Going fast & having fun

Written by: Carl Parker

Pine Flat Road Race followed the day after Cantua Creek Road Race.  Maybe one day it will be a stage race.  That would be epic. 

For this race, I was racing without any teammates.  The Davis Phinney Team had two teammates in Tony Brady and Ludovic Hilde.  I had raced with them in the past and knew they would affect the race.  Also, there were two Thirsty Bear racers in Jason Grefrath and Wes Fornes.  I had raced against Jason in the past and against Thirsty Bear as a team and figured they too would factor into the race.  In total 50+ 1/2/3 had 12 racers and they added the 50+ 3/4s of 8 racers to our race making it 20 racers together.  

For those that don’t know, Pine Flat is in the top three of the most beautiful road races in California.  It is set in the Sierra Nevada foothills and is a near complete loop of 62 miles ending on a mountain top finish.  It begins by a marina for Pine Flat Reservoir and stays along the lake for the first 22 miles.  There is an out and back with a 180 turn 11 miles from the start then after those 22 miles, the road veers away from the lake slowly climbing for two miles followed by a descent of about 3 miles to the valley floor.  After the descent, there are rollers along Kings River eventually settling into a flat section among orange orchards heading west then takes a 90 degree right, straight north, 40 miles into the race.  After 3 more miles of orchards, it takes another right and the road starts rolling gently uphill as it winds through ranch land before one last right turn into the final climbs.  There is one big climb followed by a rolling pedal descent of 7 miles before a final 1 mile climb to the finish.

At the start, Tony went to the front and set a moderate pace.  Knowing the road would be narrow along this section and that there are newbie racers added to ours, I was determined to stay at the front to stay safe setting a moderate pace or somewhere in the first five wheels watching for any break attempts.  I was not sure if a break would try to get away and if so, I wanted to get away or at least make an escape attempt with help especially if it was a Davis Phinney or Thirsty Bear racer.  My legs felt great.  The day was warming up nicely.  I was ready to go hard when the time was right.

There is about a half mile climb to the 11 mile 180 turnaround and slowly, effortlessly I rolled up to the front and then found myself ahead of the group.  I dug a bit and lengthened the gap.  It was only a 30sec solid effort and then spun through the 180 turnaround to hit the descent hard.  It gapped the field enough that they lost sight of me on the many turns along the road.  I wanted to see how the field would react without really burning any of my matches.  I noticed they did not chase at all.  Bummer.  I would have loved a reaction of some kind even a few racers trying to bridge.  So I settled into a tempo/aerobic pace, nothing too hard allowing them to see me enough in the straightaways and hopefully tease another break attempt to bridge.  I held this gap for 7 miles and got no reaction.  But again, no sting in the legs so I felt good despite letting them slowly reel me in.  I now knew that they knew that I was feeling good and chippy.  Oh well.

We were now all rather friendly and even talking a bit as we rolled past our start point, 22 miles into the race.  The gentle hill leading away from the lake started to string out the group a bit, mostly lead by Tony or Wes.  I helped a little.  But knowing the course enough that I did not want to be at the front as the hill crested.  Tony did that work for the group and I was on his wheel so that as we came over the top, I hit the gas really hard into the descent mostly to stay safe on the windy descent and not get gapped as it has happened to me in past races here.  I got a little help from Wes on the descent and we had six away at the bottom.  A few of the racers worked together in that small break but not enough cohesion to get us really going and drop the rest of the field.  So it came back together, enough for me to get some nutrition before the attacks started again.  This time they were serious.  I played it safer seeing who was going and who was countering.  Then when things settled and altogether, I found myself in the front with Tony behind me saying, ‘if you attack, I won’t follow’.  It was an uphill section and although a slight headwind, I thought why not and took a flyer.  Right away, I had guys on my wheel so I shut it down.  We then very modestly rolled along the wide open valley road for the next 5 miles.  I was staying at or near the front thinking more attacks were bound to go away.  I partly thought that because I did not think the group had enough pure climbers with teammates.  I figured most of the racers would want an advantage going into the final the climbs and so it was a matter of time that more break attempts would happen.  I had it in my head that it might be good to try again when we made that hard right turn heading north.  That would make the wind become a tailwind and I even thought if I was solo again to just see how that would work out for me.

We made the right turn, I was third wheel and just as I came out of the turn, I hit it really hard.  Looked back.  No one.  Just me.  40 miles into the race with 22 miles to go.  Let’s go.  I was above threshold for about 2 min then settled down to threshold then down to tempo knowing I could hold that for a long time.  Although the road was flat, it did have these steep little hills that led the road over irrigation culverts.  They are 12% steep so I hit those really hard and recovered on the descent.  I knew that was adding seconds to my gap.  The motorcycle came up to me about 5min into the break and told me 15 sec advantage.  I couldn’t believe that because they looked further away.  But with the tailwind I was moving at 27-28mph.  That 15sec held for 3 miles until the second right hand turn and with the small rollers, I started turning up the screws on those really hard knowing that would add time to a group trying to work together.  It was.  Moto said 25sec then 35sec then 45sec until I got it to a minute at the last right hand turn and into the climbs.  They were also out of sight and so I was for them.  Now it was go for the glory and give it everything I had on these climbs.  At this point, I don’t remember much except the moto coming up to me near the top of the first and largest climb saying the gap was still 1min.  I couldn’t see them when I looked back on the steepest straightaway sections so I was thinking I might have more time than a min.  I was really suffering at this point and looking for respite in the upcoming descent.

I crested the top of the big climb, it was downhill rollers for the next 7 miles.  I was all in but I quickly realized it is really hard to hold a lot of momentum as a solo racer through these downward rollers.  This is where I really needed another racer or two working with me in the break.  

Before the final 1 mile climb, I looked back and saw the headlight of the moto a few bends in the road behind and thought ‘Oh no! They are closing on me.’  By the bottom of the last 1 mile climb, I had maybe 20sec.  I set a hard pace but one I could manage a reaction to the acceleration when/if they caught.  They did catch me with a half mile to go.  I latched onto the first racer’s wheel that passed me.  I held as long as I could, maybe 5-10 seconds, but I had nothing left to match his pace.  Then another racer passed me and another and another.  Bummer.  I finished 5^th.  Solo for over an hour to be caught with only 0.5 miles to go.  Bravo to them.  They played it much better than me.  Still very happy to have made that big move.  You never know unless you try.  

I learned a lot in this break attempt.  When to go, when not to go, how much effort to expend, how much is too much.  I think I played it pretty well.  I could have gone later closer to the rollers and after talking with fellow racers, some wanted to go with me, so I could have delayed my attack after the turn to give others a chance to latch on.  I also could have just played it super conservative and waited until the final climb to make a move.  I just did not have the confidence that I would make it there with a reduced field and no break for us to chase.  I also was not sure my 4min power was better than the rest of the field.  So much to think about.

Nutrition plan was the same as the last couple races because it works extremely well.  Two 750ml bottles with 2 scoops/60g of Neversecond in each of them and one C30 gel per half hour for 5 total gels over the race.  The 62 mile race was 2h51m for an average 21.7mph.  Despite the higher intensity especially in my break attempt, I was still easily able to get gels and hydration down.  No stomach issues whatsoever or anywhere near bonking with this being my second race in two days.  Just needed stronger legs and another 30 seconds for that win.  

Congrats to Lindsay Blount who won the 65+ category, and congrats to Kenny, who got 4^th and did a huge effort to keep Lindsay in the mix after constant attacks from the field trying to get away from Lindsay.  Also, congrats to Jesse Nieman for his 1^st place in the Cat 4s as he is making his way to Cat 3 very quickly.  Great team show of support at Pine Flat this year from the 805 Race Team!