The World's Most Prestigous Training Ride

Today was my first "race" of the 2009 season, January Nationals (which has actually been in February the last 2 years). Actually, it wasn't a race but "The Worlds most Prestigious Training Ride", where an 80 strong pack of Pros, cat. 5 and everything in between battle it out on a hilly 49 mile course. But before I tell you how I actually did, I'll tell you a little background information about Jan. Nats.

January Nationals started in the late 80's and is a great way for racers to gauge both their and their rivals early season form. It has a proud history of always producing a huge turnout and a strong winner, probably the most famous of these Fred Rodriguez, who won in 1994 when he was 21. Another great thing about it is that it gives me the opportunity to race alongside people I'd never have a chance to race against, such as Terry Huss, who's on my team, Andy Baker, on Time, Ronny Hinson, and Charlie Brown. The race consists of 7 laps on a 7 mile course that has 3 pretty big hills. The first lap is done at a slow pace to serve as a warm up, and then the pain begins.

Last year was my first year doing January Nationals. We had come thinking it was a just one of my teams group rides, but once we saw numerous pros from the local Time Pro Development and Inferno Pro Cycling Teams we knew this had to be more than just a group ride. I ended up just barely staying with the field that year and finished at the back, but I came into today with the intent of staying near the front and in the action.

After warming up on the slower first lap, I could tell that I was feeling good and got used to the acceleration and feel of the pack quickly. In the 2nd and 3rd laps there were some very hard parts, but I was feeling pretty strong until my rear derailleur broke on the 4th lap, leaving me stuck in the 34 and 50-14. That was when I knew just surviving was going to be difficult.

Fast forward to the second to last lap and I was really struggling up some of the hills, being either under or over-geared. However, the pace really slowed down at the end of the 6th lap, the pack tired from constant attacks, and by the time it started up again I was almost fully recovered. In the first couple of miles of the last lap, a pro from Inferno attacked and a 10 strong chase group formed. Being in the perfect position to follow and feeling strong, I caught on to the back of the group. Unfortunately it only stayed away for about a minute and was caught on the biggest hill of the loop, bad for me as I couldn't accelerate back into the pack in such a big gear. By the top of the hill I had gone from the front of the field to the very back. I spent the rest of the lap trying to move up, and eventually finished in the middle of the pack.

Considering I only had 2 gears for more than half the race, I was glad with the result and a great start to the 2009 season. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll try to post the power data.