First off I've now got an SRM Powermeter installed and working quite well on my Specialized. Rather than analyze every little detail of my bike riding, I'm using it more to get accurate information during intervals. Though I have been keeping the SRM on during races and checking out the data for fun, I'm still grasping it's understanding and trying to see how that relates to my training, if at all.
I have just about completely gotten over my sickness, but I still have a bit of a cough left. It flares up during and post hard efforts, but it is manageable, and I feel fine otherwise.
Two weeks ago we had the second Banana Belt series race. 66 miles, or 6 laps around Henry Hagg Lake, just northwest of Salem. The weather was truly awful, and we raced at 9am, so it wasn't what you'd call warm. I wore a vest for some added protection as I got properly hosed by wheel spray. There was so much dirt and water that I had grit in just about every orifice and crack in my body...I'll just leave it at that.
The race got off to a decent start, and a break stuck about two laps in. Not having any teammates I chose to sit in and bide my time till the group sprint. The break steadily built their lead to about 3 mins max. About two laps to go the field split, and the riders who actually wanted to race went up the road, about 8 total. I sat in waiting to see what people would do, and started to get cold from the drop in pace. I decided to ride tempo and see where I got, also trying to get warm. I ended up making up some ground on the split, and eventually bridged up to them, not really intending too. Once I made the chase I chose to sit in as my best chance at anything is in the sprint. Since I had just gotten over being sick, every time someone looked back I hacked a couple times, hoping they'd get the impression that I couldn't work.
Eventually people started to voice their concern with my lack of work. I ignored most and continued to sit in. One racer had such wild hand gesticulations that the ref car pulled up and made sure everything was okay. I told the ref that the racer was upset I wasn't working, and the ref responded "doesn't he know it's a race?" This gave me a slightly rewarding feeling seeing as how I couldn't feel my hands, face, or feet. The chase worked very well together and we caught all but two members of the break. With the break having about 90 seconds on us coming into the last half of the last lap, we knew we were now racing for 3rd. I continued to be patient and waited till 1k to go. Most of the chase was pretty trashed, but I still had my sprint. Riding into the last km the bunch was fairly together. The road opened at 200m to go, so I stayed near the yellow line and launched into the left lane at 200m, and easily won the field sprint.
Though the win would have been nice, I was in no condition to go with a break, so best of the rest is just fine with me.
Unfortunately since I had a vest on, my numbers were covered up. I didn't get scored and didn't get any points for the Banana Belt series, or for the Oregon Cup (a selection of OR races with an overall victor). Despite emailing the race official a photo of me winning the field sprint, apparently that just wasn't enough. I'm still hoping to get my due points and credit, but at least I know the form is there. Here's a shot of the sprint.
Training last week went well, did some intervals on Wednesday, always love the intervals. This past weekend my Alma mater Willamette University hosted its now 2nd annual Capital Cup Criterium. The relatively young team did a fantastic job with the race. The race is broken down into collegiate categories in the morning, and OBRA categories in the afternoon. Due to the size of the collegiate racing, they aren't able to offer a full OBRA category list, however, all of the main categories are represented, save for the masters fields.
I was able to announce and dj the race which made my day, and in the afternoon, actually have a race with a teammate. Graham Howard, who is coming to Belgium with me, and I did the 1/2 race which started at 5:30pm. The start was a bit later than anticipated, but many Salem bikers were able to attend having gotten off work at 5pm or so. The crit was around the Capital building and was a fairly simple 4 corner rectangle with long finishing and back straights. The only downside other than wet pavement were the questionable corners due to both manhole covers and bad pavement. The inability to really dive into the corners kept the field together for the most part, as did eager racers not wanting to let their "buddies" go up the road without them. The race kept a fairly high pace with the entire field stringing out with every attack, but surprisingly stayed together as a blob for the final sprint. Graham and I have trained together quite a bit, but this is our first race together. Since he has professional experience, he has much more race knowledge than I do. He decided he would try and mess up any sort of organized leadoutleadout, and I got trapped at the back, middle, part of the group coming out of the last corner. Since the finishing straight was so long, I was able to come from the back of the pack, around everyone sprinting for minor placings, and nab 4th. Being a home turf race, and my first with Graham, we both wanted the win badly, but it wasn't in the cards. Fortunately neither of us hit the pavement and had no mechanical issues. Here's a few shots from the race.
This weekend we have two races, Saturday is Piece of Cake, and Sunday is Banana Belt 3, the last of the series. I'll have a post tomorrow after POC.
Thanks for reading!
