Race Report: Dixie Classic Criterium Series Race 3 of 8 (FIRST CRIT EVER!)

After getting my first taste of a real cycling road race a few weeks ago at the Wake Forest University Cycling ACC Road Race, I've really had the urge to try out another road race to redeem myself from what I feel was a sub-par performance on my part.  I've had a little more free time in my schedule this week as I am finishing out the last week of my 3rd year of medical school on a somewhat easier rotation (Radiology), so I was perusing a few of the LBS websites last night to see what kind of local road racing I could find.  I didn't find a whole lot in terms of road racing, but I realized that there is a great criterium series held right here in Winston-Salem on the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds.  Granted, I ride my road bike a heck of a lot, but to be completely honest, I am very far removed from the typical "roadie", so I hardly even knew what a criterium was.  I did a little bit of searching on the internet and quickly convinced myself that this race sounded like a good idea.  It sounded fast, intense, and full of white-knuckled turns; everything that my current ironman training schedule is NOT preparing me for!  I knew it would be a great way to get some really hard lactate threshold and VO2 max work in though, as well as expose me to more of the world of cycling.  So I figured, what the heck, and decided to register.

I rode out to the fairgrounds after getting off work to get an easy 5 mi warmup in.  The temperature was a hot 83 degrees with a strong wind from the southwest.  I picked up my number at the registration table and continued my warmup out on the race course.  Overall, it seemed like a really great course.  It was completely contained within the fairgrounds, so obviously closed to traffic.  The loop was a 0.6 mi oval with 2 major turns at either end and a large s-bend along one of the straights.  After riding a dozen or so laps, I felt like a had a good feel for the lines I needed to follow through the turns.

As I made my way to the starting line, I thought about what my strategy for this race should be.  I knew that I didn't want to spend time hanging out in an easy peleton, like I did in the WFU Cycling ACC Road Race, so I figured I would control the pace on this 30 min criterium and try my best to take the snap out of the sprinter's legs so I would be in a position to podium at the finish.  When the gun went off, I dropped the hammer.  I sprinted to the first turn and never looked back.  For the first 15 mins of the race I rode over 350 W and lapped all but 4 racers in the field of about 20.  I then dialed it down to about 320 W and continued to push.  After a few more laps, I realized that the group of 4 riders who I hadn't lapped were working together to slowly reel me in.  With over 10 mins to go in the race and a very strong wind along the back stretch of the loop, I knew that they would be able to pull me in if they worked together, so I eased off the gas and decided that I would hang back and recover for a couple of minutes.  When the 4 riders overtook me, I realized that we were settling into a nice easy pace, which was not at all beneficial to me.  I felt like the only way I had a shot at winning this thing was to make sure that everybody was completely drained by the finish so I wouldn't get out-sprinted.  I knew I still had the legs to hammer out the rest of the race at approximately 320-ish W, but I decided to hang back for a few minutes and see if anybody would make a surge.  Nobody did.  So, I took the lead again just as the officials announced 10 laps to go in the race.  I surged hard for a lap and dropped 2 guys off the back of the group for good.  Now it was just the 3 of us.  I let up for a moment to see if one of the other guys would pull a few laps, but nobody seemed willing to go.  I didn't want to let the other 2 guys who I had dropped catch back up, so I surged again.  I held the lead for the rest of the race and tried as hard as I could to drop the last 2 guys, but they were sucking my wheel too efficiently.  I had enough juice left to surge the last lap at over 400 W, but as I had feared, I got out-sprinted in the last straight by just a couple of wheel lengths and crossed the line in 3rd place.

Overall, I'm very happy with my first crit.  I definitely felt like I used my strengths more in this race than I had in the WFU Cycling ACC Road Race, but I think I may have swung the strategic pendulum just a little too far in the opposite direction this time.  Instead of sitting back in the peleton like I did in the road race, I pulled for 95% of the entire crit.  This strategy did give me an excellent workout, but it left me with much less of a reserve for a super strong finish.  I think that if I can find a happy medium somewhere between the two strategies, where I can control a fast pace to weaken the sprinters but still find good opportunities to get out of the wind, I will really find my "sweet spot".

Valdese Tri Cancelled, Blue Ridge Parkway Instead!

Unfortunately, my first sprint tri of the season, the Valdese Triathlon, was cancelled on Saturday morning due to the heavy rain and high winds, along with a tornado watch that was in effect all day.  I was pretty disappointed not to race, but also very disappointed for Jess, because I had convinced her to race in her first triathlon and she has been training hard for the past couple of months!  The race is re-scheduled for June 25th.

Our plan all along had been to race in Valdese, NC and then drive the rest of the way to Asheville and spend the rest of the weekend with my sister Kate, her husband Luke, and my baby nephew Eli.  My parent's were also going to be in Asheville for the weekend.  So, since the race was cancelled, we ended up making it to their house in Asheville pretty early on Saturday, which was nice because we had a lot of time to visit. 

I hadn't really been planning to ride at all in Asheville, because I was planning on taking a rest day after the race on Saturday, but since it was cancelled I figured I had to get a workout in somehow this weekend.  Today ended up being a beautiful, sunny day with highs in the mid 60's, so I decided to ride a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The only thing slightly problematic, was that all I had was my tri bike and all of my aero race gear (ie. aero helmet, tri suit, 88 mm wheelset, and disc cover), so yes, I was "that guy" out on the parkway this morning!  Sorry for being a sterotypical tri nerd!

I'm so glad that I got a ride in though.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is an absolutely stunning place to ride.  To be honest, it is probably the best road riding that I have EVER done.  The pavement is in phenomenal shape, there are no side streets or intersections, and I probably saw 15-20 cars max for the 2 hours that I was out riding.  I got on the parkway near Asheville, at about mile post 380, which is at about 2500 ft, and headed north to make the unrelenting 10 mile climb up to the parkway visitor's center, which is at about 5500 ft.  All I have to say is, I strongly recommend against riding this particular section of the parkway with an 11-23 TT cassette!  Hah!  But, it sure was a fantastic workout; I had to ride the whole time at about 300 W just to keep on top of the gear!  I continued past the visitor's center and rode past the Mt. Mitchell turn-off and descended down to Crab Tree Falls and finished my ride at mile post 340.  The descents down the north side of Mt. Mitchell in the aero bars and full aero gear were unbelievably fast (between 40-50 mph), but very fun.

I am already making plans how to incorporate some training on the Blue Ridge Parkway into my ironman long-ride training this summer.

Race Report: MoSpeed TT Series Race 2 of 5

I got my second crack at the MoSpeed 9 mi TT out in Yadkinville, NC last night.  This time I came armed with a fresh battery in my LYC and a backup battery that stays in my race bag from now on.  I was released from my duties at the hospital a little bit early in the afternoon and was able to make it out to the race course by about 4:30 PM (my race start time was 6:05 PM).  I was excited to have time for a really good pre-race warmup and stretching, but the weather ended up being miserable, so I sat in my car for almost 30 minutes while it poured buckets.  The rain finally let up by about 5:00 PM so I headed out on the race course to ride a lap for warmup.  At the end of my first lap on the course, I felt so good, that I decided to do another lap to really warm my legs up since it was pretty chilly.  I think this ended up being a smart decision.  I finished my second warmup lap on the course just a few minutes before 6:00 PM, so by the time I was back to the starting line, it was already time to line up for my race.  I felt great; my legs were loose and warm.

At 6:05 PM, they blew the whistle for my start time and I headed out on the course.  I surged the first 2-3 minutes of the race at about 400 W to get up to speed and then settled in to my planned power output for the race, 320 W (108% current FTP).  I chose 320 W because it was a nice even number and it seemed manageable because my previous PR power output for 20 minutes (in a non-race situation) was 315 W.  I realized with my power meter this week, even more than 2 weeks ago, that the course has a lot of long undulating inclines.  Rather than riding right at 320 W on the nose, I found that I was riding more at 340-350 W in the flats and inclines  290-300 W on the declines.  I was running a 12-23 cassete and I definitely missed having an 11T in the gearing.  My legs tend to fatigue pretty fast when I spin much above 95 rpm and I was finding my cadence creeping up into the 100's on some of the shallow declines.  Overall though, I am really happy with my pacing.  I was able to finish strong and rode at >400 W after passing the "1 km to go" mark in the road.  I crossed the finish line in 22:00 flat (average 319 W and 24.5 mph), which although it was 36 seconds faster than race #1, was still only good enough for 7th place (interestingly, the same 6 guys who beat me last race all dropped about 30 seconds and beat me last night...I think it was probably the cool weather).  But hey, I can't complain.  It's a pretty stacked field of cyclists, including overall winner Chris Monteleone of Kenda Racing (runner-up in U23 road race nationals a couple of years ago).  Any night that I only lose by 90 seconds to a guy like that is sucessful in my mind.

In reviewing my power file and heart rate, as well as my perceived exertion, I think that I can still drop some significant time off this 9 mi TT.  Now that I know I can't ride much over 300 W on the declines with my current gearing setup, I think I will plan to ride at a higher wattage on the flats and inclines, to bring my overall average watts closer to the 330-340 range.