Merco Foothills Road Race

Race: Merco Credit Union Foothills Road Race
Date: 03/02/08
CAT: 2 only
Field size: ~120
Teammates: Aaron, Peter, Mark, Paul

The course: Four laps of a 24-mile loop of mostly flat terrain with a few rollers. There was 600 ft of climbing per lap. The finish had a short, steep kicker followed by a 500-meter downhill sprint.

The Plan: Aaron and I were the protected guys so we were supposed to do as little as work as possible to save the legs for the finish. Peter was to follow or get into breaks and Mark and Paul were there to chase anything serious if we weren’t represented.

The Conditions: Mildy windy and cool. It was actually pretty cold at the start line and I was shivering, but once we got going I warmed up to a comfortable level.

The Race: The pace was fast, but with 120 guys in the race it wasn’t hard. Staying out of the wind was paramount. The toughest thing at first was avoiding the bad pot holes. The roads were mostly smooth, but every once in a while there was a bad pot hole that caused many people to flat. It was also very surgy so there were tons of accelerations.

Lap1 (56:08): Not a lot happened on this lap as guys were trying to get a feel for the field and to get completely warmed up. There were a few guys that flatted because of the bad pot holes, but otherwise it was a fairly uneventful lap.

Lap2 (54:12): Several break attempts started, but it looked like nothing was going to get away. Aaron, Peter, and myself all took turns near the front watching out for stuff. Aaron and I both agreed that nothing was likely to get away and the wind wasn’t that bad.

Lap3 (54:17): At one point during the third lap I saw Peter in 3^rd wheel patrolling the front. About 5 mins later a group of 8 (maybe 9) roll off the front and I was pretty sure Peter was in it. No BPG, no Metromint, and no McGuire. Those were the 3 biggest teams in the race. Unfortunately, 5 mins later Peter rolls up to me and asks if the break is serious or not. Damn, I thought he was in it (we need to be more distinguished), but I told him that none of the big teams were in so it would probably come back. JD from BPG said that he wasn’t worried and that it was coming back. Aaron missed the break because he got ran off the road by some yahoo but was able to reattach himself and come back with a little extra anger.

Towards the end of lap 3 Peter and Mark start slaying themselves with huge pulls trying to bring the break back. Mark works so hard that he eventually had to sit up and take an extra breather consequently making the last lap a solo affair for him. Way to stick it out.

Lap4 (53:22): Peter is still taking huge pulls at the front as is Minty and McGuire, but they are completely unorganized and half the guys are attacking rather than chasing. People were riding like complete buffoons. I even took a couple pulls figuring we could use all the help we could get to bring it back. BPG was a mess, with only one of their guys really working. And the worst part was we could see the break getting closer and closer… Aaron and I talked about who should lead out who for the finale and we decided to make it a game time decision for whatever way it lined up at the end.

Then, with about 5K to go he’s taking massive pulls at the front so I figured it was my duty to go for the sprint. We didn’t catch the break, so the sprint was for 9^th place. The last 1K was insanely sketchy. A rider fighting for 3^rd wheel leading into the hill crashed and I barely missed him, but he took a big chunk of riders including Aaron, who amazing maneuvered his way to the grass before crashing.

Even though it wasn’t for the win I still wanted the field sprint. For some reason I always overestimate how fresh people are after 95 miles as my legs felt great. I crested the kicker in 5^th wheel and everyone hesitated, then someone jumped. I was on the Rock Racing guy’s wheel and he completely blew gapping off the first two guys. I jumped around him and held everyone else off for 3^rd in the field sprint, but I couldn’t catch the first two guys, which was a total bummer because that meant that I finished 11^th, one spot out of the money. Looking back on it now I should have just gone from the bottom of the hill, but hindsight is always easier than foresight.

Results: 11th

Thoughts: Again the team totally kicked butt. We slayed ourselves trying to bring the break back and had I not botched the sprint we would have ended up with a top 10. If they break had come back we would have had a great shot at a victory, but unfortunately the 2’s, aside from us, don’t really know team work or organization.

One more note: Peter went down in the crit the previous day (but still finished) and broke his derailleur hanger so his bike was toast. Fortunately his fiancée Cody offered up her bike for him to ride. AND, on top of that worked the feed zone for us for 3.5 hours providing a perfect feed. She gets my vote for teammate of the week.