This past weekend we headed down to State College for the PSU races...and it was a bit disappointing to say the least. I know it shouldn't matter since it's still early in the season and I haven't been consistently riding, but it's still really hard to deal with not performing to your expectations. But I have a legitimate excuse, right? Up to this point, I have ridden outside maybe a handful of times outside of racing, and I haven't ridden anything longer than a casual 55 miler a couple weeks ago. So I really shouldn't expect much...but I do.
Saturday was a very hilly 3lap, 64 mile road race in and around Black Moshannon Park, just north of State College. I should note that this was shortened from the original distance of 86 miles- a welcome change. I don't imagine too many other racers were looking forward to a fourth trip around that course. Here's the course profile (clearer when you click on it):
About 30 riders lined up for the A race at noon. Right out of the start, 3 riders went on a breakaway. That would not have been my strategy for this race. In any case, one of them came back to us within a few kilometers. Now the peloton was in third position on the road.
As you can see from the profile, there's a fairly significant descent 4 miles in. Earlier in the day, a rider had to be airlifted because he crashed on the descent...and I was almost another casualty of the race course. As we crested the slight gradient, I was positioned in the first third of the field, eager to not get gapped on the downhill and subsequently dropped on the flats following. Being light sure helps when you're going up, but is a disaster for long, windy descents.
We got our speed up to probably 50+mph on the drop and the field strung out in a line as we picked our way through the sweeping turns. About halfway down, my bike started to develop a rather significant and unnerving shimmy- the death wobble. My wheels are round/true, so I'm not sure what caused the resonance, aside from perhaps the road surface and gusting winds. I clamped the top tube with my legs and weighted my saddle more, but the wobble began to increase to the point that I knew I had to slow down to get my bike back under control. Unfortunately, braking does not rectify the issue and only worsens the situation until you finally get your speed low enough. For a good 20-30 seconds both my wheels were pitching rather wildly from side to side before I got control again. Given the distinct possibility of crashing at more than 50+mph, I stayed pretty calm. A year ago, I don't know what would have happened if I were put in the same situation. More than a few riders passed me here, eager to get out from behing "that guy."
I was happy to not be on the pavement, but I was also in the unenviable position of being shot out the rear of the field when we hit the flats. 2 minutes of pushing 53x12/13 finally brought me back on, though. I was safe for the moment. Unfortunately, lacking a proper warm-up and only 2-3 miles of steady riding before the descent, my legs were not exactly prepared to do that kind of effort, and I was already feeling it. Not good. As I integrated myself back into the field, I remarked that if my bike is going to do that on every descent I was going to DNF, regardless of my position in the race.
Two smaller climbs followed, which don't look that significant on the profile, but definitely softened up your legs. If you're familiar with the Ithaca area, think of the climb up Hurd Hill off of Ellis Hollow. A couple riders got on the front and drove the pace, but no real separation occurred. The pack was still intact as we hit the big climb for the first time.
As you can see from the profile, the climb starts at about 1000ft of elevation and goes up to 2440ft over the course of 6-7 miles. Not that steep on the whole (and no App Gap), but this was one hell of an ascent. The climbers took control at the front and drove it pretty quickly up the mountain. It wasn't extremely hard, but I was working quite a bit...and wishing I had the legs I had at Owasco/GMSR. I stayed in third or fourth wheel, ready to mark any accelerations (in theory). Luckily there were no real attacks- the purpose of this trip up the mountain was to shed the non-climbers. We came over the top with our field down to 15 riders. We were also alerted that the two riders up the road had a 5 minute gap at this point. No one seemed all that interested, though.
As we hit the rollers approaching the lap/start/finish a few deer ran out into the road, almost taking out the Princeton rider and our subsequent paceline. As if sketchy descents weren't enough to deal with...
The second lap was pretty uneventful, and my bike didn't develop the shimmy on any of the descent. This was certainly an improvement. When we weren't climbing, the peloton held a decidedly casual pace, which was really nice. These guys know how to ride! I took the time to eat half a Clif Bar and a Gu, and drained most of my water bottle before the second time up the mountain.
Our second time up was very much the same quick pace, but this time we didn't lose anyone. My legs felt slightly better (e.g. I was finally warmed up), but it still wasn't getting what I hoped from them. (I seem to be lacking any sort of power at the moment.) Given that we weren't dropping anyone, this trip up probably only served to cut the gap to the two leaders up the road. We began the climb with the 5 minute deficit and came to the top only 3 minutes back.
The last lap went pretty much the same as the first two...until the climbs came. I could start to feel a fair amount of fatigue creeping into my legs as I would get out of the saddle. Without the ability to stand, long climbs are far less pleasant and it's difficult to mark any accelerations. Interestingly enough, the fatigue started to happen around the 50 mile mark- roughly the length of my longest ride to date (hmmmm). For the moment though, the climbs weren't that quick, so I didn't have any trouble staying with the group. I also had to pee really badly, but couldn't muster anything while trying to go at 20mph. I can't wait to actually do that...
As we rolled up the final climb the usual suspects took control of the front, but this time the field strung out quicker than usual. I was beginning to have a fair amount of difficulty matching the pace and was finding myself choosing smaller gears than I normally would be using, given the gradients. I began to lose concentration and found myself staring at the wheel in front...not noticing that a group of 8 riders was significantly gapping us ahead. As I tried to stand and close the gap, it felt like my quads were going to tear off my femur and I was forced to sit down and take up another gear. They pulled away further. I tried my best to stay with the small groups that were left in their wake, but it just didn't last. As we came over the top I made an attempt to stay with a couple UNH riders that were slowly moving past; I stayed on their wheels for about 10 seconds. It was just not happening.
I venture that the last 5 miles of the race were some of my worst on a bicycle. I was completely bonked and went into survival mode. The combination of not riding combined with probably minimalist nutrition really added up and shot me down pretty quickly. However, out of our group of 15, I was still maintaining 12th or 13th place. I figured I could maybe hold on until the finish and get a top 15 placing. But damn, those effing rollers- every subsequent one killed me more. One by one, I got passed by riders who fell off the group earlier. As I finally came to the last downhill, I got passed by the last rider from our original group, Fissel from Delaware. Usually both strong climbers, it seems we both hit the wall pretty bad on that last time up. Luckily all that was left was a cruising downhill and a flat 300m run into the finish. I limped it home for 17th place overall. Still good for points on the day, but I felt like I had just came DFL. Talk about decent motivation to get me out there riding more...
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