Saturday June 19th. I wake up at 4am, sand in my eyes. Then I eat a bagel. This doesn't taste the same. The race start is 7:50, so I pack some potato bread with nutella to eat on the way. Then I head over to a teammates house. For once I'm not driving. And it's just as well, it's somewhat of a long haul down to Bridgeton.
We get there and I catch up with Fred and Ben. Ben graciously lets me borrow his sunglasses as I forgot mine. Thanks man, with the heat and contacts, this is a plus. I get my number, pin it on and a teammate crumples it. He says it's not going to flap in the wind this way. I learned something new.
I decide not to warm up. It's going to be warm enough, and at an advertised 95 miles plenty of time to warm up. The race wasn't to be more than 87 miles, I got short-changed. A banana, a few gels, 3 bottles and I'm ready. We line up and there's around 50 racers in the 1/2/3 field.
Off we go, and sure enough someone wants to take a flyer. So much for warming up nicely during the race. Eventually my legs wake up and I go with another guy. 2 guys off the front at this point is not a very smart move, but we make up some time rather effortlessly so we decide to keep going. Each lap was 17 miles, and about the end of lap 1 (of 5) we see a small group of 6 or so, so we wait for them to bridge up to us. This is more like it. We're working well, apparently opening a good gap.
In the middle of lap 3 we are caught. Apparently they chased hard back there. As expected, counter-attacks go off right and left. I try to follow a few, and eventually we end up with another small group of 10 or so away. This doesn't last long and we're caught again. Another break goes, 10 guys or so, and sure enough this time I miss it. This is likely the good break. I've got a teammate in front so this allows me to rest for a bit. So far the pace has been pretty hard all along.
Eventually we lose sight of the escape. I wait a bit more, then mid-way into lap 4 I go by myself. I open a gap, and someone joins me. We work together to stay away, and eventually 2 more guys join us. The rest of the pack is far away now. I am starting to get tired, and the heat is coming down hard. By then I've eaten the banana (fun, it makes it hard to breathe), one gel, and went through 2 bottles. I took a bottle at the feed and hopefully this should hold me up to the end.
To my surprise we start seeing the lead group. This gives us a boost and we drill it to make the junction. This takes a lot out of me, so when we eventually join, I drink and eat another gel and just sit on. One of my chase companions is out of water, I give him some of mine and hope he's not going to empty the bottle, it's my last water. Thankfully he leaves me some. All good.
At this point there's around 10 miles to go. I'm pretty toast but still working to get this done, when 4 guys jump ahead. My teammate motions to me that this could be interesting, so I go. I have a hard time bridging up. The course is mostly flat, but still has some ups that now seem and feel like mountain passes. I catch the wheels ahead, and amazingly nobody follows me. I just went from chasing a 10-man break to being in a 5-man off the front in around 10 miles, my legs are screaming.
I can't even take pulls initially, those guys are drilling it hard. We open a gap and it keeps widening. Then we go around the last turn, and from there it's a 5-mile straight to the finish. The road at this point is deceiving, long and straight with only a few rollers to keep from seeing the finish line. We keep riding at a good pace, I'm taking pulls again, but eventually we start watching each other. It's clear we're not going to get caught. I'm on the verge of getting cramps, and there's not much I can do when the sprint is launched.
I roll across the line last of this little group. I'll take it, this was a hard day for me. What seemed like could be a boring race given the featureless course, turned out to be anything but. We completed the 87 miles in about 3:30, and this is the longest distance I've ridden so far this year.
I see Fred, Ben who are done with their races. Fred crashed at the end, this always sucks but at least he's not in the ambulance... I also see Ilya getting ready for his race, and I'm thinking he's going to like the heat. My feet are burning, and when a teammate hands me a Guinness it's the best thing ever.
Thanks for reading.
We get there and I catch up with Fred and Ben. Ben graciously lets me borrow his sunglasses as I forgot mine. Thanks man, with the heat and contacts, this is a plus. I get my number, pin it on and a teammate crumples it. He says it's not going to flap in the wind this way. I learned something new.
I decide not to warm up. It's going to be warm enough, and at an advertised 95 miles plenty of time to warm up. The race wasn't to be more than 87 miles, I got short-changed. A banana, a few gels, 3 bottles and I'm ready. We line up and there's around 50 racers in the 1/2/3 field.
Off we go, and sure enough someone wants to take a flyer. So much for warming up nicely during the race. Eventually my legs wake up and I go with another guy. 2 guys off the front at this point is not a very smart move, but we make up some time rather effortlessly so we decide to keep going. Each lap was 17 miles, and about the end of lap 1 (of 5) we see a small group of 6 or so, so we wait for them to bridge up to us. This is more like it. We're working well, apparently opening a good gap.
In the middle of lap 3 we are caught. Apparently they chased hard back there. As expected, counter-attacks go off right and left. I try to follow a few, and eventually we end up with another small group of 10 or so away. This doesn't last long and we're caught again. Another break goes, 10 guys or so, and sure enough this time I miss it. This is likely the good break. I've got a teammate in front so this allows me to rest for a bit. So far the pace has been pretty hard all along.
Eventually we lose sight of the escape. I wait a bit more, then mid-way into lap 4 I go by myself. I open a gap, and someone joins me. We work together to stay away, and eventually 2 more guys join us. The rest of the pack is far away now. I am starting to get tired, and the heat is coming down hard. By then I've eaten the banana (fun, it makes it hard to breathe), one gel, and went through 2 bottles. I took a bottle at the feed and hopefully this should hold me up to the end.
To my surprise we start seeing the lead group. This gives us a boost and we drill it to make the junction. This takes a lot out of me, so when we eventually join, I drink and eat another gel and just sit on. One of my chase companions is out of water, I give him some of mine and hope he's not going to empty the bottle, it's my last water. Thankfully he leaves me some. All good.
At this point there's around 10 miles to go. I'm pretty toast but still working to get this done, when 4 guys jump ahead. My teammate motions to me that this could be interesting, so I go. I have a hard time bridging up. The course is mostly flat, but still has some ups that now seem and feel like mountain passes. I catch the wheels ahead, and amazingly nobody follows me. I just went from chasing a 10-man break to being in a 5-man off the front in around 10 miles, my legs are screaming.
I can't even take pulls initially, those guys are drilling it hard. We open a gap and it keeps widening. Then we go around the last turn, and from there it's a 5-mile straight to the finish. The road at this point is deceiving, long and straight with only a few rollers to keep from seeing the finish line. We keep riding at a good pace, I'm taking pulls again, but eventually we start watching each other. It's clear we're not going to get caught. I'm on the verge of getting cramps, and there's not much I can do when the sprint is launched.
I roll across the line last of this little group. I'll take it, this was a hard day for me. What seemed like could be a boring race given the featureless course, turned out to be anything but. We completed the 87 miles in about 3:30, and this is the longest distance I've ridden so far this year.
I see Fred, Ben who are done with their races. Fred crashed at the end, this always sucks but at least he's not in the ambulance... I also see Ilya getting ready for his race, and I'm thinking he's going to like the heat. My feet are burning, and when a teammate hands me a Guinness it's the best thing ever.
Thanks for reading.
