Memorial Day today
Kinda puts bike racing in perspective – so many people have given their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have here in America. Thank you all present, past, and future soldiers!
Quick summary
Yesterday, I ended up 9th in the road race after having finished 15th in the criterium on Saturday in a really strong pro/1/2 field. Would have liked to finish a few spots higher, but it was still a great start to the inaugural SRS series, with five races in five southeastern states spread out over five months. In the criterium, I missed the six-man move and ended up ninth in the field sprint to take 15th in the race. Then in the road race, I was aggressive to get KOM points managing two third place finishes in the sprints to get some early points in that competition. I fought hard to stay towards the front and ended up 9th in the race fading at the end having started my sprint too early.
Finish videos
The detailed adventure
The last time I raced in Albany was 2009, and I knew I wanted to bring my family back down with me some day. This year it was just me and my wife making the trip, but next year I definitely want to bring the kids with us to experience the River Walk, Riverquarium, and other fun stuff to do right there on the crit course. Even the drive down was awesome – I65 to Montgomery to AL-110 to US82 – awesome rural roads with long distances between the towns so you can make some pretty good time while enjoying scenic rural southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia.
Roadside market on the scenic rural drive between Birmingham and Alabama
We drove down Saturday morning with the relatively short drive (4 hours) putting us into Albany well in advance of the criterium. I spent a good two hours rolling around easy underneath the huge oak trees draped with Spanish moss getting my legs ready for the intense 75 minutes of racing. This was my first hot race of the year as we’ve had quite the extended cold, rainy snap hanging around the southeast for the early part of the season. This race was HOT, and as I was sitting on the start line excited to race the strong, large field I my heartrate was hovering around 120!
I started out towards the back and raced somewhat conservatively trying to stay towards the front but not trying to get in every move. There were a number of good looking breaks, but fortunately the field came back together. The break of six that eventually formed got away about midway through the race. Then about 10 minutes later, a large chase group formed that I also missed. I attacked a couple times to try to bridge across or at least get a chase going, but each attack got brought back and the overall pace in the field was high enough that we caught the chase group and made it to within about 10 seconds of the front group. But then towards the end (see the video of the last eight laps below), we had some slow-downs in the field and the break’s lead went out again to about 20 seconds by the end. Shawn Gravois took a flyer from the lead group with three to go, got caught, and then went again with two to go holding it to the end for the win. Andy Crater won the sprint behind for 2nd followed by Oleg Tanovitchi taking third. I fought hard to stay towards the front, but ended up sliding a bit too far back and spending a bit too much time out in the wind so I could only manage 9th in the field sprint, 15th for the race.
For the Sunday road race, I had planned on attacking literally from the gun but before I could even attack Finishstrong had already set itself up at the front. I figured they were trying to setup Crater for the KOM but as it turns out they were trying to set up a different rider for the KOM. Still I followed their train to a third place finish on the first two KOM sprints. Finishstrong controlled everything in the race for the first two laps as they brought back attack after attack. I stayed very close to the front to go for the KOM sprints and also to make sure they didn’t try to slip anyone into a break. On the third lap, Brendan Sullivan (Lupus Cycling) got into a strong three-man move that swallowed up the KOM points. Shortly after the KOM, we caught the group of three and started setting up for the finish.
I had slid farther back than I wanted to, but then there was a crash in the middle of the field that unfortunately took out Michael McBrien (Bikes plus racing). In the crash chaos, I ended up sliding up a few spots and then continued to move up for the next several miles until we made the left turn with 2.5 miles to the finish. I was able to ride all the way up to back of the High Country Devo team sitting right behind their sprinter. They had a great train going, but it wasn’t quite fast enough to stem the surge from the field that sent me maybe 15-20 riders back from the front. When the big surge went up the lefthand side of the road, I swung out even farther to the left and was able to start my sprint with a clear line to the finish. It was at this exact moment when I went left that there was a bad crash on the right taking down Birmingham rider Payne Griffin. I was thankful not to go down, but I had started my sprint too early and even with a clean shot at the line I faded back to 9th by the finish. You can see the crash and the last 2.5 miles of the race in the two videos below:
Not quite the results I was looking for, but I was very happy to race against some of the strongest riders in the southeast and am very excited for the rest of the series! Here’s all my data from the races …
Albany criterium – annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge)
Criterium heartrate zone summary – note the high average speed
SRS - albany criterium Pro/1/2 - 15th place Lap Time AvgPow MaxPow HR RPM MPH 1 1:38 295 871 151 86 24.9 2 1:26 221 752 164 82 28.6 3 1:24 301 833 163 90 28.9 4 1:24 224 884 168 83 29.2 5 1:27 234 768 168 83 28.2 6 1:24 260 848 165 85 29.5 7 1:26 187 694 164 82 28.5 8 1:30 223 790 159 83 28 9 1:25 248 583 166 85 28.7 10 1:22 264 762 167 80 29.5 11 1:27 238 770 165 82 28.9 12 1:27 255 579 163 88 28.4 13 1:28 246 608 165 82 28.8 14 1:27 252 822 164 81 28.6 15 1:29 225 629 163 86 27.8 16 1:26 270 700 164 85 29.1 17 1:22 294 704 173 85 30.5 18 1:28 324 1084 176 83 28.9 19 1:27 233 546 173 83 28.5 20 1:30 272 616 166 83 28.2 21 1:25 352 927 175 81 29.7 22 1:27 255 786 182 79 28.8 23 1:30 245 858 167 81 28.4 24 1:26 410 879 183 81 29.5 25 1:24 230 731 182 80 29.5 26 1:28 272 949 172 79 28.6 27 1:29 274 834 172 79 27.8 28 1:23 336 877 179 81 29.3 29 1:28 312 996 184 84 28.1 30 1:29 264 597 185 81 27.6 31 1:32 204 636 172 78 26.7 32 1:27 246 745 171 79 28.1 33 1:27 253 863 169 81 28.3 34 1:25 266 691 179 80 28.9 35 1:21 282 867 180 77 29.5 36 1:27 233 593 177 74 27.6 37 1:31 292 1044 170 76 26.9 38 1:27 301 985 179 79 27.7 39 1:32 258 610 179 84 26.8 40 1:31 228 728 170 77 27.1 41 1:26 227 739 173 77 28.7 42 1:24 319 689 174 83 29.4 43 1:30 285 833 176 81 27.5 44 1:31 282 817 179 75 27.4 45 1:27 286 749 180 78 28.3 46 1:26 225 573 179 79 28.2 47 1:29 303 707 173 81 27.8 48 1:30 303 756 181 82 27.4 49 1:27 310 872 183 82 28.1 50 1:26 302 886 183 84 28 51 1:18 409 1016 192 82 30.5
Leesburg road race – annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge)
Road race heartrate zone summary – note the amount of time spent in Zones 2 and 3
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