2011 USA Road Races: June 2011

I'm heading down south today together with Vince. To Bangor; a small community consisting of 5 families somewhere deep down in the state of Iowa. Three weeks of training ( 3 times a week ) on a fixed schedule should put me in a decent shape for my first race in Category 3.

When we arrive in Bangor; not much people seem to have come down to Bangor to do this race; although in my category I end up with 18 fellow riders; 19 in total. The registration is in a county park, close by the finish line and around here there are not many cars. Nice organization! The plan for the race is to ride very conservative. The first lap I stay as last person of the peleton, and at that time already 3 riders escaped from the pack. I thought we would catch up with them pretty easy, since it is only the end of lap 1.

Why this race however will unfold to be very tricky is the fact that from the 19 riders; 9 riders are from the same team. Since 1 rider of the 3 riders in front is from this team; they don't ride anymore :( I am trapped in the peleton. The riders in front have a 1.5 minute gap halfway the second lap. (We need to do 3 laps in total ). I seem to have noticed; the stronger riders of that team are still with me in the group; that was why I did not panic at first. However they do not seem to start riding and the gap only increases. I get nervous.

At that point it looks like the race is over. I start helping out in front of the peleton and notice I can ride good with them, I am actually even able to produce a higher speed than the group; although it is useless since 5 or 6 riders of the same team are blocking everything; and the other riders don't help out at that point. We never get organized against this too large team; and we stay seriously outnumbered the whole race.

In the 3rd lap I try to escape from the 8 people big peleton, but nobody is willing to give me any space. I get countered by the "big team" constantly. With a half a lap to go; the pace in the peleton has finally gone up to around 30mph; which might be good enough to catch the first 3 riders. However, instead of a good organization; a few attacks follow and the organization in the peleton is completely gone. At that point I gave up the first place; and started completely focusing on the sprint for the 4th place ( Which became the 3rd place since the headgroup lost 1 guy who we were able to catch up with and leave him behind).

The last 5 miles are very nervous; I have to seriously break a few times; and have to do some serious efforts to make sure I am placed in a good position for the sprint for the 3rd place. ( The 2 leaders were about 1 minute ahead of us again at that point). The sprint is uphill, and is very chaotic, people pass me from left and right; and I have to manoeuver between people to force myself back into a good position. I take second place in the sprint, so a 4th place in total, which I am pretty happy with, considering it's my first race with cat 3 riders.

Today a conservative strategy did not pay off, although I am happy with the shape I am in a the moment. This shape may make things possible later in the season.

For the data freaks: The race was 62 miles. The average speed was around 25 miles/hour and 2700 calories were burnt in 2hours and 30 minutes.

Up to the second race in Iowa!

Euer,
Joris

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Rose Festival Road Race in Bangor (Iowa); June 18th

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Upcoming Races for the Year