Going fast & having fun

Written by: Carl Parker

Snelling Road Race 50+ Masters 1/2/3 had 40 racers with several large teams with strong racers.  Evoke, Pacos, ThirstyBear, CoreTechs, CycleSports, Davis Phinney.  All of those had several racers, so I knew my best chances would from a break.  The last two times I raced Snelling a break eventually formed the win came from the break and this time I wanted to be sure I was in it.  Two other priorities of mine were to stay safe and get a very solid race effort workout.  I didn’t drive 5 hours to sit in and hope for the best at the end.  The race is 60 miles, 5 laps of 12 miles each.  A mix of rolling and flat terrain.  Closed course so we got to use the entire road.  That is the best.

From the gun, I went for it and got away thinking there would be a reaction.  But there was no reaction.  I was solo.  For the first 9 miles.  I settled into a good pace during that time and still got up the road enough that I was out of sight which made think ‘where is everybody?  Could this actually stick?When they caught me near the end of the first lap, nonstop attacks began and did not ease up at all.  It took me about a full lap to recover and I used that time to eat, drink, settle back in. 

At the end of the second lap, five racers got up the road with about 10-15 seconds and there was no reaction from the field, so I went for it.  I bridged.  Settled in again and we started working as we pushed ahead at the start of the third lap.  Six racers is a great sized break and we had representation from a few of the larger teams.  But it didn’t last too long.  Only a few miles and it was reeled back then more attacks.  Nonstop attacks.  I decided to remain in the front of the group to monitor or join in on the attacks trying to find the right one.  As we were finishing the third lap on a long flat straightaway, I was at the front and just kind of rolled off alone.  I looked back and had a few bike lengths.  That turned into a few more and I pedaled a little harder then looked back and had seconds.  Okay, time to push again and hope someone bridges.  Jason Grefrath did bridge, thankfully.  Then a few miles later two more bridged.  Bob Hooks and Brian Buchholz.  We had four and we were really rolling.  Bob and Brian seemed fresh and very strong.  The main group was well out of sight.  Only issue I had was that I was very fatigued from all my hard efforts during the first three laps.  Yet I kept pulling through.  I was determined to see how long I could stay with these three other racers thinking I was bound to get dropped before the finish, but I was determined to never skip a turn and always pull through.  Jason was suffering so much that he would skip a few turns and was being encouraged by Bob and Brian to keep pushing.  Jason would on occasion go for a longer steady pull but was more cautious when we pacelined. 

The moto finally came up to us about 20 minutes into our breakaway with about 1 ½ laps left to go and told us we had 1m45s.  That still kept us pushing the pace and it was encouraging to know that we had put significant time on the group.  We got one more time split a lap later when we had only ½ lap left and it was “3+min, they will never catch you” said the moto driver.  I thought why couldn’t you be giving us more splits and earlier splits.  Probably the fatigue speaking since I was also relieved to know that even if I got dropped that I still had a chance to finish ahead of the main field.

My legs started to feel like they had more life.  There was one hard push by Brian on a small hill seeming like he was trying to drop Jason and maybe me.  I was glued to his wheel.  I knew I could hang for another half lap, about 6 miles and 20+min of suffering.  No prob.  My confidence was coming back.

There was not much cat and mouse leading to the final sprint.  I would go to the front and throttle back to 200W if no one would pull through.  Jason eventually started pulling moderately faster like he was determined to finish with us but not contest the sprint.  I somehow found myself at the front going into the last turn with 250 meters to go into a slightly uphill and very bumpy road to the finish line which was into a headwind.  But just as I was coming out of the turn, Bob or Brian came around me allowing me to slot in behind the other three getting their draft.  I needed that.  Bob or Brian started the sprint with 150 meters to go, I was right on their wheel.  My thighs felt like they were on the verge of cramping.  Jason fell off and it was a fight for the top three positions.  I just could not get around either Bob or Brian who finished 1, 2.  I got third.  Congrats to them and to Jason.  So happy they bridged to me and we worked well together. 

Very happy with a podium especially after a very, very hard race and probably a pretty foolish race strategy.  I also got stung by a bee in the abdomen and on the finger but the fatigue was the real challenge.  I don’t think I have ever had to do that much mental gymnastics to keep myself in the fight and to fight against that urge to just sit up.  My arms were even tired and aching after the race.    

We averaged 25.0mph which meant we were only racing for 2h23m.  I brought four C30 Neversecond gels and got through three of them.  I had one 750ml bottle with 60 grams of Neversecond hydration and one 750ml bottle of just water.  I got through both bottles and still had to grab a 500ml neutral bottle at the start of the last lap.  I think the fatigue was what caused the near cramp at the end.  It might not even have been a cramp but just fatigue.  The nutrition plan worked great because the next day I had three hours of climbing and felt amazing and just flew across the road, felt fresh even.  For me that has a lot to do with fueling right.  So after getting a good warmup, I felt very little fatigue from the previous day’s race.  Next up Copperopolis Road Race then San Luis Rey Road Race/State Champs.  We will see.