Michigan State Road Race

Another Saturday meant it was time for the beginning of another collegiate race weekend. For the first time this year I was able to sleep in my own bed the night before a race. That was great despite having to wake up bright and early to make the drive over to East Lansing(-ish. More like Lainsburg) for Michigan State's Road Race. As soon as we got there we realized that we were in for a cold and windy day.

Michigan State's course was interesting as about half of it was on dirt roads. Unfortunately the wind was oriented in a way that meant you were either on dirt or riding into a strong head/crosswind the whole time. The map below shows the race course. Round Lake Road and Upton Road were paved while Cutler Road and Babcock Road were both dirt. We traveled the course clockwise while making all right turns. The C's field would be doing 3 laps which came out at right around 26 miles.

 As we rolled up to the start line one thing became quite apparent; the field size was going to be small. Right around 20 riders rolled up to the start line with only 14 of us making it to the finish line without dropping out of the race. The officials blew the whistle and we were underway.

We started out going right into a brisk cross/headwind combination. After realizing that I was on the back of the field I decided to take some action and move up towards the front right before we made the right hand turn onto Upton Road. After turning the corner I kind of forgot it was windy and tried to attack off the front. Unfortunately after I attacked I turned around and no one was there with me. Also, I realized I had made a blunder as I was going straight into a headwind and there is no way I would be able to stay away. I sat up and waited for the field to catch up rather than wasting a bunch of energy for nothing.

Eventually the field caught up and Zack and I pulled the field along for a bit. After a little while we made the turn onto dirt for the first time. It was nice to get out of the headwind, but the dirt road with sand, gravel, and potholes strewn about required an extra bit of focus. Zack and I, along with a few others, took our turns working at the front through the first section of the dirt. Next up was the turn onto Babcock road which would prove to be quite eventful.

Just before the decisive move of the race. Photo by Adam Kaye

Shortly after turning onto Babcock road the pack started making moves. I was on the front while a guy from DePaul and Justin (from Michigan) attacked. Seeing that Justin was about to get into a break away I slowed down a bit in an attempt to block everyone from different teams behind me from being able to get into the break with Justin and the other guy.

Fortunately the break was able open up a nice gap on the field. Now it was teamwork time. Zack and Tim moved to the front of the pack to set the pace. Their goal was to slow the pace of the pack down enough so that Justin and the DePaul guy could open up a bigger gap. The plan worked flawlessly and the break was gone.

As we passed the finish line for the first time we got some encouragement from our coach Kurt who told us that our blocking strategy was working. Nothing too eventful happened in the second lap, although we did lose a few guys off the back while going into the headwind. After passing the finish line after the second lap our coach told us that the break was completely out of reach (mission accomplished) and the race was now for 3rd place.

It took quite a long time for the guys in the field from other schools to realize what we were up to. I was next to a few of the guys as they said, "Hey, Michigan has a guy in the break. They aren't going to want to do any work to bring them back!" After that they tried attacking us to bring the pace up, but it was completely in vain as the break was long gone.

The race was winding down and we were on the final stretch of dirt on Babcock road. I could see the final turn onto pavement coming so I wanted to move to the front in an effort to not get boxed in. As I passed Tim I told him to grab my wheel. Unfortunately his wheels managed to find a pothole right as we swung out behind me and he went down.

It was about this point when my strategy turned to mush.  I went to the front for the final stretch towards the finish, which isn't the best move as drafting someone would have saved energy. I was getting antsy and ended up starting my sprint WAYYYY too early. I should have waited a couple hundred more meters since the finish was uphill, into the wind, and about 100 meters farther down the road than I thought it was. I ended up burning out way before the finish line and getting passed by everyone that was left in the group. Oh well, it was still good enough to get me 7th in the race and make it 3 top tens for Michigan.

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After the race it was time to relax, get some lunch with my parents, and watch the rest of the day's races. After everyone was done we loaded up the van's and headed back to Ann Arbor to get ready for Sunday's race - Our home criterium!