Mr Smith tames Piece of Cake

After pre-riding the course the week before the race with the Wombat and Erin (that girl needs a nickname), plans were made in the Men's Cat 4 field. Plans about when to break away, how to run the gravel, how to use the wind to our advantage, who should block, who should attack, etc, etc. These plans were discussed at length all week.

Many of these plans went right down the crapper about 1 mile into the race when Little Blond Ironclad rider decides to pick up the pace on the first hill. You know, the one you can see from the start. He makes a few of the younger guys antsy and they start head up the road a bit. At the start of the gravel, they let it rip. A kid with a white River City jersey and gigantic holes in his ear lobes, we'll call him Tiny vegan boy, takes off with some other guy on his wheel. The pace cranks up and I am seriously regretting not warming up. Ian is ahead of me and the rest of the HV boys are somewhere behind me. By the time we get to the 2nd turn in the gravel section I am fighting to stay on the wheel in front of me, having already fallen off of it 3 or 4 times and beating my cold, slow un-warmed up muscles to hang on. I remember thinking, "It's like a crit, hold on for the first few minutes and it will settle down." Two poor bastards that were in front of me have already flatted. I get a quick glance over my shoulder at the turn and realize I am dangling off the front group that is strung way out and there is no one behind me for hundres of yards. I think, if I lose this wheel, my race is over. (I am going to chalk up this big gap to some blocking on the part of my HV team mates as Ian and I were in the lead group. That was one of the plans we discussed).

Coming into the 3rd turn in the gravel (the left turn after the loosesest section) the Cyclisme guy who's wheel I am chasing takes it wide and almost ends up in the ditch. Little Blond Ironclad boy did something wrong and he is sort of standing off to the side (flat? hair out of place?). I cut inside Cyclism and try to close the gap to the next wheel but can't quite pull it off. Cyclisme gets it back together and we trade pulls for the next couple miles trying to close the 50ft gap in front of us. I know there is a huge gaping nothing behind me and I would REALLY like to be in a group before we turn into the crosswind. As we near the bridge before the small uphill, Ian starts to dangle off the group and look back at me, like "Do you need a little help back there?" I yell at him to get his ass back on the group and not to worry about me. I figure at the rate I am going, I am going be cashed and I want someone on the team at the front.

Knowing how poorly I climb (and you guys who did the race know this is about a 30ft climb...sad I know) and how I feel, I know I am not going to close the gap on the front group. So I sit up and spin as well as I can up the short incline and hope the pace lets up enough for me to get back in it before we turn across the wind. As I come into the corner, Cyclisme hasn't quite cut the gap in front yet, I'm 30ft behind him and as I start to pick my line into the turn I realize there is this other guy on my wheel that I hadn't seen and must have just caught up. Cyclisme, myself and the new guy (Capitol Velo), come around the corner into the rollers and crosswind and we're still chasing to get back on. This is where Divine Providence steps in. The follow car zooms up next to us and tells us there is a crash in the field ahead of us and we might get neutralized and have to slow up a bit. I didn't take the time to thank whatever benevolent god sent me this miracle, but I should have.

Thanks to the slow up, we can see the riders off the front and Capital, Cyclisme, myself and some 4th guy who I have forgotten about get rolling in a textbook four-man rolling echelony paceline thingy and start cruising the downhill trending rollers in the crosswind. My legs stop feeling like crap and my heart rate returns to a more reasonable rate. We start talking about keeping the rotation and picking off the guys in front of us. It was sweet!.



Mr Smith and his fancy leg warmers tearing up the course
(photo: Oregon Cycling Action)


The guy I have forgotten drops off at some point and we catch one guy (he's at the front of the four-man paceline with the turquoise bike and the hot red knee warmers...you guys thought I looked stupid) who hangs with us until the end of the lap and then peels off. I don't even know if he was in our race.

Lap 2: Capitol, Cyclisme and I kept rolling our paceline and picked up Ian in the gravel on lap 2. Everything was great for several miles until Cyclisme is at the front of the echelon, (I am on his immediate left) and he misses the damn right turn into the wind. I am on the wrong side of him and have to jam on my brakes and cut behind him to make the turn, Ian has to avoid me and Capitol had just peeled off to the right and made the turn. Capitol and I get to the top of the rise together and soft pedal a bit waiting for Ian and Cyclisme. We have a conversation about should we wait, this is the brutal headwind section and if we don't wait, they probably aren't going to get back on. We figure four is better than two if we want to catch anyone in front of us (we can see a lone rider up ahead). We get it back together and pick up Half Fast.

Lap 3 (thank god it's almost over): In the gravel, Half fast starts to drill it with Capitol on his wheel and I just can't hang on. Ian and Cyclisme have dropped back and I figure they're gone for good. I finally get back on to Capitol's wheel and see that Cyclisme bridged up to me. I didn't think he had it in him because he was having a hard time keeping up his pulls for half of the last lap. I keep getting the twinge in my left hamstring that precedes a cramp. I am stoked I managed to hang in this long and try stretching it whenever I can. Near the end of the gravel, I have recovered from chasing and start to drill it coming off the gravel and for the next half mile. It's downwind and trends downhill. Not surprisingly, I don't actually shake anybody. We stick together until the bridge and my little hill and I trickle off the back. Half fast actually dangles a couple bike lengths and looks back as I start to catch up and shortens my chase. A short while later we make the right turn into the crosswind where it starts to go down again and we hit the corner hard and somehow lose Half Fast. (I felt a little bad about this as he helped me get back on...I got over it. I am also not sure he was in our race either).

Capitol, Cyclism and I stuck together to the end. I tried a burst of speed at 1k left as I had nothing in me for a sprint. It was anemic and that left me sitting on the front while the other two guys wouldn't let me peel off going in to the finish. Cyclisme out kicked Capitol and I rolled in 8th.

I am stoked as that is the best finish I have ever had in a road race. I have never raced that hard for that long in my entire life. I have never felt that bad, for so long, in my entire life. I suffered more than I thought but pleased that it paid off.

I neglected to mention my apparently improperly adjusted front derailleur that would not be trimmed to avoid rubbing, and dropped me into the little ring unexpectedly at least five times during the race, the torrential rain, followed by sunshine, followed by hail, then sunshine, then a wicked freezing headwind with downpour during the last mile of the race. Through it all, my sweet (used to be) white leg warmers keep me warm.

Thanks to the Cat 4 boys for plotting and scheming and pulling off one small portion of our plan. Thanks for supporting me when I wasn't sure that I was really the guy anybody should support.

If you have read this far, I hope you enjoyed it. No one was here to 'encourage' me to shut up!