Birchwood RR report
From: David Schueller
Date: Aug 11, 2007 9:17 PM
First off, I’ve got to note that this was an awesome course — big
hill, lots of rollers, flat windy stretches, a woodsy windy section
and an S curve under a tunnel.
So we started out the Cat 4/5 race fairly slow as to be expected, for
a three lap total. First time up the hill a Flanders set a good tempo
and split the pack up, with 15 or so at the top.
A few miles later, a visitor from Colorado attacked, and the pack
eventually lined it up and caught him.
Basically everybody was not wanting to get in the wind or pull, to the
extreme, which made for a pretty slow pace for the first lap or so.
After a lap and a half, everybody was single file on the yellow line
because of the crosswind. At that point I’d had enough, and went to
the front and pushed the pace, to see if and how much of a gap might
happen. Not long and I had a gap, but I wasn’t seriously thinking
about staying away for the rest of the race.
But then we got to the woodsy part, where it was easy to get out of
sight. I thought, hey, there are only about three people doing work
back there, and I’d seen they were kind of feeling it on some of the
rollers, so I’ll make them catch me and be no worse for it if they do.
So I put the hammer down and tried to keep it up until the hill.
The second time up the hill I didn’t look back until the top. I had
about 20 seconds. So even though I thought I was going to get caught,
I put the hurt on there knowing they’d probably spent a lot up the
hill. That worked to get more of a gap.
Then about a mile after the hill, the Birchwood Guy (forgot his last
name, but that’s his first) who’d been marked from the beginning
caught me after bridging up. I knew he was a good time trialer, so we
had a chance.
We took turns, and did end up staying away until the finish; for me
about 20 miles on a break. The official on the motorcycle kept giving
us time updates and the gap kept growing, no small thanks to the
blocking work of Rich.
On the last lap, I started cramping up, but I tried to hide that from
him, and managed to stretch my calves a couple times while he was
pulling. Took two salt pills with about 8 miles to go.
So at the finish, we knew we’d made it, and I was on his wheel getting
ready to sprint. I waited as long as possible, because I knew once I
started any kind of sprint there was a good chance I’d cramp up
immediately.
We passed the 500 meter sign, then 300. I started sprinting with maybe
a hundred to go, and sure enough both of my calves cramped up so much
my shoes were pointing at like a 45 degree angle downward. So I’m
like, can I ride like this?? And I’m like, well, it’s the finish, I
better, so I pushed my legs down which felt really awkward with my
toes pointed, and slowly gained on him, but he tried to sprint too,
and we threw our bikes and he got me by maybe a foot.
It was some seriously great racing. After, Guy said he was thinking
about switching to the Wheelmen because he lives near Roseville — so
yeah, that’d be awesome if somebody put in the good word.
When chasers came by after the finish, they kept talking about how
Rich was doing some seriously great blocking back in the field, and
that I had a teammate to thank back the road. So no doubt I owe the
result to some great teamwork.
So this was a fun, fun race, and thanks to the officials and
organizers for putting it on.