2013 USA Cycling Masters Road Nationls

I won the last race of the Washington State Road Season by attacking solo off the front only a mile into the race. Not sure why I did it and really not sure why no one came with me or tried to chase me down but I held them off to finish with a 1:04 minute gap over the main field. My teammates ended up going 2nd, 3rd and 4th so that was insanely awesome! 

Denise and I then took two weeks off work and headed down to Bend for the Masters National Road Racing Championships.

About a month before heading down to Bend one of my old Starbucks teammates told me he had borrowed a tandem from a teammate and wanted to know if I would race it with him in both the 40k TT and the 84k Road Race at Masters Road Nationals. I think I'd only been on a tandem once or twice when I was drunk in college. It would cause me to have to race four days in a row down there but I ended up telling him I'd do it.  This will be interesting to say the least!

To prepare (if you want to call it that) for nationals, we decided we actually needed to ride this thing together a couple of times.  Jefff showed up at my house so we could set up the bike.  He asked how we should determine who should be Captain and Stoker.....What??? Oh, the stoker is the one on the back. Since he already had his saddle and pedals on in the Captain's spot we decided to start off that way and switch it up later. We hooked up with two other local teams that were both going down to Nats as well. Both were couples that were going to race in the mixed categories. They all ride these crazy bikes together all the time and even do crits with them....Yes, Crits!! They were seasoned and we got a lot of valuable tips from them. Jeff and I are both strong riders but we pretty much got our asses handed to us on this training ride. There was a lot more to this than I had thought. We decided since we were probably only going to get 3 or 4 rides in together before we raced that we should just keep things the way there were....I am now a Stoker dammit! We got in two more rides and on the third we actually felt like we knew what we were doing and were stealing Strava KOM's left an right. We were ready to roll.

Tues Sept 3^rd

We arrived in Bend and decided to head out to Prineville and recon the TT course the day before the race. We originally thought we'd ride our regular racing bikes but decided that was stupid and left them behind. I had logged a 55 miler up to Bachelor the day before but Jeff hadn't ridden in a few days and wanted to open it up a little. We only went hard for a few short burst to open up the legs and ended up with a time of 55 minutes. Not bad when the previous year’s winners rode a 53:30!  That gave us a glimmer of hope!

Wed Sept 4^th

We drove out to the TT course early and saw teammates who were finishing up their solo TT efforts. As we watched we noticed the other tandem crews rolling in with these crazy custom, carbon machines with full on TT wheel setups. We figured some of these bikes were in the 15 to 20 grand price range....Out glimmer of hope dropped a few notches. We warmed up solo on trainers and proceeded to the line 7 minutes ahead of our start time. I guess we were pretty focused because a couple gals from one of our local teams were waiting for their start times joked that we looked like we were marching to our deaths... You could say that we had our game faces on.  Jeff was so focused that I had to tell him twice to clip in when the race crew held our bike before the start.

 So we crashed on the turn around!!!.....but that's the middle of the story

We got the countdown and off we went.  We took off super hard.... maybe a bit too hard on the way out but we were flying and it felt good. I basically had my head down and really had no idea where we were on the course. It was like doing the most painful indoor training session ever. It was a 40K (about 24 miles for you Americans) and before long Jeff let me know that we had reached the turn around. We had made it in under 25 minutes. We slowed and prepared for the 180 degree turn that we have both done tons of times, INDIVIDUALLY and a few times in training but never at 25mph.  We were 80% through the turnaround and started to accelerate, but the increased speed forced us to go wider and the front wheel left the road. We hit gravel and washed out. We both yelled "crap!" (Polite version) and hit the deck. We immediately hopped right up and started running w/out checking out the bike or our bodies for damage.  I told Jeff that we were still doing great and to remain calm. We both kind of ran with the tandem and somehow did a nice syncronized CX remount. I can't believe nothing went wrong with that. We probably lost about 15 secs. We tried not to overcompensate and blow up. the way back was harder with a bit of a head wind, and tired legs. I stayed tucked in tight. Every time Jeff scooted back on the seat to get more aero he hit me on in the head. Good thing I had a helmet on. We poured on as much power as we could muster, limping up the three little hills on the way back. Finally Jeff saw the 5k sign, there was another tandem ahead that we were chasing down. 3k sign, and Jeff realized that I wasn't seeing these signs so he yelled "3k to go". I didn't want to ride 3 more f'ing Kilometers but I know Jeff wasn't going to let up so neither did I. At one point I actually shut my eyes for about 30 seconds and just concentrated on my pedal stroke. We tried to go harder. We passed the tandem ahead of us. Then pushed even harder at the 1k sign. We finished with the time 53:00.80. We hurt so bad we couldn't even pedal for a bit after crossing the line. It was kind of funny as we were trying to figure out if we should stop and try to dismount or to try to keep pedaling. We limped back to the car. Early non official reports were that we won!! We heard it a couple of times over the loud speaker. We went over to wait for results to be posted. We hurt so bad we couldn't even sit on a bike seat or stretch. Neither of us have ever hurt so bad after a race. We chatted with other folks and rumors were that a tandem in our category did a 49:15. Dang. When results were posted, it turned out that a tandem in our field did post a 49:15 and set a new course record. Another tandem had a time of 53:01.78. We took 2nd by .98 seconds. Wow was that close.

 

 

T
 The turnaround crash almost cost us second. It was a bit of a letdown since we thought we might have won, but it was still awesome feeling when Jeff's wife Kirsten reminded us that we were still number 2nd in the nation!

Thurs Sept 5^th

This was my day for the solo assault in the road race. I'd been riding strong and felt I had a chance to make some noise in this one. My teammate Nikos who was also in riding well was racing with me.  My legs were feeling good and I was ready for battle. We wanted to get up to Bachelor early to watch other teammates that were going to be finishing up. We signed in and as we walked back to the RV an epic storm blew over the top of the mountain. The temp dropped from about 65 to 45 degrees w/nn minutes and the wind started to blow like crazy. Then came the thunder, lightning and marble to golf ball sized hale. 

We were getting kitted up and were putting on pretty much everything we brought with us. "Are we really going to race in this shit?" Fortunately, NO.!! All afternoon races were postponed until the following morning. Unfortunately it was the same day as the Tandem road race and since Jeff wasn't doing the individual road race I decided to drop out and just race the tandem. I was bummed but not matter what I would get to race and Jeff would miss out if I raced individually. Meanwhile we almost forgot that we had teammates still out racing in this. Before long we saw Kyle and Ed come in and we quickly got them into the van.  Kyle was freezing and it looked like he had been peppered point blank by rounds out of a paint ball gun.

Friday Sept 6th

So my saddle came loose and almost fell off...

We didn't go off till 3pm, so we sat around nervously waiting for the time we should leave to head to the race. It was hard trying to keep still and I think we were driving the wives crazy. It might be that any mistakes or weakness hurts both racers, and I didn't want to let the team down or the thought of 30 tandems heading downhill at high speeds in a pack. Whatever it was, I just wanted to get to racing. 

Because they had to reschedule all the afternoon races until today the officials decided to combine all the tandem categories.  We would all be scored separately but it was going to change the racing dynamics.  The race started and a tandem from our group immediately jumped off the front probably before we were even clipped in. I don't think most of the racers, including us knew that someone was off the front.  I only knew when a moto came back and said a team was off the front.  "Who was it and where were they?" The moto just rode away.  This is when we first noticed how things would change.  No one attacked to try to bridge because no one knew what field the group off the front was in.  The moto came back again and told us they had a 20 second gap. "Who had a 20 second gap?"  He took off and quickly came back with the bib number...Shit, they were in our field.

 

It wasn't really an option to attack since we were already hitting 60mph on the descent!  It was insanely frightening to be sitting on the back of a bike with absolutely no control while watching these huge bikes weaving all over the road, trying to grab the fastest wheel.  Having absolutely no control made me more petrified than you can imagine. I was sure there was going to be an epic crash. About half way down everyone started to settle down a bit and it wasn't quite as terrifying.

We took the corner at the bottom of the hill and my heart rate finally settled down.  Jeff and I decided to attack just after a corner and got away solo. Not ideal but we hoped others from our field would bridge up and help us close the gap.  It was right about then that I noticed that my saddle was a little loose.  I let Jeff know but didn't worry about it too much.  No one did so we decided to give it a shot and closed the gap from about one minutes to about 35 seconds and also got about a 40 second gap over the rest of the field.  We held both gaps for a few minutes but couldn't close on the guys up front.  If they were going as hard as we were there was no way they could hold this......could they?  We found out later that if we would have gotten a second closer they would have sat up.  They were at the end of their rope.  We decided it wouldn't last, and we went back to the field. We were wrong, there were nine different races inside our race, and the other folks didn't care a bit about the tandem up the road. We couldn't get a chase together. We learned how to attack on a tandem, not a quick maneuver, and we attacked several times, each time ending up going back to the pack after no one from our field would help to organize a solid chase.  We finally decided to give up killing ourselves and tried to force other teams to go.  They did but when we got on their wheel they would sit up instead of rotating through. It seemed they were already content to be racing for 2nd place . We tried to stay out of the wind when we weren't attacking so we would be fresh for the final climb. It was about this point where I really got worried that my saddle was going to actually fall off the bike.  Jeff even asked others if they had an allen wrench.  I had to sit just right to keep it from moving around.

 

The course is kind of weird in that it is just one big 84K loop and all of the climbing is basically in the last 12 miles with the hardest climb in the last six miles.  We went over the first part of the climb and while when we reached the flat section through the big meadow and I told Jeff that as soon as we hit that next curve all hell would break loose.  The climb started right on cue, two of our competitors hit it hard, so we slotted in behind them. We rode their wheel going about 14mph up a 6% grade.  Teams were getting dropped left and right and we just held steady at the front behind these two teams. Finally a team from another field got impatient, attacked and blew by us. I could tell Jeff wanted to go but I told him to just sit in behind the two teams from our field.  Soon enough one of them cracked and pull far left over the center line.  I thought that they would slot in behind us but they couldn't.  I then yelled that we should go now and bridge up to the one team off the front and we blew by the other team in our field. I looked back and saw that they were not able to hold our wheel.  I gave Jeff the intel and we pushed even harder.  We towed a few other teams up with us but none from our field....I think.  We both dug deep and closed the gap.  We moved to the front and set the pace.  After a minute or so I asked for help but we the other teams told us they couldn't pull through.  I just shook my head and we kept driving.  We looked back and now only two teams were left with us.  One was a 70+ men's team and the other a 110+ men's team.  That is the combined age riders have to be to race in a field.  Jeff and I were in the 90+ category.  We new the road was going to flatten out a little just ahead and we wanted to make sure that if teams recovered they couldn't organize and catch us.  I was actually feeling good so I kept going as hard a I could.  I didn't know how Jeff was feeling but we were flying.  I looked over Jeff's shoulder and told him the that up ahead was the near 180 degree turn that was about 1.5K from the finish.  There was plenty of road and we easily stayed up right. We were still getting no help from the other two teams but we didn't care.  We just drove on and with about 400 meters to go I told Jeff to sit up.  I don't know if he knew that neither of these teams were racing against us because he didn't sit up right away and probably thought I was crazy. 

 

I told him who they were and that we should let them by to enjoy the moment.  It kind of sucked knowing we just worked our asses off,  hauling two teams up to the finish that were both going to get Gold medals while we were getting Silver.  We coasted in for a second, watching the other two team celebrate.  We made up over 4 minutes on the leaders during the climb and wished we could have had a chance to go head to head with them but.......They made a move like I did in my last road race and I should have known better.  Anyway, being second in the nation twice ain't so bad!

After a while we went over and checked out the bike and we were a fraction away from completely loosing the saddle.  Lucky Us.

Well, now it's time to head back and get ready to get my arse handed to me in Cyclocross!

2012 USAC Masters Road Nationals

I was excited to head down to Bend with the team and race with the best (old) amateurs in the country.  I had trained and raced well over the past month and felt  ready for battle.  Unfortunately I had a little stumbling block.  Four days before heading down I caught a cold.  I can't remember ever having a cold during the summer.  It started with a sore throat and quickly developed into a full on head cold.  I was pizzzzed!    I started taking anything that anyone had recommended for ridding my system of this junk.   I was debating whether I should even go but I figured that I caught it early enough that I should be contageous anymore and hopefully I'd be done with it by race time.  I also found out that one of my teammates was cold stricken as well so at least I'd have someone to share in the misery.

We got down there Tuesday night and hooked up with the rest of the team for dinner at 10 Barrel Brewing.  I was actually feeling pretty good (after a few beers and plenty of cold medicine) but ended up having a horrible night of sleep.

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling better but still not anywhere near 100%.  After a big ass breakfast we headed up to Bachelor to recon the road course.  It was in the mid 80's and felt good......until we climbed about 6000 feet. I figured the altitute would get to me a little anyway but it literally felt like my head was going to explode.  I slowed up  and soft pedaled back to parking lot.  What the hell was I doing here?

After the ride we headed to a nice little Mexican joint in downtown Bend and then spent the rest of the night getting everything ready for Thursday's road race.

What a difference a day can make.  I had the first good night of sleep in about a week and woke up feeling OK, still not 100% but good enough to give it a shot.  Alex, Nikos, Jason and I didn't have to race until 3:00pm and I was hoping to that I'd even feel better by then.  I just stayed hydrated all day and hoped for the best.

Nikos, Jason and I still needed to pick up our race packets so we all headed up early.  I was more nervous for this race than any other I've done over the season.  Racing under the weather in a regular weekend race is one thing but when racing in a National Championship race you really want to be at the top of your game.......Here we go!

We got staged with 105 of our closest friends in the parking lot of  Bachelor.  I was not going to try anything heroic.  I just wanted to stay near the front and hope for the best.   Last year we did laps on the Archie Briggs course which is only around 2500 to 3000 feet. This year we were doing one lap on the 84K Bachelor course which started and finished around 6500ft.   We were told we would roll neutral until the right hand turn to Sun River.  We made it there and for some reason were not let go.  Pretty soon I noticed we were rolling "neutral" at 47mph!  The smell of burning carbon was in the air.  Guys were trying to rush to the front in anticipation of being let go but it didn't happen.  It was starting to get sketchy when our lead car kept trying to slow us down.  I have no idea what was going on.  This seemed to go on for ever.  It wasn't until half way down the hill we were finally let go and the pack quickly accelerated to 50+ mph.

As soon as the road leveled off a bit a solo rider took a big dig off the front.  I didn't think much of it until I looked over and saw my teammate Jason make the move to bridge.  He told me he was thinking of going early and well....The two of them got a gap and a short time later two others bridged up to them.  Team strategy is a lot different that in a local race.  Most teams have three or four guys at the most.  Since we had the full road, 105 guys and everyone wanting to get on the podium there wasn't a lot we could do to help control things.  No one else wanted to go so pretty soon the four of them disappeared up the road.  One of them was Brendon Sullivan, the defending champ from last year.  I was hoping that would be a good thing for Jason.

Meanwhile back in the main pack we cruising along at a pretty good clip.  The road was mostly flat with just a few short rollers.  The only thing that made it remotely hard was working to keep my ass up near the front.  Every once in a while someone would go to the front and set tempo but no one made any big effort to bridge to the four that were up the road.

At about the 20 mile mark we had our first little climb of the race.  It wasn't a big deal but it was good to see that I was able to stay near the front.   I don't think anyone got dropped.  It was pretty evident that the rest of the field was going to wait until the final climbs up to Bachelor to make their moves.

Pretty soon we saw the sign that told us that the first feed zone was just ahead.  We had people in the 2nd feed zone so I just moved to the left side of the road to get out of the way.  I think there was one person on the side of the road when we got there.  That meant it could be a mob scene at feed zone #2.  I was actually surprised at how fast the next feed zone came up.  It was not what I expected. I figured it would be on a slight incline but it was seemed to slightly downhill.  I was still on the far left side of the road and ended up having no chance of making over to grab anything.  I don't think a single person on our team did.  I had a brief moment of panic but I soon realized that I probably still had enough to last me until the finish.

For the most part the first 2/3 of the race felt like a brisk team ride.  The battle was about to begin and  I could tell guys were getting a little anxious.  There was a lot of surges up both sides of the road by guys trying to get to the front.   The whole race was going to boil do to the last 14 miles. 

Apparently somewhere on the backside of the course a large tree fell over the road just after we passed.  A couple of gals off the front in one of the women's fields had to dismount and hop over it.  It was large enough that it could have injured or killed a lot of riders if the time was wrong.

I can't quite remember when it happened but we finally saw one of the guys in the break up the road.  I was glad to see it wasn't Jason.  A short time later we saw another.  Holy Shit!! It was just Jason and the defending champ left.  Could they pull this off?

The first short climb didn't really do any damage but that was about to change.  When we reached the first sustained climb the pack started to implode, explode, and any other plode you could imagine.  I was actually holding my ground but was starting to feel the affects.  I didn't try to push too hard and actually just focused on staying on my teammate Nikos' wheel.  I managed to stay with the front 1/3 of the pack and was pretty happy (although my brain and lungs were starting to turn to mush).  The road levelled out a bit and I had time to recover.....if that is what you want to call it! 

Just about the time I started to feel somewhat OK the road kicked up again for the last climb towards the finish.  I remember seeing the 5K maker and thinking, cool, only about 3 miles to go. (The longest three miles every) We started up and the attacks started.  With my cold and the altitude I knew I wasn't going start suffering in a mid evil kind of way pretty soon.  I just didn't want to get blown off the back.  As soon as the attacks started race go completely blown apart.  It looked like a string of ants heading back to the hill.  It wasn't that steep but man, it hurt so bad I wanted to just sit up and soft pedal my ass to the finish.   I pushed as hard as I could, barely able to take another breath.  3k to go!.  So far no one had passed me but I also wasn't passing anyone either.  I was soon in a group of five and we we started trading pulls.  I don't think I've ever been in a race where I was dreading my turn to be at the front so much.  At one point when I was drifting back after my pull  I looked back and saw a group of twenty guys trying to work there way back to us.  I didn't want that to happen so I gave it everything I had when I got back to the front.  I took another quick look back and WTF!!  Now there was a motor home in front of these guys motor pacing them up the hill.  They were closing on us fast.  They caught on a short time later and then another car came by and towed two riders right by us.  This was BS!!  1K to go and the road finally flattened out a bit.  I was now with a group of about 15 guys and even though it wasn't for a spot anywhere near the podium I still wanted to finish well.  We all sprinted it out through the finish and I could barely stay on my bike after crossing the line.  I'd ended up in the finishing in the front half of the field.  Given all I'd been through leading up to the race I was actually pretty happy. 

It was mostly great just to spend time with teammates in Bend.  We gorged ouselves with a a large dinner and plenty of beers at the Deschutes Brewery.  That was the end the road racing season.  Time to change my mindset and get ready for a new season of cross.