DATE
February 27, 2010

AUTHOR
John Roberts

COURSE DESCRIPTION
An 11.7 mile loop of narrow country roads northwest of Snelling, starting with a promenade from the Park, via J-59, Emma and Montgomery Streets. 5 laps in E4. Several small hills, several sharp turns, excellent to fair pavement. Course is closed to oncoming traffic, both lanes available. The Loop: Keyes, Olsen, Los Cerritos, Figmond, Fields, Keyes, finish line on Fields.

WEATHER
50 degrees, overcast, light wind at start which seemed to pick up during race, wet -- but only a touch of rain _during_ early parts of race.

TEAMMATES
James Berry, Jon Stevens, Mike Ashton, Thomas Gross, Chris King, Zach Starnes (and Steve Ohlhaber? thought I saw him at start, but not later)

RESULTS
https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2010-212
23rd place in the E4 race.

PRE-RACE
Met Luther very early for the rainy drive to Snelling. Made good time and arrived a bit before 7am. Flew through registration, and the rain and scattered showers stopped while setting up the trainer. Put in just a bit over 20 minutes of low-intensity warmup. Decided to wear wind tights under my bib, and three layers on top... no windvest available. Filled one water bottle with Heed, and one with Perpeteum. Brought several gels, ended up finishing 3 of them. Tires at 110psi... slightly lower than normal because of wet, but followed Luther's lead.

Note: We were warned at the start about the flooded road after the bridge, just after the right-left turns at bottom of hill after feed zone, but it was still surprising to see how long the flooded road section was... maybe 80-100 feet of 3-4" deep water. Sort of fun, but a cold shock to the legs each time.

RACE
General plan was to be smartly lazy until the last 10K or so, with Thomas G saying he'd be willing to work for me at the end. Not how it worked out.

I hung out at the back half of the group for the first few laps. Chatted with a few teammates when they drifted back, noted that my heart rate was nice and low, and reminded myself that I meant to be here. Not too much accordioning. I was conscious of the possibility of things changing at the front, but had to remind myself to be patient, so risked staying further back than normal. Also, I was expecting that Snelling would not be a course where a breakaway could get away early. That was partially right... about the "early" part, not the breakaway part. The field let a couple of guys dangle for a while in early laps.

On the third lap, James talked to someone from Roaring Mouse, and learned they were planning a break after the water hazard (just before the bridge) on the 4th lap. I started to move up and pay more attention. Started the lap timer on my watch as we finished the 3rd lap -- 1:47:38 (including the neutral miles at start), with average HR 139. Didn't know the HR at the time, but that's nice and low for me, and I was feeling rested at this point. There were a couple of guys up the road about a minute at that point, I think.

I was in the main group, maybe 20 back (?), as we went through the water. In the next few miles, two more guys -- including Henry from Roaring Mouse, who I thought about marking earlier because of the speed he showed in grabbing a DV train in one of the Early Birds -- went after the breakaway. Thomas G. (near the front all day) almost grabbed on to that second group, though he admitted burning some matches in the effort. Would have been a podium if he had made it, the way things turned out. I wasn't close enough to the front at the time to even consider it. Mistake.

I thought I was in decent position, and ready to get active. Too late! The rest of us in the (now) chase group started talking about how many people were away, and how much of a lead they had. With a lap and a half to go, should have been plenty of time. But Davis Bike Club and Roaring Mouse both had a rider up the road and one teammate from each was in our group, effectively disrupting the chase (also, one other guy in black kit with a lime green stripe). James, Jon S, Tom and I were there from DV. We tried to convince others in the group of 25+ to get organized and work with us. repeatedly highlighting the blocking going on by DBC and Mouse. Above Category, MetroMint, and Rio Strada all had multiple folks there, but only a few individuals from the group as a whole were willing to do anything. Rio was particularly frustrating, as they had as many folks as we did.

So, we started working... Jon, James, and I and a few scattered folks from other teams. I could feel that this was going to burn me out (at least) but not much choice if we wanted to be part of the finish.

Our chase started before the end of the 4th lap, and picked up as we started the 5th and final lap. But not super organized, and then we got neutralized for an accident from another race, and slowed to single file. Even though we sped up again, by the time we were through the water and subsequent rollers, we got a time check of 1:40 or so, and everyone realized it was over.

From here on, I got frustrated and not super smart. I was near the front (or at the front) a lot, and wanted to keep trying, but everyone else was accepting the reality. James encouraged me to sit in, or wait until the left turn which marks ~3 miles to go. I put forth one extra effort before that turn, which was not smart.

When we made the left turn, I got myself ready, and with maybe a mile and a half to go, I went up the road, bridging to one other rider who had moved free of our chase group. Got him to do one more pull, and we caught one other person broken off the earlier breakaway (I think), but I did the brunt of the work. I hoped that James and Jon and Tom would be disruptive, and they were. (Thanks!) I made the final right turn (into the wind) which marks 450m to the finish line at the front, with a gap. Wasn't sure how much of a gap there was, as the one guy on my wheel blocked my vision further back. Coming out of the slight dip for the final 200m or so, I got out of the saddle, but one guy went by me, and then the flood started. I went from 5th (?) to 23rd in the last 150m. Ugh.

THOUGHTS
Glad that:
* Luther grabbed 4th in his E3 race.
* I didn't get a flat: there were SO many.
* There were four DVs in the group working together at the end.
* It didn't rain the entire way as threatened.

Disappointed that I wasn't attentive enough, and that my supposed patience left me unable to grab the moment. Not sure I would have recognized the moment, to be honest, as I had drilled into my head NOT to work hard early this time, but there's a difference between the restful laps I had early on and sitting in closer to the front.

Once reality set in, I should have returned to my goal, which was to see if I could successfully execute a sprint finish. Even if it was for 6th (?), that would have been more effective lesson than what I tried.

One general mistake for the chase: the four DVs might have made an instant decision about who to save for the finish. Then we could have committed 100% to our roles, rather than both working and trying to conserve individually. With the other teams indecisive and the blocking going on, only a full DV effort had even a chance. Not sure if James or Jon or Thomas was feeling it, and none of us asked that question of each other.

Speaking only for myself, I was trying to do a bit of both (working & conserving). I was kidding myself. Once a few really hard turns at the front were put in, I realistically wasn't going to have all I needed to go after a podium finish.

NUMBERS
Average HR 146
Max HR 179
Average cadence 88
Average speed 22.2
Max cadence 131
Max speed 34.1

Started lap timer with two laps to go.
For first 3 laps, time was 1:47:38 (including the neutral miles at start), with average HR 139.
Lap 4: 31:13 (avg 158)
Lap 5: 31:56 (avg 162)

Time in Z3: 1:04:24 (avg 142)
Time in Z4: 1:04:04 (age 160)
Time in Z5: 7:46 (avg 172)