Ann Arbor Spring Training Series 4-21

With the collegiate season over now its time to start focusing on the summer USAC season. The season kind of got underway this last weekend with the Ann Arbor Velo Club's Spring Training Series. I say kind of since they were more of a training race than anything official, but it was nice to race with some non-collegiate guys.  To make things better my parents came down to watch.

The course for the day's events was a 1km-ish football shaped course with a little bit of elevation change just before the finish line. Strava gps overlay shown below. We traveled the course clockwise.

 

The plan was to race twice on Sunday with a category 4/5 race immediately followed by a 3/4 race. The 4/5 race was 20 mins + 3 laps and the 3/4 race was 30 mins + 5 laps. Unfortunately there was only about a 5 minute break between the races so I was feeling pretty tired as the second race got underway.

The 4/5's race was first and got underway shortly after the race director's spiel. My gameplan was to stay towards the front of the pack without necessarily being on the front. I did a pretty good job of that, taking a few short pulls here and there. Trying to start a break was frowned upon in this training race, so the pack stayed together right up until the final sprint. I made sure I was in good position while going down the back stretch so I could be positioned well for the turn and final sprint to come.  

As we came out of the turn I was up towards the front with only a few guys in front of me. It was sprinting time with the finish line in sight just on top of the hill. I really started going hard and moved my way to the front. Eventually there was no one in front of me and it was just a matter of making it to the finish line without getting caught from behind. Eventually I crossed the line and took home my second race of the season.

  

I had a limited amount of time before the 3/4 race started so I did the best I could to recover. I didn't have long though, so I scarfed down a gel and lined up for the next race. Eventually we were off racing again.

I was feeling pretty tired as we started out so my goal was to just sit in for a while and try to get my legs back. After a while I had recovered enough to feel comfortable cruising around the course at race pace. I was feeling pretty good actually until the last lap came around. 

We kicked the pace up a bit, which I didn't think was much of a problem as I was hanging in the pack just fine. However, after we took the final turn the legs went full zub-zub. I was in decent position for the sprint, but my legs just said "NO!" as I tried to make them go. Oh well, I was satisfied with winning the 4/5 race and staying in the pack for the 3/4 race. I sat up, got passed by everyone in the main field, and crossed the line in 21st.

 

 

Notre Dame Criterium

After Saturday's race we made the trek northward to South Bend for the criterium that would be held at Notre Dame on Sunday. The crit would also be the final collegiate race of the season as Wisconsin's race weekend had to be cancelled due to some course conflicts.

It was nice to get to the hotel early enough to have time to just hang out and make a run to the holy grail of the south that is Chick-Fil-A. With our stomach's full of chicken sammich and waffle fries we got to bed early.

Notre Dame's course was pretty cool since it was located in a down-town-ish area of South Bend. Other than that there was nothing spectacular about it. The road wasn't exactly smooth, there were some awkwardly placed manhole covers in the turns, and I'm just not a big fan of South Bend. One great thing about it though was the presence of cafes right along the course. A gps overlay of the course, courtesy of Zack's Strava account, can be seen below. We headed counter clockwise around the route, so we made all left turns.

As far as races go this one was pretty uneventful. No breakaways ever had much of a chance of succeeding. Some guys sprinted for the primes (and celebrated gaudily after taking them), but that was about all of the excitement that the race had. Well, I guess the general sketchyness of some of the riders should be noted. I'd say I witnessed more squirelly riding in this race than any other race this year, even the D's, but no one crashed so yay go us for keeping it on 2 wheels the whole time.

I spent the majority of the race just sitting in and letting everyone pull me around the course. I was content to let this go on until a few laps left when I needed to start moving forward if I was going to have any chance at contesting for the sprint finish.

Just sittin' on Zack's wheel. Photo by David Villegas

Eventually the last lap came and everyone tried making moves in the section going southbound. This caused for a hairy couple of turns at the bottom of the course before heading back north for the final sprint. I ended up being a little too far back when we came out of the last turn so my chances at winning the sprint were done. I did what I could in the final sprint and ended up crossing the line in 7th. Results of the top 25 shown below:

After the race we hit up a cafe for some hot dogs, orange soda, and copious amounts of Jelly Belly's. It was nice to be able to sit inside out of the wind and cold air while watching the rest of the day's races.

All in all it was a pretty solid weekend of racing. It's sad that my first collegiate racing season came to an end so quickly. In hindsight I'm quite pleased with the way that it turned out. Going into the season with absolutely no race experience I had no idea what to expect. However, it ended up being everything I could hope for and more. I won my 3rd race ever at DePauw, achieved my goal of upgrading to C's, and finished the year with 4 straight top 10 finishes in C's.

The good news is that the season is really just beginning and now its time to move onto the USAC racing that the summer will bring.

Purdue Universtiy Road Race

With the Team Time Trial over with it was time to start focusing on the afternoon's Road Race. The wind was not letting up at all and it actually felt like it was getting a little bit colder. Due to these factors we stayed huddled in the car until we absolutely had to get out to go warm up. Eventually the time came and we had to go brave the elements to get ready to race.

The course would consist of a roughly 10 mile loop with one notable climb and descent per lap. As in the TTT the wind would play a huge roll in deciding the outcome of the race as it was blowing quite strongly towards the east. The course is shown below:

 

The race started and we headed right into the headwind. The field down to a crawl as the guys at the front had to plow through the brutal wind. Eventually we made the right turn to get out of the headwind, but the crosswind was still a factor that we had to deal with. To make things worse there were some huge potholes in the road that caused some sketchyness throughout the field. Next up was another right turn that treated us with the gift of a tailwind. Thanks to the tailwind we were able to cruise around 30mph through this stretch. The field was sticking together for the most part throughout the first lap. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we had to take another right and head south. The wind wasn't as noticeable through the next part of the course, but it would soon rear its ugly head again as we took the right turn back towards the finish line. As if the headwind wasn't enough there was a tough little climb that lead up to the finish with the finish line coming right at the top of the hill. 

After the first lap the field was still together for the most part. The second lap, however, would bring a lot more action. As we took the turn into the tailwind Zack and a few other guys attacked. They ended up getting away in a group of 5, but the damage that they did to the field was substantial. The field exploded into a bunch of groups with about 5-10 riders each. The race suddenly got way tougher.

At the time of the split I was in what was probably the 3rd group of around 8 guys. I was content to let the break go, but we had to catch the 2nd chase group. Luckily all of the guys around me had the same thought and we worked together to close the gap. We were able to catch the 2nd group during the climb up to the finish line to form a bigger group of around 15ish guys.

"Team Gravitas" finishing the 2nd lap. Photo by Andy Jessop

 The break was still a good ways up the road as we forged our way through the headwind and crosswind. As it did on the 2nd lap, the tailwind was about to cause the field to go boom. Some guys attacked off the front and I quickly realized that this had the potential to be a decisive move. I went with them and we quickly opened up a gap on the rest of the field behind us. After the dust settled we had a group of 5 riders with a nice little gap over the rest of the field. Meanwhile the break away of 5 were out of sight down the road.

After a mile or so the group of 5 was down to a group of 3 as two guys went solo off the front of our chase group. My legs weren't up to chasing them down at the moment, so we let them go in the hopes of catching them before the finish. Now our primary goal was to not let the group behind us catch back up.

As we hit the bottom of the finishing climb the group of 2 that broke away was just ahead of us. Unfortunately the group chasing us was also right behind us. Everyone was emptying whatever they had left in the tank. I was able to ride away from the 2 guys that I had been with previously, but unfortunately not all was well. As we neared the top of the climb I saw one of the guys from the group behind us flying up the road. As he passed I let out a , "Noooooooo." as my legs went zub-zub in the attempt to stay ahead of him. He flew right on by me with probably 50 meters left to the finish line. Fortunately that was the only damage that was done and I got over the finish line without anyone else passing me. I ended up coming across the line in 9th, which I was quite happy with given the circumstances of the race.

After the race it was time to watch the rest of the day's races and get ready for the trip to South Bend to get ready for Notre Dame's criterium.

Purdue University Team Time Trial

Unfortunately word came down last week that Wisconsin had to cancel their race weekend. As a fallout of this we lost a week of racing and Regionals got shifted to be a week earlier. Due to this Regionals would be held at Purdue/Notre Dame rather than Wisconsin. Also, it means that we lost a weekend of collegiate racing :( .

The weekend's racing would be split up between two different schools with Saturday's Road Race and Team Time Trial being held at Purdue and Sunday's Criterium being held at Notre Dame. (Obligatory Purdon't and Notre Damn reference inserted here.) We arrived at our Super 8 on Friday night and immediately went to bed to get ready for the early morning that was to come. Our TTT start time was 8:08 AM and the course was at least 20 min away, so we had to get up nice and early. TTT start times ended up getting delayed a half hour, which was nice since it allowed us to be warm while sitting in the car for a bit longer.

The TTT course consisted of a 10 mile "lollipop" course with one sizeable hill right at the beginning/end. The biggest factor of the race was definitely the wind. There was a very strong wind at our backs on the way out towards the turn around point. Unfortunately every rose (tailwind) has its thorn (headwind) and the way back towards the finish line was really tough.

A profile of the course

Our start time eventually came and the official gave us the signal to get started. We started off right into the tailwind and wasted no time getting up to speed. At some point during the first downhill I looked down at my computer and saw that we were doing right about 40 mph. Unfortunately during this descent we lost Kevin and it was just Zack and I left to suffer through the remaining 8 miles. We kept the pace as high as we could since we knew we had to take advantage of the tailwind. And that we did. According to Strava we averaged a little over 28mph on the east bound portion of the course.

Unfortunately we eventually had to turn around and face the wind. Once we did the pace noticeably dropped and every pedal stroke became somewhat of a chore. However, just up the road we could see a team with blue numbers which meant that it was one of our Men's C competitors. Putting them in our cross hairs and trying to reel them in helped us forget about the wind a little bit.

Going into the wind, pain faces on. Photo by Andy Jessop

 As we got a little bit closer we realized that it was Notre Dame that we were closing in on. They started a whole minute ahead of us, so by catching them we knew that we were doing fairly well. As we reached the base of the climb we were right up next to them. Unfortunately my legs were feeling the pain and I wasn't able to climb fast enough for us to pass them and Zack had to slow down a bit to wait for me. 

After we crested the climb we got back up to speed for the finishing stretch of the race. We eventually crossed the line and the suffering was over. Our final time was 25 mins 24 seconds which worked out to an average speed of right around 23 mph. All that was left to do now was wait for the results. We knew we had beaten Notre Dame nice and properly, but we had no idea how the other teams had done.

After a little bit the wait was over and the results were posted. We won!

We didn't have much time to celebrate though as the road race was scheduled to start at 10:30.

Michigan Criterium (Hurray Home Race)

The day had finally arrived! It was time for our home race! Its hard to believe that its already been a year since I was the guy that no one knew (besides John) who had never ridden a road bike yet randomly volunteered to help out at the road bike race. It was fun to watch and all, but this time around I would be able to get in on the action.

Our race was a criterium and was held on Varsity Drive and Highland Drive. We were scheduled to do 30 mins + 3 laps which ended up being right around 13.5 miles. Course map shown below. Exciting looking square eh?

As a whole the majority of the race was pretty uneventful. The guy from DePaul who won on Saturday tried  to attack and get away a few times throughout the race, but he was unsuccessful as the field quickly chased down all attacks. We dropped a few guys here and there, but for the most part we just cruised around the course a whole bunch of times (although the guys who actually did work on the front might not consider it "cruising".)

With a few laps left it was time for some action. Zack went to the front and gave us a nice pull to get us onto the final lap. Just as we took the turn to head East on Varsity Justin went to the front and started what would be an attempt to lead us out into the finish line and set us up well for the final sprint. At first this was working flawlessly. The field was getting way stretched out and most of the Michigan guys were set up really well for the final sprint. However, as we made the turn onto Highland Drive things quickly went downhill.

Justin had fully fired up that diesel engine of his and we were cooking at around 34 mph going into the corner. Not surprisingly, that would turn out to be a wee bit quick. Justin said that he could feel his rear wheel sliding out from underneath him so he wisely aborted the mission of turning and did what he could to keep things upright. Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky.

I was sitting right on the wheel of a guy from Wisconsin when suddenly his wheels went out from underneath him and next thing you know he was sliding across the road on his side. Since he was just a few feet in front of me when this happened I had to quickly take evasive action. My choices were to either try to bunny hop over him (terrible idea) or to jump the curb, ride through a yard, ride through a parking lot, and get back onto the road while trying to lose as few spots as possible. Unsurprisingly I opted for the latter choice as did a few guys that were right behind me.

I ended up losing a few spots and any chance I had at contesting the sprint, but I'm not at all upset since the alternative could have been much worse. I'll gladly take losing a few spots in a race than having to sit here all covered in road rash and bandages while typing this. I saw the Wisconsin guy after the race and the state of his legs did not look fun in the slightest. Plenty of bloody road rash from hip to ankle with a pretty nicely destroyed set of bib shorts.

Anyways I managed to get back into the race and pass a few guys before the finish. After it was all said and done I rolled across the finish line in 9th. Below are the results from the top 20.

 

On the schedule for this weekend is a race weekend with a road race at Purdue on Saturday and a crit at Notre Dame on Sunday.

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!

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.

Marian University Collegiate Race

It had been a while since our last race at DePauw, but we got back in the action last weekend as we headed to Marian University in Indianapolis for a pair of races on Saturday. The day would consist of two races: one collegiate race in the morning and one USAC race in the afternoon. Despite being on the same course these two races ended up being quite different, but I'll get into those details later.

After getting a 1st and 2nd place finish at DePauw in the D category I decided it was time to upgrade to C's, so Marian would be my first C's race. Michigan ended up being quite well represented in C's as we had a total of 6 guys at the start line. After the usual lecture about rules and whatnot the official sounded the gun (they actually had a starting pistol, felt pretty official I suppose) and we were off.

The race would consist of ~30 minutes on the roughly 2.5 mile loop shown below. We ended up doing racing 5 laps, or about 12.5 miles. 30th Street contained a quick little climb before turning onto Cold Spring Rd and taking a series of quick turns through Marian's campus. After leaving campus there was a decent downhill that we got going quite quickly down before taking a sweeping right back towards the finish line. The campus turns really strung out the field every lap which resulted in having to go quite hard on the downhill and through the finish line to regroup with the field.

It was pretty neat rolling out of the starting line and seeing teammates around, so that was cool. However, as soon as we got through the first corner the feeling of "oh I have teammates this is nice" turned into "oh man the pace is quite a lot faster than D's". Gone were the easy first few laps of the D's races when no one wanted to pull so we would meander around at like 15mph.

Everything was going pretty well and the pack was more or less sticking together for the first bit of the race. Unfortunately Zack got a flat so we were down to 5 Michigan teammates. A couple laps in we had our first substantial moment of the race as there was quite a crash around the area labeled "Golf Course Entrance" on the map. I don't really know what caused it since that was the smoothest and least challenging part of the course. The crash happened probably 4-5 guys in front of me so I was able to react in time to avoid it and come out just fine. It sounded pretty nasty though as all the carbon and metal hit the ground. We're pretty sure we heard a tubular explode in quite spectacular fashion as well.

Coming through the finish line mid-race. Photo by Zack Benet

With the wreck avoided it was back to business. As the last lap came around all of the Michigan guys were in pretty good position. We even had a nice little moment along the back stretch by the golf course when we were all lined up in a row until some Notre Dame rider came and spoiled our fun. After that we started putting that teamwork to good use as we started taking pulls on the front to try to deliver our team to the line towards the front of the pack. I made my way to the front and started my pull just after the turn onto Cold Spring Rd. I was hoping to get myself in good position before the turns on campus as that would really stretch out the pack. I stayed at the front for a little bit until Tim came flying by me. After that I grabbed a wheel and tried to get ready for what was about to go down.

After exiting campus we made the final left onto the downhill. I was getting quite tired at this point, but the 200 meters to go sign was near so I had to dig deeper. The finish line was in sight and I had an opportunity to grab a top 10 finish in my first C's race. I was sprinting towards the line as someone yelled out "On your right", so naturally I looked right only to hear someone come by on my left. Somehow my chain also dropped in this motion so I was left to coast into the line without being to pedal. I only got passed by probably 1 or 2 guys while helplessly rolling forward, so the damage could have been much worse.

After all was said and done I crossed the line in 11th out of 41. I was quite happy with this result especially since we had three Michigan guys grab top 10 spots. It would have been cool to have 4 in the top 10, but at the end of the day the difference between 9th or 10th and 11th is pretty insignificant.

 

After the race it was time to relax, get something to eat, and watch the rest of the collegiate races while getting ready for our afternoon race.