Wolfpack Classic Top of the Hill RR

2 days ago was my first race of this season, the Top of the Hill road race! Before I give you a race report, here's some news and stuff that's happened since last time I've talked to all you guys. We've been getting a lot of snow here( about 3 inches, twice). It has snowed 3 times in the last 2 weeks and stuck to the ground twice--pretty unusual in North Carolina. Because of this, and that the snow just happened to fall on the weekends, my first test of the 2010 season which was supposed to be on January 31st, was postponed to February 6th. The ride I'm talking about is January Nationals, which I've done for the last 3 years now. Although it is just a ride it is pretty prestigious to win, and lots of good pro-1/2's try to win it every year. This year, I wasn't sure how I would do because I haven't done much intensity at all, and nothing that would replicate the demands of a hard race. My goal was pretty much to survive in the pack.

The race started pretty good for me, but with every acceleration I seemed to get more tired. I went for one break, just a 30 second or 1 minute intense effort, but after that I felt like I never recovered. On the last 2 laps of the 7 lap, 49 mile ride I was really hurting. About 4 miles from the finish I was barely hanging on to the back of the pack, which seemed to be only going faster and faster. I wasn't going to be with the field much longer. I was then dangling 10-30 seconds off the back of the field until my teammate, Andy, nearly pulled me back up to the field. He made it, but I didn't and finished off the back for the first time I've done this ride.

I was pretty dissapointed after the ride. The fact that I had not done much hard efforts in training before the race hardly made me feel any better. I tried to thank God for how I did, but in that situation it was extremely hard. Now I was just hoping that that I would do decently at the Wolfpack cycling classic/NC state road race, a week from Jan. Nats. If it was just a cat. 3 race I knew I would be fine, but it was a 72 mile long Pro 1/2/3 race--my first.

The day after Jan. Nationals, my new bike came. It is made by Stradalli, with a full carbon frame, fork, seatpost, and handlebars, and sram force components. We already have wheels for it and we are using a spare stem, but I think we will be getting a better one sometime soon. The Stradalli is very very light as a full bike, and is way stiffer than my aluminum Mottobecane. The most noticeable difference is when doing sprints and on uphills, especially short, steep ones. I thought that my new bike would give me an advantage in the upcoming race.

Wolfpack Classic top of the hill RR:

This pro 1/2/3 race started at 8:30 in the morning, when the temperature was 25 degrees and there was still some snow on the ground. They combined my race, the Pro 1/2/3, with the collegiate A's, so with the 2 fields combined there was a pack of anywhere from 65 to 85.

The race started pretty fast, but in the 1st 2 laps there were some really hard parts, but a lot of easy parts too. I was thinking that I would just have to focus on conserving as much energy as possible during the race to survive, which I think I did a very good job of. With 2 laps to go, I realized that I was actually feeling pretty good, and let myself spend a little more energy moving up in the pack, which was down to about 35 at this point. I survived the hardest hill on the course, with just over 1 lap to go. Then I knew I had less than 20 minutes of pain to go until the finish, so I tried to get ready for the biggest hill on the course, which ended about a mile of a mile and a half before the finish.

Over the top of the last hill, the field split, with about 15 people in the front pack and 10 in the trailing one. Over the top I was at the front of the second, only a couple of seconds back from the first pack. I tried to catch the field with a steady effort, but I never got completely in the draft. In hindsight I wish that I had tried to sprint up to the first pack and get a break before the final downhill, which I'm not even sure that I could have done, but since I didn't I dangled right off the back of the 1st pack down the hill. We were going about 40 miles per hour on the decent, and I was spinning my junior gears out like crazy trying to rejoin the pack. At the bottom of the downhill, within sight of the line, I was a little bit further back than at the start of the decent. I caught up a little bit sprinting up the hill, but still finished just a couple of bike lengths off the end of a very strung out group.

Even though I made the mistake of not sprinting over the top of the last hill, I was very happy with my results, especially because of how I did on the same course just a week before. I went into the race thinking I would be happy with staying with the peleton, and ended up easily within the top half of a competitive field. I was even more happy once I learned how I did: 13th in the pro 1/2/3 (24th out of the 2 fields combined), out of about 35 or 45 pro 1/2/3's. I think that I was the 2nd highest finishing cat. 3 in the race, so I should be getting some more points! Even if

So that was my first race of 2010, and I thought it went pretty good! I did way better than a week ago, some of which I'm sure was because of my new bike. Even if I had done badly, however, I want to thank God for keeping me safe and giving me the strength to do pretty good.

Today, my Dad an I drove to Raleigh to do the group ride there. This was the first time I have done this ride, and I don't think I will ever see other group rides in the same way again. The ride in Raleigh attracts lots of extremely strong riders, like Dave Leduc, a cat. 1 or 2 who is one of the best masters riders in the nation, my teammate Terry Huss, who is a very good cat. 1, some of my other teammates like Kurt Massey, and more of my teammates and other good racers. Soon I will describe it in more detail. It was a great ride, very fun and it offered some great training. The idea of the ride is to do a 100k long, hard tempo ride, being very consistent in your effort. We averaged 21mph for the whole ride, and I averaged a normalized power of 191 watts, with a TSS if 220. Both of these features, NP and TSS, are available in the Training Peaks software, which is excellent for tracking your progress. Also, I want to post some pictures of my new bike up soon.