Marian University USAC Race

With the morning's collegiate race over with it was time to focus our efforts on getting ready for the afternoon USAC 4/5 race. The difference between collegiate and USAC is that anyone with a cycling license can race USAC while only college students can race in the collegiate races. USAC is based off 5 categories with 5 being for new folks and 1 being for those who are properly quick on the bike. Since I'm new to racing I'm currently a cat 5 rider, but I'll be cat 4 by the end of April as the upgrade requirements are only to finish 10 races. Saturday's race would consist of a conglomerate of cat 5 and cat 4 riders of all ages.

As I mentioned in the collegiate post, the USAC and collegiate races couldn't have been any more different despite sharing the same exact course.

Sun's Out Guns Out, hurray for warmth. Photo by Zack Benet

The race started just as the other had besides the fact that the USAC field was 75 people deep while the collegiate field was only 41. We got underway and all was mostly well for the first lap or so. One thing was apparent though; my legs were not as excited to race as my mind was. The big field size and my lack of focus lead to me getting boxed into a slowly moving pack at the beginning of the second lap. By the time I could get out from behind those guys the leaders had put a pretty decent chunk of road between themselves and my group. A guy from IU and I agreed to work together to catch back up to the main group. We gritted our teeth and hammered for about 3/4 of a lap to catch back on.

Just as we caught the main group word came from an official that the race had been neutralized. There had been quite a nasty crash in the finishing stretch on the first lap that required the officials to shut down that portion of the course to clean things (ie blood all over the road) up. As a result the field had to be re-routed through the parking lot to do another lap at low speed before the race would get restarted. I was quite frustrated as I had just burned a lot of the relatively low amount of strength I had left just to catch back on and it ended up being all for naught as the race was stopped. Oh well.

Eventually the race got back underway and the officials decided that we'd have two laps left. Essentially a green-white-checker finish. Not thinking, I picked a spot towards the inside on the restart and immediately got boxed in again as the leaders created a little gap. By the time I worked my way back to the outside they were gone up the road again. I worked with some other guys who were in a similar situation to try to claw our way back to the front. Along 30th Street I managed to hit a pretty sizable traffic cone head on as it was placed a little further inside than all the others. For a moment I was sure that I was about to get to know the pavement better, but the cone harmlessly slid out of the way and I was able to keep things upright.

As we crossed the line with 1 to go we still had quite a bit of work to do in order to catch up since the turns through campus strung out the field and let a gap open. I joined up with 2 other guys and we gave it our all to catch back on. At the top of the 30th Street hill the leaders were probably no more than 50 meters ahead of us, but my legs had gone zub zub and I didn't have anything left. I flicked my elbow to try to get someone to pull through and lead us back to the pack, but alas no one was there to save me. Knowing my hope at a good finish was toast I kind of relaxed through the campus turns and down through the downhill. As we hit the final stretch I passed 3-4 guys in a final sprint effort before cruising through the line. After checking the results it was determined that I came across the line in 46th out of 75 total riders and 14th out of 25 cat 5 riders. A disappointment as I know my legs are capable of much better, but a learning experience nonetheless. 

In hindsight that was probably my worst race yet as far as strategy and positioning went. My lack of focus was most likely due to resting on my laurels from a good finish in the morning and DePauw as well as my legs being tired. However, I think if I would have just positioned myself well and stuck with the lead group then my legs wouldn't have been much of an issue as I would have been drafting rather than chasing the whole race. The big field and wide range of rider abilities led to small gaps opening that I was getting stuck behind. People always say "stay at the front" and today I really learned why. A valuable lesson that I'll remember from here on out for sure.

Next up on the schedule is a pair of races in Michigan (yay!). On Saturday we'll be heading to East Lansing for Michigan State's home road race consisting of about 50% dirt roads. Sunday brings us back to Ann Arbor as we host our home criterium.