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09-07-03, 04:41 PM
Yesterday was the Gore Pass Road Race...43-miles and 4200 feet of climbing...and let me tell you - it was TOUGH! The ride up their in the car was through nothing but rain. All I could think was "great...i'm gonna be wet all day". About and hour before the race started the rain let up and we were told that the other side of Gore Pass was dry and sunny. Cool! I decided to wear my arm and knee warmers anyway because there was still a chill in the air. I'm glad I did.
About half way up the pass the peloton fell apart. I don't know how many were in front of me or behind me, but I found myself in the middle (again). Being a middle-of-the-pack rider sucks! I always find myself in "no man's land" and working twice as hard to catch a group in front. Not fast enough to keep with the lead group, yet not slow enough to hang back. Actually, it's more frustrating than anything else. I did catch a few guys, though.
Over the pass, down through the valley, and up another steady climb, a buddy (another racer I met during the Estes Cycling Challenge) and I road together for a while. We hit the "turn around" area and started the trek back up. All was fine until the wind shifted and the rain began to pour. And man, was it cold! I swear my right foot began to freeze and it literally felt as if the "frozenness" was working its way up my right leg. My buddy ended up taking off a bit on the hill and I just wasn't able to keep up at that moment.
Back through the valley I began to get my mojo going again and let up a bit to let a guy behind catch up. He had said he'd been chasing me for 10 miles and said the back of the CAT4 guys was a long way back. We worked the last few miles together, mainly *****in' about how it sucks to be middle-of-the-pack guys ;-).
With about 2 miles ago we started the STEEP ascent up the other side of the pass. I would say the climb was about 6% grade and the rain just kept falling. Cold and wet i started to spin faster and we passed a few more CAT4 guys on the way up to the finish at the top of the pass. At about 200m to go the guy with me began to move ahead. I would say he was about 20 meters ahead. He kept looking back to see where I was. At about 50 meters to go he quit looking so i big-ring'd it and took off for the line. About 5 yards before the line I blew by and all I heard was "ooooohhhhh daaaaaaammmmmmn!". I got him at the line and we got a good laugh, as he was telling me he learned a valuable lesson - don't discount the guy behind you because he just might catch ya at the line :-) He was a good sport and congratulated me on my race, as I did with him. I swallowed a Power Bar Gel and began the 12-mile ride back to the car - through more rain and COLD wind.
I finished 25th out of 64 starters, which is my best performace this season! I'm pretty stoked! It was a very challenging race and quite epic! I thought I did pretty well and did the 4200ft/43-mile course in 2:21...just a tad under 19 mph...I was going for a 20mph/avg., but I guess I'll have to work on that next year!
About half way up the pass the peloton fell apart. I don't know how many were in front of me or behind me, but I found myself in the middle (again). Being a middle-of-the-pack rider sucks! I always find myself in "no man's land" and working twice as hard to catch a group in front. Not fast enough to keep with the lead group, yet not slow enough to hang back. Actually, it's more frustrating than anything else. I did catch a few guys, though.
Over the pass, down through the valley, and up another steady climb, a buddy (another racer I met during the Estes Cycling Challenge) and I road together for a while. We hit the "turn around" area and started the trek back up. All was fine until the wind shifted and the rain began to pour. And man, was it cold! I swear my right foot began to freeze and it literally felt as if the "frozenness" was working its way up my right leg. My buddy ended up taking off a bit on the hill and I just wasn't able to keep up at that moment.
Back through the valley I began to get my mojo going again and let up a bit to let a guy behind catch up. He had said he'd been chasing me for 10 miles and said the back of the CAT4 guys was a long way back. We worked the last few miles together, mainly *****in' about how it sucks to be middle-of-the-pack guys ;-).
With about 2 miles ago we started the STEEP ascent up the other side of the pass. I would say the climb was about 6% grade and the rain just kept falling. Cold and wet i started to spin faster and we passed a few more CAT4 guys on the way up to the finish at the top of the pass. At about 200m to go the guy with me began to move ahead. I would say he was about 20 meters ahead. He kept looking back to see where I was. At about 50 meters to go he quit looking so i big-ring'd it and took off for the line. About 5 yards before the line I blew by and all I heard was "ooooohhhhh daaaaaaammmmmmn!". I got him at the line and we got a good laugh, as he was telling me he learned a valuable lesson - don't discount the guy behind you because he just might catch ya at the line :-) He was a good sport and congratulated me on my race, as I did with him. I swallowed a Power Bar Gel and began the 12-mile ride back to the car - through more rain and COLD wind.
I finished 25th out of 64 starters, which is my best performace this season! I'm pretty stoked! It was a very challenging race and quite epic! I thought I did pretty well and did the 4200ft/43-mile course in 2:21...just a tad under 19 mph...I was going for a 20mph/avg., but I guess I'll have to work on that next year!