Race Report: Madera

The short explanation of how my first stage race went is this: with 5 miles to go in the last stage, the road race, after the crit and the time trial, I flatted. And there was really nothing I could do about it. And it's not like I was in 2nd GC or anything.

Long explanation:
The crit was Saturday morning and it was my first crit ever. I was very nervous. I was made more nervous by the fact that 10 minutes before the start my back tire went flat. I'm not a good tire changer, it takes me a fucking while, so I was like uhhhh...then when I went to change it I realized I didn't have a tire iron. And I'm a moron, I can't change a tire without one. So I stop some random guy and ask him. (This was a theme for the weekend.) It turns out he works at a bike store and he just takes my bike from me and fixes it. So that was good.

The crit itself was uneventful. We had to time trial in the afternoon, so no one wanted to go hard. And I never thought about it, but all those times I bitched about road racing and the whole go fast, go slow, go fast, go slow bullshit, a crit is so much better. It was just one relatively fast speed the whole time. And, it turns out, I'm not bad at cornering or positioning.

I accidentally contested a prime. I was about to get boxed in going into a turn and I was picking up speed already, so I just kinda went and passed all these people and all of a sudden I was in front and stringing out the group without really meaning to and then the next lap was a prime lap, so I just got into 3rd wheel as a couple girls passed me and I was set up so perfectly for the sprint. But I'm not s great sprinter and I tried to be patient, but i went too early and get outleaned by a girl coming up the left. After that I was tired and I didn't contest the sprint finish, just finished about 10th in the pack.

The time trial was in the afternoon in the sun in Madera. It was mid-90s and it was hot! Really awful hot. And being so white, I deal really well with heat. I definitely don't turn bright red or get dizzy or anything.

It went ok. It was like 10.47 miles and I did it in 28:16 (by the official time). The first half was really good and then miles 5 to 8 I felt like I blew up a little. I definitely thought I was going to start throwing up b/c I was so hot and/or fall off my bike. And I felt like my power on my computer was fluctuating alot. I couldn't seem to get it to stay at 200W. Which didn't make any sense, because I totally know I can hold 200 for a half hour. The last 2 miles, I just kinda picked it back up, looked at the girl in front of me and balls out to the finish. It was good enough for 2nd, back by 5 seconds, ahead of 3rd by 5 seconds.

Looking at my data later I realized I didn't die as much as I thought I did. I held 190W for the 28 minutes. AND, AND I found out (I geuss I should have known) that in very aero positions it's harder to hold higher power! And I feel like I just had an epiphany.

Saturday evening I wanted to get the data off my Powertap, so it didn't start deleting, but I had forgotten my cradle/USB port, so I wandered the hotel asking people if they had a powertap. Then I needed to get my aerobars back off, but I didn't have a tool and I couldn't find Steve's tool, so I knocked on some random guy's door and borrowed his tools. Then Steve needed to change his brake pads and casette (because he had flatted one wheel and knocked the other out of true during his crit -- keep count of how many wheels we messed up). So I knock on some other random guy's door and ask to borrow a wrench and an allen key. But, it turns out, both Steve and I were so out of it we couldn't figure out how to get the casette off, so then I had to go back to the guy and ask him to help me get it off. Yes, it was sad.

Going into the RR I was 2nd in GC. 1st was 5 seconds ahead, 3rd was 5 seconds back, 4th and 5th were 6 seconds back. Basically I needed to be in top 3 and get time bonus in order to win and if I finished in the pack I would probably stay 2nd or 3rd. It was a wierd RR. It started at 11:30 for me, after standing around in the sun waiting for half an hour, and with the blinding sun and the heat, it just made you feel kind of dizzy and out of it, like you might just swerve your bike into someone.

The first 2 laps were slow, really really slow. On the second half of the lap there's a few miles of really bad pavement and it's rough and then the last 2 miles before the finish is 4 or 5 rolling, relatively short hills. There was some feeling out other people in those spots, but nothing hard. Then the last lap was when people started making half-hearted efforts to breakaway. They'd put out like a decent effort for 30 seconds and then everyone would speed up to catch them and they'd give up. It was kinda sad.

But as we turned onto the bad pavement I was having a hard time making some of those accelerations, and my bike was feeling wierd. I look down about halfway through the rough section and yes, there's a flat tire on my front wheel.

I was so angry. I was about to cry. I was swearing at cows. I had quite a bit of a walk back to where there might be an official or a car, and I couldn't fix the flat because it was a tubular, so I had a while to yell about it.

With 5 miles to go to the finish, I was just so excited about finishing the race good. And I knew I'd be able to at least make an effort at contesting the uphill sprint finish. I wanted my fucking t-shirt.

Also, it turns out if you have a mechanical in the last 3k you get the pack time. SO that was even more annoying.

And Steve didn't finish. He gave his wheel to a teammate who flatted and then the teammate flatted Steve's wheel.

So that's a lot of flat wheels and alot of them were tubulars. The ratio of money spent to results achieved is not good.