GSMR Training Race #3

I wasn't sure whether to call this the 2nd or 3rd training race since the 2nd one was cancelled due to snow...but, what a difference a week makes...one week 4" of snow on the ground, the next week temps near 80.

This past Sunday, Jim, Doug, Mervin, Anthony, Justin, Jason, and I drove up to Gallant, AL for the final GSMR training race. Apparently the nice weather got a lot of people out of the house and we had 65 racers in the B race (the most ever according to Bill Seitz). After not getting a good starting spot at the last training race, I was determined to be toward the front at the beginning of this race. I'm glad I got toward the front because the Steel City team decided they were going to put the hammer down on the first lap. Steel City had a large group of riders (at least 8) show up to this event. At the beginning of the race, they all moved to the front and really started driving the pace. We averaged close to 25mph on the first lap. Since Steel City was laying down the attacks, I was comfortable just sitting in and letting them work. The first lap was rather uneventful other than the pace being so high.

On the 2nd lap, it got a little more interesting with several attacks taking place and Anthony and Jason trying to reel them back in. After the climb on the 2nd lap, Jason went off the front and had one other person go with him. This allowed me to continue to sit in and save a little energy. After a little while, the group caught up to him and Jason sat up in the pack. A few other series of attacks continued to happen, but were all quickly shut down.

After we crossed the start line for lap 3, another attack went up the road, but we would not let them get too far ahead. After turn 1, me and one other person decided it was time to shut down the attack and worked together to pull them back in. Then after we took turn 2, another attack had gone up the road, but this time it was only one rider. I knew he was strong as I've seen him at a bunch of events, but was comfortable letting him sit out there and fight the wind for a little while. Then one of the Steel City riders (Brad), Jim, and I decided to pull him back in before the start of the 4th lap.

After we had pulled him back in, I somehow managed to get passed by a bunch of riders and was now sitting mid pack...which is not where I wanted to be as it left me vulnerable to not being able to chase breakaways. On the back side of the 4th lap, a good size group started to go off the front and I was working to get toward the front of the pack so I could react to them, but was stuck due to the large size of our field. Coming back toward the start line, the breakaway had gotten about 10 seconds on the peloton, and I was doing everything I could to move up the group. The next thing I know, there are riders ahead of me overlapping wheels and a crash happened, but I was able to avoid it. Due to all the chaos (which always happens after a crash), I was able to move up the peloton and Brad from Steel City and I decided to try to chase the breakaway. I soon realized that Brad and I were able to gap the peloton and were going to have to bridge up the the breakaway by ourselves. After Brad took his pull, it was my turn and I dropped Brad (unintentionally) and bridged up to the breakaway...luckily for me, they had slowed down a little to take in some water, gels, etc. before the big climb at the end of the race. I caught up to group which had about 10 riders in it and then Brad was able to catch up to us. We all started working together except a few people didn't want to pull so a few of us that were working decided to pick up the pace and try to drop the weaker riders. We were able to shed a few of them and had a good group of 7 riders all working together (Gavin from Bike Link, Brad from Steel City, a guy from Bicycle Works, a guy from BBC, a guy from Velo City, one other guy, and me). It was good that a lot of the teams were represented as we decided to all work together until the climb and sort everything out on the BIGclimb. When we took the final left turn onto the climb, I was sitting about fifth wheel. Gavin launched a big attack, which turned out to be the move of the day as he held it all the way to the top. I was not able to go with him, but was able to go around a few other riders getting into 3rd with the guy from Bicycle Works ahead of me by 30 or 40 meters. I put in a hard effort and really gapped the people behind me (by about 50 meters or so), but could not catch up to either of the guys in front of me. So I ended up third...which I'm pumped about considering how hard of a race it was. After I got to the top, I could barely get unclipped and get off the road...my legs were toast! That climb is so steep especially at the end of a race...I wanted to get off my bike and see if I could run to the top faster, but I just put my head down and kept pedaling.

RMW had a good showing with me in 3rd, Doug in 19th, and Jason in 22nd. I later found out that Jim had cramped before the climb and did not finish the race. I really wish he could have gotten on that climb with us because he is a great climber and I really wanted him to test his legs on this climb.

I want to give props to Anthony for doing a good job being a domestique and helping to chase down breakaways all day (especially after being out of the country for 2 weeks). I also want to give props to Jason for helping to push the pace and getting in that breakaway on the 2nd lap...both of you guys are riding strong!

So far, we've had a great start to the season and I hope we continue to build upon it.


Joseph
RMW