On Sunday, Apex showed up with a noticeably smaller, but not underpowered, contingent for the the Longbranch Road Race. Lyle, Steve, and I all carpooled down there in the battle/battered wagon. The weather was about 1,000 times more promising than Saturday at Glenwood – sunny and mid-fifties. Warming up on the course, I remarked to Steve that this was about the best weather one could conceive of for cycling.
Overall, only 38 guys started compared to the 80 or so the day before. The smaller field on the Longbranch course was nice – generally resulting in smoother riding. We were to race 5 laps, unlike last year which was 6 laps for the State Championship Road Race. It’s too bad Glenwood was used for the champs this year and not Longbranch because this is definitely a more challenging course. Most legs in the field were a little tired with the exception of only a few guys not racing the day before.
The first lap was fairly unremarkable. At the start of the second lap, cresting the rise after the start/finish, I rolled off the front. It was exactly the same spot as the year before and exactly the same things happened (for a while anyway). The significant exception was that there were 4 laps to go until the finish this time (not just three). I road conservatively out there waiting for others but no one came and all the while my gap kept growing. My legs weren’t fresh so I really was questioning the intelligence of this decision but I kept on plugging away in low zone 4 / high zone 3.
By the end of lap 2, the field was out of site. By the end of lap 3, I had two minutes on the field. The sun was shining, my bike was humming and things were going well. My third time solo up the steep climb (in the middle of lap 4), I totally came apart. I had been eating plenty but I had just too much racing in my legs since Thursday night at Seward. To top it off, my fancy SRAM Red front derailleur derailed itself in some bizarre way so I was rubbing some serious chain while in the small ring. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it and the noise only added to my delirium. Over the top, I was happy to shift into the big ring again and tried to regain some composer and time while running through the back half of the course.
Going through the start finish again, I looked back and saw the field closing. Two guys were bridging up to me and caught up on the rise past the finish. To my amusement, they started barking orders at me on where to sit and when to pull through. Sure, kid, whatever. I’ve just been off the front for over 30 miles. I’ll get right on that. They were lousy company, so I drifted back to the field bracing myself to be ejected out the back. I hung in for about a mile in the surprising reduced field, got a few back slaps and then slipped off the back. So, I finished the race solo again, but on the wrong side of the field.
Meanwhile, I learned that Steve had gotten sick and pulled out after the first lap. Lyle was sitting in the field conserving his strength. There was some chasing going on which aided in my demise but I think a big part of it was just me being a bit too tired. What I know about the rest of the race comes from Lyle. Going through the feed zone hill the last time, a Second Ascent guy jumped the field. Everyone hesitated, he got a gap, and then took it all the way to the finish. Importantly, that guy didn’t race the day before so he had fresh legs. It’s only 4k from the feed zone and a super fast finish favoring a small group of riders so it was a good move. Lyle was determined not to pull the field (again) so sat in. He sprinted across the line in 4th for another solid finish. That guy is on a roll.
So I learned something about Longbranch yesterday. It was a useful data point. I can hold off the 3s field for 3 laps but 4 laps is just one too many.
After the race, I went out and had one and half hamburgers and a couple of bowls of ice cream. I’m looking forward to a few easy days of recovery and then one more road race on Saturday before a few week break in weekend racing.
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