Note: I started this blog about Union City last week (March 16-17), but I’ve been crazy busy all week and haven’t been able to post it until now.
Day 1 – Shannon Mall Circuit Race
I’m still trying to parse what just happened in today’s circuit race, but however the outcome we had a great showing in our first Friends of the Great Smokies team race. Jeff McGrane got things started by rolling off the front solo on the first lap. He got a huge gap forcing others to chase. A lap later he was back in the field, but my teammate Kurt Page covered the next move. This move came back too, and Jeff got into another break – this one stuck. A few laps later, John Hart covered a move from Igor to make his way into the break, too. A few laps after that, I saw Shawn Gravois (Uniteed Healthcare) gearing up to attack so I hopped on his wheel and we quickly got a gap.
I got confused though, thinking that we only had one rider up the road with several Hincapie and Lupus riders. So I worked with Shawn and the two of us started closing the gap. Andy ? from Lupus was along for the free ride with several teammates up the road. Had I known we had two riders up ahead, I probably wouldn’t have worked quite as hard. Although, honestly, Shawn was doing a bulk of the work and I was struggling just to give him a break. Eventually we picked up another of Andy’s teammates who was coming back from the lead break. After a few more laps, they started help us chasing. Then as we got really close, I realized that I actually had two teammates in the break (Jeff and John) so I stopped working — although again, I was already pretty cooked from just holding Shawn’s wheel.
Half a lap later, we caught the lead group … except Joey Rosskopf and Ty Magner had already taken off from that group. There wasn’t much respite in the lead group b/c attacks started pretty quickly. I worked hard just to hold on. What I didn’t know is that we were actually starting our last lap. So when people started attacking coming up the last hill, I was thinking there was no way to hold that pace for however many more laps we had. I drifted backwards just as Joey and the field that he had lapped caught us (I didn’t even know they were closing in on us!!!) and ended up finishing towards the back of the group. My first thought was “thank God it’s over” instead of “oh crap, that was the finish”. Quite a confusing race, but I got the whole thing on video so I may watch it later to try to figure out what all happened in a less oxygen-deprived state (my average heartrate for the hour race was 181bpm, and my average power was 284 with a normative power probably in the 300s)
Day 2 – Union City Road Race
This race turned out really great as a team training race, despite some misfortune. My teammate Jeff again rode aggressively initiating an attack early and then covering another move. When that move came back, a counter attack went that got some daylight (maybe 20-30 seconds)? Lupus was represented well, but there were some teams missing. I happened to be on Ty Magner’s wheel right as he attacked to bridge across. I could barely hold his wheel and only ended up pulling through one time right as we were joined by another rider. The three of us worked together for another 15 seconds before a few more riders bridged across including Ty’s Hincapie Devo teammate Joey Rosskopf. At this point, we had great team representation in the chase and a good, growing gap. But unfortunately with everyone at their limit trying to reach the break, we missed a turn (no corner marshall, small sign off to the left). It took more than a mile before anyone from the race could track us down and tell us we were off course.
So instead of joining the lead group, I found myself in a chase group about 3 minutes behind the main field. We didn’t give up hope, though, and got into a good hard rotation to settle in for a long chase. 22 miles of chasing (and caravan drafting) later, I found myself back in the main field as it was bearing down on a split that was chasing the main break. Jeff was in the split so I got a chance to recover. Ty was driving the chase from the main field, and after we caught the split I initiated an attack that didn’t really get anywhere. There were a bunch more attacks on the last lap that led to temporary group splits, but with the field always coming back together. My teammate Kurt Page put in a move late in the last lap that got some daylight, but the rider he bridged up to didn’t want to work so they came back to the field. Shortly after that, my teammate John Hart attacked hard and got away solo. At that point he switched into time trial mode and held it all the way to the finish to take 10th (with a nine-man break already minutes up the road). With John off the front, me, Jeff, and Kurt rode the front of the field covering moves. Ty managed to slip away with about 2 miles to go with such an effective attack that there was no “covering” it. The field strung out setting up for the field sprint. About half a mile later (1.5 miles to go), Michael Stone attacked in an effort to bridge to Ty. I stayed 2nd wheel as a Lupus rider drove the field for the field sprint. He lasted until about 1000 meters to go. When he sat up before a series of turns, I decided it was now or never and attacked hard. I quickly caught and passed Mike and drove it to the finish to try to take 12th. Unfortunately, Andy from Lupus had my wheel and he was able to come around for 12th with me holding on for 13th.
All-in-all it was a great race as a team with what could have been John making a winning move had a break not already been up the road … a break that I would have been in if our chase attempt hadn’t been led off course. Once we had merged with the break, either the break would have failed or it would have worked. If it had failed, then the scenario that played out in the field could have been the end game for the win. If it had worked, then it would have been up to me to try for the win. Either way, I feel like, we gelled well as a team in our first team race with everybody working hard and racing smart. Looking forward to the rest of the season!
Heartrate/power data for both days
Union City Road Race - Pro/1/2 - 13th
Dist: 74.40 mi (2:53:43)
Cals Burn: 2416.2 kcal
Braking: -6.2 kJ (-0.2%)
Min Avg Max
DFPM Pow 0 242.5 1037 W
Speed 0.1 25.7 45.3 mi/h
Elev 33 205 343 ft
Slope -10.6 -0.01 10.5 %
Caden 0 81.5 113 rpm
HR 107 155.6 186 bpm
NP:287W IF:0.97 TSS:273 VI:0.95
168 lbs; 3/17/2013 8:53 AM EDT
58 degF; 991 mbar
Criterium – heartrate summary – check out the zone 5 time!
Criterium – heartrate and power plot annotated (click to enlarge)
Road race – heartrate zone summary
Road race – heartrate and power plot annotated (click to enlarge)
Team photo (left to right) – Kurt Page, John Hart, Jeff McGrane, Brian Toone
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