Comprehensive Racing: 15th Annual Sterling Road Race = Pack Fodder

For those of you not familiar with my cycling career, let me give you a quick history and I promise it will relate to this race report. I started racing BMX bikes when I was about 9. I wasn't good so I didn't continue. I started racing triathlons back in 2001 and while I am OK, my ride times could be better. In 2008, I decided that I wanted to try and improve my cycling for triathlon by racing road bikes. After a short lived career in 2008 I realized 2 things: 1) It's hard to be as fast as guys that only focus on one sport and 2) I don't go up hills very well. Now to clarify, I go uphill OK at my own pace. It's other cyclists pace up hills I have a problem with, which leads me to Sterling 2008. After a few successful "C" races at Wells Ave, I thought, sure why not, enter a road race and give it a go. With that in mind I dove in head first into the 2008 Sterling road race only to have trouble keeping up in the neutral zone and then getting dropped by the pack in the first 2 miles resulting in me doing a great training TT effort for the remaining 22 miles resulting in me finishing 64 out of 67.

Now, to present day. My obsession with Sterling is a bit odd. I don't go up hills very well, so pick a race that has actual hills! Why, I have no idea... To put it in perspective, the race is only 24.8 miles long, but has 1400 ft of climbing. For those of you who do the Salem 50 miler on Saturday mornings, that ride with 2 trips up Great Hill has 1450 ft of climbing. Yes, half the mileage and all the climbing!

The Race:

The race rolled out with a very gentle 18-20MPH neutral rollout and an almost full field of 70 guys. Not wanting to risk getting stuck behind on the first climbs I did my best to stay in the front half of the pack. We hit the base of the first climb, which is about a 14% grade for a quarter mile or so. I hard my spot in the pack and feel OK, grabbing a bit of recovery before the next longer hill starts in about another 1/4 mile. As you come up the next hill, it passes under the highway. I was already dropped by this point last year, so I was already going to do better! I manage to stay with the group on this climb and as we crest the long hill it is clear that NEBC and PVC cycling teams are going to run this race as the pace slows a bit. I grab some recovery and the pace starts picking back up. Fortunately, now we are into the rolling section of the course and by rolling I mean, doing what feels like Mach 2 shoulder to shoulder with 70 other guys that would gladly tear the legs off of the guy next to him, if it meant getting a better draft in the field. We roll along and hit the long rolling back stretch on Rt12 and the pace slows down dramatically. I will later find out why. We roll along on Rt12 and it starts all over again on the 2nd lap. I get up the steep short 14% grade hill and then manage to stay right toward the front of the long hill. To me, this is success, I held on for a full lap!!!! The second lap has a few more guys drop off the group in the hills, we hit the rolling section, top out at about 40MPH, and we again hit Rt12. My legs feel good, but the pace on Rt12 is definitely quicker this time around. 3rd and final lap... I hit the steep hill again and I'll be darned, I'm still in the race, maybe 20 wheels back. This is good! That means even if my legs tire on the next hill, I should have about 30 guys to drift back past before I drop out of the group and that should be a problem. Well, little did I know that the NEBC and PVC teams were going to drill it on the next long hill. I hung on as long as I could, just about to the top. As I peaked the top of the hill, my legs popped... Nothing left... done...caput... The neutral support vehicle rolls past me and I realize there are several guys behind me still, so I jump on the train and we roll back up through the neutral cars getting to within about 10 seconds of grabbing back onto the now smaller lead group of about 30-40 guys. It's now that I realize all those physics classes actually meant something.. .Yes, a group of 40 guys goes much faster than a group 4. We cranked through the rolling section and then hit Rt12 and the headwind just destroyed our little pack. We pedaled an even line all the way back to the finishing climb... The results... down 3:45 from the leader and 53/70. Compared to last year when I was 64/67 and 14 minutes down, this was a huge success, but once again, I was pack fodder... I will get faster, but it sure would be nice if the pack would just wait for me once in a while on a climb! :-)

Chillin' in the pack...