put in a good TT effort by my standards. Holding a 25.1 mph average speed for 20 minutes after I had blown up was good for me, but still I would have rather been in the group racing. I still have a ways to go to get myself ready for these courses that don't allow for much recovery. I definitely didn't have the same legs that I had on Wednesday night either. Thanks go out to the officials for letting me stay out there. I did my best to stay out of the way when the leaders were coming and I think they saw that and knew I wouldn't get in the way of the race. They even scored me. I ended up 33rd. There were less than 20 guys left in the group at the end which shows you how much speed-carnage there was in this race. Also, thanks Tim Bell for the shout-out on the mic. At one point near the end of the race, I heard him talking about how he thought I could do special things on a mountain bike and how happy he was to see me at their race. I just wish I could have made us mountain bikers look a bit better at a crit by being in the group instead of struggling off the back.

Cat. 2 Men on the backstretch

I'm getting really close to the back now

All by myself... in a bad way.

photo by Newtography

photo by Newtography

A little pat on the back and high-five with Jason Tatum on the final lap. Great guy I am happy to have been able to race with over the years.

photo by Newtography

Finishing up the Cat. 2 race

photo by Newtography

Video: Highlights from my handlebar cam during the Cat. 2 race

Video: Crash during the Cat. 2 race as seen from Josh Lewis's camera

     I had a break between races before it was time to line up for the Pro/1/2 event. Continuing to put in a hard effort in the Cat. 2 race drained my legs for the Pro/1/2, but lets be real here. It wasn't like I was going to last the full 60 minutes in this Pro/1/2 field on this course anyway. It was a good night of training and a humbling reminder that there is much more work to be done. The Pro/1/2 race was very fast from the start. We were already averaging well over 28 mph halfway through the second lap. That's fast considering the race starts from a complete stop. This race was a hair faster than the Cat. 2 race, but it was smoother so I liked it better. Everyone in this race can corner fast so there was no bunching going into and through the corners, so that also made for less accelerations off the turn. The uphill front stretch was kicking my butt every lap and it finally ended me after six laps. It wasn't that the group sped up, I just started to slow down. I was tired. I made two laps by myself, almost hitting a dog at a crosswalk at one point, then I was pulled to finish 64th. It was short, but a lot of fun and made me remember why I like the big Pro races better than small races. It's fun to go fast!

Video clips of the Cat. 2 and Pro/1/2 races, including the Cat. 2 finish.

Video: My first six laps in the Pro/1/2 race as seen through my GoPro handlebar cam

     I had the guns on Wednesday in Nashville, but I was definitely outgunned in Chattanooga. Now it's time for a bit of recovery before we head to St. Louis for another Labor Day weekend full of crit racing at the Gateway Cup.