Written by: Carl Parker:
For the 45+, it was Gary Douville and myself along with 28 other racers. Gary was It was only four laps, 57 miles, so we knew we had to be active for the likely early break attempts. With the first few miles being slow, Gary decided to make the first move to get away and to liven it up. It definitely worked to get the group riding much harder leading into the first climb. I was able to go to the front at the foot of the climb and pushed the pace increasingly harder up until the false flats for about a 365W average. That got us a split of 10 racers at the top but with the dynamics in the lead group not to continue pushing, it all came back as we descended. Another break formed on the smooth road descent section, which I bridged until it again quickly came back. At that point, I was in the back of the group trying to stay safe along the much rougher roads when I noticed another move at the front, hoping it wasn’t Mark Tucker. It was clear that he was the favorite so I couldn’t imagine the group letting him roll away solo. After the sharp, off-camber right turn, Mark and one other racer were up the road with 20 sec. Mark dropped the other racer a couple of miles later and was now solo. The group made a weak attempt to bring him back, leaving it mostly to Gary and me, along with the two Butcher Box team racers. Although the four of us and a few others worked well, the other 20+ racers sat o,n and we decided it wasn’t worth it to burn our matches while they all got a free ride. It then became clear that it would be a race for 2nd place.
Gary asked if I could put another dig on the climb like the last one. I was able to, but it was more like 348W. Again no clear lasting split, although a few racers were beginning to drop off. Many other attempts were made for the next couple of laps to get away, including another solo attempt by Gary, which lasted about 10 min going into the climb for the third time. That worked well for me to bridg,e which was his plan. Before I could jump, another racer jumped to the bridge, so I got on his wheel. Even better plan. This effort was 355W even while in his draft. We made it to Gar,y but again the group brought us back while dropping a few more racers along the way. The final time up the climb was pedestrian as everyone was now content for this to end closer to the finish. Mark had over 2 min at that point.
Rolling downhill before the last hard right turn, about 5 miles to go, I got a small gap, and Gary yelled ‘GO,’ which I did, but again they brought me back right before the sharp right turn. Coming out of that turn, another hard effort by me and a few more hard digs to try and get away (like I did last year solo), but none worked. I still felt good and egged others on to try and go. The group was down to around 15 racers, and I decided to recover before the final climb with only a few miles left. Tony Brady started to make hard solo break attempts, maybe three before the second-to-last right turn, about 2-3 miles from the finish. Everyone followed, and I got a chance to recover. For his last attempt, we were only 1 mile to go when I decided to follow, which ended up being my undoing. Nearly the whole group rushed past me going into the final right turn for the uphill 1/2 mile finish. I then jumped on what was left of the group. Tried to recover just as the group was ramping up. Picking off a racer here and there, I was thinking maybe I could surge one more time and reach the final group. I could not. And so I finished 9th, way lower than I was hoping. Gary finished 12th, feeling like he gave it all he had prior to that final climb to the finish. It was a very surgy race with no large team to control.
I learned three things from this race. 1) Never let myself drift too far back when the break has yet to establish, especially with a known breakaway specialist like Mark still in the group. 2) Don’t follow a very late attack like Tony’s when there is a longer uphill finis,h as it is certain to be caught. 3) Although it was the first race for Gary and me to race as teammates and although we communicated well during the early and middle portions of the race, I think we (me mostly) needed to do a better job communicating throughout the race, especially towards the end.
Last note, my nutrition was two scoops of Neversecond in each of my 550ml bottles (four scoops total) along with four gels for a race that was 2h25m. That’s 240g so about 100g/hr. That worked well for me, especially with a heavier training volume going into the race. Temps were mid-50s to start and finished low 60s so quite pleasant and still cool so the 550ml bottles were the right size.
Overall, a super fun first race of the season and very, very fun to race with Gary, who is an excellent teammate. The fellow competitors were strong and a lot of fun to race against. Although competitors, we joke and rib each other during the race while trying to destroy each other. Very fun times. We worked well with the Butcher Box team, Charles Hogan in particular, trying to bring back Mark and making it as honest of a race as we could. Really, really fun times. Very blessed and fortunate to get to race on this team, with these sponsors, against these competitors, on these roads. Can’t wait until next year!
Going fast & having fun 
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