Ending the season with the Texas State Road Race

Still finishing in the top 10!

For those of you that missed the race report which was published back a few months ago in the Texas Racing Post Magazine, I am going to repost it here to my blog. Give it a read and let me know what you think. Unlike the magazine write up I have Sunday's race here.

After my 5th place finish at Chappell Hill, I found time for some consistent training and recovery. I made it through a heavy round of antibiotics and was finally able to breathe normally through my nose (my first time since being back home from Europe).

Up next was the Texas State Championships at Ft Hood, which is always an exciting time for me. I cannot think of a course that is better suited for my style of racing: long open roads exposed to the winds, plus a couple really steep long hills to break things up. The Ft. Hood Challenge  marked the end of a long hard season of racing (followed by tacos with the coach, at some place with some great fried avocados, to cap it off).

Lining up at the start line of the Pro 1 field, it was clear who I had to mark. Just like Chappell Hill, Super Squadra and Boneshaker would be sporting full teams. To add to the list, the Military Cycling team also brought a large squad to the race. With a smaller field than usual road races, it was extra important to keep tabs on these teams.

The start of the race was smooth, thanks to the near perfect weather that day. Compared to the previous years where it was raining (2012) and 30 mph crosswinds (2013), this year it was like rainbows and butterflies.

Just like clockwork, the guys who always go for the early move made their efforts to get off the front. Not to drop any names, but… Grant and Steven of Super Squadra both got in what would be the early move of about 6 riders that included one of the Military Cycling guys. I made sure that no one from Boneshaker snuck a guy across without me being closeby. With still close to 99 miles left to race, I had to be very smart with who I let to bridge to the early move.

As we head into the first half hour of the race, many of the big names were being patient. I was sure that many of them knew with the calm winds that they would have to wait to till the few short yet very steep climbs to be able to flex their legs. The smaller field at the Texas State Championships mixed with the full road racing made it super easy to move from the back to the front and watch every single racer. I was staying patient towards the middle-back to making sure to take on lots of fluids and gels.

Before long, the moto ref came by and told us that the lead group of six now had a gap close to 2 min 30s up the road. That promoted a sense of urgency within the pack because we were still within the first 20 miles of the race and the break was already miles up the road. Boneshaker started to be aggressive at every possible moment to try fire up the field and initiate a chase. They launched numerous two-person attacks, slingshotting from the last wheel to off the front...back to back to back. Luckily, I made sure to never be too close to the front so I never found myself chasing by solo.  Eventually Brett Crosby and Logan Hutchings would go up the road with Colin from Elbowz. This would form the first “real chase group” between the peloton and the leaders. At this point, each big team had guys up the road and I was still in the pack. I stayed calm, knowing there was still over 66 miles of racing to go.

Towards the end of the first lap (there were three laps total at 33 miles per lap), a second chase group went up the road. A chase group that included Nick Torraca from Boneshaker, Andrew Willis, and Military Cycling rider. I kept calm but I knew that I needed to start flexing my legs soon if I wanted any chance to bring back the chasers and the early break.

As we approached the first big climb on the second lap, Boneshaker was still laying down some massive attacks. I can tell they wanted to get Heath or Sheehan up the road as well. I eventually got into a 3 man group with both of them. This would mark the first time this race that I finally was in a move that I felt was worth working in. I took some strong pulls with them but a slowly disintegrating pack was in hot pursuit and brought us back into the group.

Once we were caught, it was obvious that the field was losing steam and it was only going to take a few more hard efforts like that to break the field. Heading into the long stairstep climb on the second lap, around 50 miles in, Heath was dangling 3 seconds off the front. At the base of the climb, I saw that Heath and the field were climbing at about the same rate. I subtly moved up to about 4th wheel and was waiting till we got to the second step of the climb before I launched any sort of attack.

Early moments of the 50 mile bridge attempt

Hitting the second kicker of the climb, I dug deep and launched an attack around the front of the pack. I quickly closed the gap to Heath and kept the speed going around him towards the crest of the climb. As I made it over, I looked back to see Heath was the only one on my wheel leaving a sizable gap to the rest of the pack. The two of us quickly got into a rhythm and started the chase. I was doing the math in my head: 1 minute to chase group of two, 1:30 to a chase group of of four, and 4:30 minutes to the early break of six and about 50 miles left of a 99 mile race to do it. As I was working with Heath, I looked back to happily see no organized chase from the pack. It was a straight shot to the finish.

We quickly closed down the minute gap of the two chasers in front of us. We would end up catching both Logan (Boneshaker) and Bret (Giant) which meant that the Nick group that started behind the Logan, Bret, Colin group, must have gone through and picked up Colin on their way to bring back the leaders.

We worked hard as a group of 4 for a few miles before it was back down to just me and Heath. By this point, the Nick group was within 30 seconds and we were able to close down the gap a few minutes later. At this point we were now in a strong chase group of about 6 riders. It was 6 chasing 6 and I knew that the early break was going to start feeling some fatigue soon as we started to approach the end of the second lap. I was feeling better about my chances of getting a result.

As the six of us were working well together, it was obvious that there was no way that all of us were going to catch the leaders. Slowly, but surely we started to lose riders. Before long we were heading into the first few hard climbs of the final lap and were down to four chasers. At this point in the race, we caught one of the leaders who dropped off the pace and now it was four chasing five  The time gap at this point was around two minutes and closing.

Nick, Heath, Andrew, and I were all working strong on the flats and rollers. It was the occasional punchy climb that would break up the momentum. At about 70 miles into the race, we were approaching the large stairstep climb, the same climb I started my chase just a lap earlier. We were down to just three chasers now. The break was just 1 min 15 sec up the road and we just caught Steven from the early move, leaving only four guys up the road.

As we were heading up the climb, I took the front to keep the pace as high as possible. I was thinking the sooner we catch the front group, the better things would be. I eventually saw I was starting to gap off my break away partners, and I did not think I could finish closing the gap by myself. I slowed down towards the top for the group to catch up to me. A mile later, I realized that both Nick and Steven were gone, leaving just me and Heath back to our original two-man chase group that we started 33 miles earlier. The break started to pull away from us again as the two of us were starting to feel the effects of our hard efforts.

Over one of the raisers with about 10 miles to go, I decided to put in an effort to see if I can go on by myself to the finish. I knew at this point, the break way too far up the road for a chance at the win, but 5th place would not be too bad. I quickly found myself solo and chasing the the leaders after a hard attack on a short pitch. I settled down into a hard tempo and knew that the worst place I could get was 5th.

I could not be more wrong. With about 8km to go to the finish line, I could feel the all too familiar feeling of a rear flat tire. I cursed my misfortune at having a flat. Luckily, I yelled over for the moto ref to bring the wheel vehicle up to me so I can change my flat. I rode my rear flat for just over a mile before I heard the honk of the follow vehicle. As I dismounted to change my flat, I could see the chasing pack was bearing down on me quickly. My for sure chance of 5th place was gone.

As I got back on my bike, I was caught by a two-man group that included Matt Stephans and Adam Koble. I sat behind them and told them I was not going to work with them, my race at that point is done. I knew my legs did not have many hard efforts considering how hard I had pushed myself for the last 50 miles.

I sat behind both of them as we started to approach the final kilometer, I was hoping that there would be no cat and mouse games since the chasing peloton was right on our heels. With about 500 meters to go Kevin Girkins of Super Squadra bridged across to my group of three. Just as he made contact with us, Adam started the sprint from a long way out. I sat on Matt waiting for the right moment to try to go around both of them. Just as I stood to give my season one last effort for the line, my rear tire blew out. I immediately sat down and kept the pace as high as I can to get across the line without crashing myself. Kevin was gapped off and I knew I could still roll across the line in front of him if I kept things upright. I would end up finishing in between Matt and Kevin for a solid 7th place.

7th place with two flats in the final 10 km of a road race. Ehh. This was a race that I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well in, and it seemed like the hard work came together with great form and fitness to cap off the season here at Ft. Hood. This was a really good motivator to start the offseason and to move forward into 2015 with.

Texas State Age Based State Championships.

I had a very frustrating race at this event. I was coming back as the u23 state champion of two consecutive years and I was eager to defend my title in a field of mixed categories. However, bad luck left me with an early flat. I was able to get a very slow wheel change and made my chase to catch back on. Once I made it back on, I flatted just 15 minutes later. I asked the follow vehicle if he can pace me back on, considering it was now 2 flats in such a small time frame. He quickly denied me any help, leaving me to try to chase back by myself for a second time. This time, I was not so lucky as the field was heading into a series of hard climbs and they were attacking at full tilt at the front of the group. I completed this lap mostly solo and, called it day.

4 flats in 2 days is a new record for me. I have not had any flats all season until this weekend. It was a shame that I could not cap off the season with a proper defense of my u23 state championship title.

Chasing back onto the peloton for the last time of 2014