"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Race Report

Just my second road race, first one being the previous Sunday where I finished 4th.

This past Sunday was the Sheehan RR in Leavenworth KS, 53 miles of rolling hills with an 8/10 mile uphill finish. Our Cat 5 team had 6 racers that day so we got to the front early. A few of us whittled the pack down to about 15 riders 10 miles in, and we had 4 of those. A surge took the pack to 12 with my team still left with 4 riders. At 20 miles in our strongest rider rode off the front and did a 30+ mile TT for the win by over 10 minutes.

This left a group of 8 to chase, and I had one other teammate with me. We basically rode 2nd and 3rd wheel in the chase group for the remainder of the race. There was absolutely no organized chase so I didn't have to chase very many guys down. At this point the race was for 2nd. An attack was attempted with 7 mi to go, but we chased it down and waited for the final hill. Weighing 205 lbs and easily having 30 lbs on the next heaviest rider I knew the hill wouldn't favor me, but I didn't have the legs to try to attack, so I just cruised to a decent top 10 finish.

I was hoping an attack might go in the last 10 miles but I couldn't start it with my teammate up the road. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered. It was actually a fairly easy, big ring day for me since we only had to work hard the first 1/3 of the race. I figure shedding 10-15 lbs would be helpful in the near future.

Sounds like you and your team are in great shape both figuratively and literally.

--Steve

well done! seems like you pretty much know where your limits are for now, look forward to read more of your progress as the season goes!

Pretty rare to actually have an organized team effort in Cat 5.

Yeah, agreed. I was pleasantly surprised that we had a concerted effort, but we have quite a bit of talent. All 6 of us finished in the top 13 and 4 of the top 10.

As for me, I figure it will be difficult for me to get under 190 lbs without losing a lot of muscle. I played rugby and have lifted weights for years and it seems that's the type of body I'm stuck with. So, significant uphill finishes are tough unless I go for a solo break.

I decided to just add yesterday's race report to my thead instead of starting a new one because, well, it's just not interesting enough to warrant a new thread.

Yesterday was the second road race in a two race series. The course is 5x around a 5 mile course (25miles for the mathematically challenged). It is mostly flat or downhill with a few rollers until reaching the base of a 2/3 mile hill, average 7% climb. In the first race my teammate finished 2nd, so we wanted him to finish 1st with the 1st place guy from the first race finishing 3rd or below. My team had 7 racers and the team of the rider we were trying to beat had 5. They took control from the beginning putting all 5 of their guys on the front. I marked their top man, but couldn't really penetrate their line, so I decided to mix things up by breaking off the front. I stayed about 200m off the front for about 2 miles before sitting up for a drink and letting them catch me. The other team was sufficiently broken off the front as some others came to work, so I just sat back in.

The hill proved to be the selection for the race as after the first time up it the pack was reduced to around 15, my team had 4 guys left and the other team had 2 left. The third time up the hill I popped off the back by about 300 meters and then spent the next mile catching back on the back of the pack. On the 4th time up the hill I thought that would be it for me, so I wished my teammate luck winning, but then proceeded to lead the pack up the hill. At 207 lbs (after the race) it probably literally looked like I was pulling the little skinny guys up.

On the final climb I lead my teammate onto the base where he took off with about 4 others. I tried to stay with them, but to no avail. He won, the other guy took third, and I finished a bit back, somewhere in the top 15. My teammate has won 12 of his 13 races so far this year, so I imagine he won't be racing Cat 5 much longer, then maybe I'll have other things to race for. And by then, I'll be doing more crits, which are more my strength.

If he's won 12 of his 13 races this year... why is he racing Cat 5? Good races though!

^
Because his first race ever was 3 weeks ago.

wow, 13 races in 3 weeks! I want to race in your neck of the woods. One per week is all I get.

If you're leading the small guys up the hills, you are really gonna be ready for the crits! Good luck to you and thanks for the reports.

In fairness, 8 of those were crits that we've doubled up on and two are short TTs. And thanks for the comments