Durand Road Race (Cat 5/Citizens Race)

April 19, 2008
near Durand, Wisconsin
27 Miles

I returned to road racing last year at this race and while it might be a bit of a stretch to say that I enjoyed the experience, I was pretty sure I would return to this event. And sure enough, this past Saturday I did just that. Being mid April in northern Wisconsin, weather always seems to play a role in this race. Last year it was the wind. This year the weather was damp and chilly, though without a lot of wind. The weather forecast heading into the race had been questionable and I was proud of the fact that I got myself going for a race that would likely be cold, wet and quite painful. Luckily enough, the weather was not too bad. And I'll give away a bit of the story now and say it wasn't as painful as it could have been.

Pre-race
I had a few doubts about going to this race in the days leading into it. My wife was out of town and the duties of taking care of the kids and the like we wearing on me. The crummy weather forecast did not help but the day before, my son told me something that really helped. We were talking about it a bit and he said, "Dad you should do what you want to do." While this may sound obvious, it was quite freeing for me. As a coach, racing is something a bit different from a hobby as it is directly connected to my business but at the same time, as an athlete I suffer from the same sort of doubts that shape the days leading into an event. After my son's sage advice, I was pretty sure I wanted to race, no matter the result or the weather. I decided then and there that the event would be a fun one for me, no matter what exactly happened.

I got to the race with some time to spare but not a lot. After the usual debate about what to wear, knicker shorts versus normal shorts, long sleeves versus arm warmers, etc I got myself going. I didn't have a lot of time for a warm up ride but it was enough as I rolled around and lined myself up with the others from my race. While waiting, I bumped into a couple of guys from my bike team. I am a new member of the Birchwood Racing team and I didn't really know anyone too well. One of the guys had attended a clinic I taught last winter and it was nice to chat with him and another guy from the team. We decided to take it easy early and help each other out however we could.

Race
As the race started, I could almost immediately tell that this event was going to be markedly different from last year's event. Last year I got guttered quickly and suffered to hold the pack almost from the start of the race. I ended up joining with some other guys to work our way back into it over the 2 laps. From the start, I felt comfortable as the pack rolled along. As a lower category ride, it had its share of scary moments as riders not used to being so close to others did things that were less than ideal but no one crashed and all was good.

This course is a 13.5 mile rectangle. There are hills, some of them steep particularly on the back side of the course. The race ends on an uphill.

As we rolled along the start of the rectangle, I felt pretty good and was happily holding my place near the front of the race but not in front. All was good. I was waiting for the race to split apart and/or someone to throw down a huge attack. As we climbed the main hills on the first lap, on the backside of the rectangle, I was still waiting for a huge increase in the effort. It was not that the race was consistently easy, it was not. We would surely work the uphills, as can be seen in the 500 and above wattage levels that I hit on some of the hills. It was the period after the hills that was strange to me, no one would keep the work going. We would punch it up the hills and then largely slow down again. Not that I minded too much as this was working out great for me. I was in the pack and feeling good. As the race went on, I gained confidence.

At the start of our second lap the pace seemed to slow a bit. This race had a few juniors in it and one of them, who looked like he knew what he was doing, hit the front and upped the pace a bit. He led for a good bit on the front half of the rectangle and I hung out and waited for something to happen. I kept waiting on the front side of the course. At that point I chatted with one of my teammates and we agreed that the first of the 2 bigger hills on the backside of the course would be decisive. People seemed to be getting antsy and it is the steeper of the two biggest hills on the course. In short, it was prime ground for the attack that would blow the race apart.

All stayed calm heading into the first of the two big hills and the effort started as I expected. Everyone was up out of the saddle and working. I was too. A few guys worked pretty hard and started to separate themselves from the rest of the lead pack. I was close behind and jumped over the top to make sure I was with the lead group as we went down. Much to my surprise the guys who had worked so hard on the hill seemed to slow down. More waiting around. Okay, I thought, it'll be the second hill which was coming up quickly. Same story as we work hard up the hill and then largely slow again. It was at this point that my whole thought process started to shift.

As I had trouble holding the pack at this race last year, I was completely focused on hanging with the group. Once I got over the last of the steep hills with the main pack, and feeling pretty good to boot, I knew I had a chance to do well at this race. My mind shifted from survival to winning. It was a lot of fun as I started to plot my race winning strategy. As the race finishes uphill, the sprint was going to be a high power affair. I was pretty confident that I did not have what it took to do that well if whole leading group came in together. That was not likely to be my best case scenario. With about 5 miles to go, I determined that I was personally going to do what I could to hit the finish with less than the 15 or so guys than were then present.

With about 4 miles to go, my first opportunity presented itself. I was thinking an attack was warranted and I was hanging around waiting for someone to do something. All of a sudden, the pack started to drift towards the left side of the road leaving a wide open space straight in front of me. It was as if the cycling gods had parted the waters for me, just then. Well, I thought to myself, this is the time to see if anyone wants to join me in reducing the size of the lead pack. I punch it and immediately open a decent gap. I was hoping to open a gap, look around and see a few riders working their way up to me so we could proceed to the finish together to fight it out for the win. So after I am confident the attack has been strong and long enough, I look around. What do I see? Nothing but a big gap and the pack. No one chased. I was a bit baffled, as not everyone in this group had a good sprint. Oh well, I think to myself, too far to go by myself. I sit up and wait for the pack to catch me.

I rejoined the pack and stayed up front waiting for someone else to do something. I kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. No one was doing anything but hanging around. There is a right hand turn with about half a mile to go before the finish. Immediately after the turn is a bit of a false flat before the hill kicks up to the finish line. In short, if you could get a gap before the corner with some juice, it would be possible to punch it all the way to the finish. It would be hard solo, I thought but possible with 2 to 3 riders. So, about a mile out, with a half mile to the corner, I am getting anxious and think it's time to go again. I was about to work myself to the front for an attack when I see a guy launch himself. PERFECT!

I immediately jump out of the pack thinking to myself, this guy works with me and one of us is winning this race. I hit the guy's wheel pretty fast. I was about to slot in behind him but I realize that he isn't looking too fresh. So I yell at him, "jump on and let's go!" I move ahead of him so he can catch my draft and get a breather. I continue on for a couple of seconds and look back to check progress. I am hoping I see the dude right behind me and a gap to the pack. What do I see? No dude and a relatively small gap to the pack with the guy I had pegged as the strongest rider leading and pulling it all back together. DARN! Or something like that, which would likely be one of 7 words you used not to be able to say on television is what I think to myself. Now, I have a choice, try to hold this pretty small gap by myself or sit up and wait again. I didn't really want to blow myself up only to get dropped into the finish so I frustratingly wait. I planned to move to the back to stay out of the sprint as the last thing I needed was for the craziness of a Cat 5 sprint crash to mess up my season. I drift to the rear of our group and am basically resigned to a lower place finish in this group. But ahead of me, the road looks pretty open and I still have some energy. I jump and work as hard as I can to bring myself towards the front. I move through about half the group and end up not knowing if I was 4th or 5th. I was pleased, no matter.

Post Race Review
In the end I was 5th in the race. I was happy with that result. The day got a whole lot better for me when I scrolled through my PowerTap after the race. I notice the max watts, a new record! I have never crested 1,000 watts before, until this ride. Being the power geek that I am, I could have finished dead last but it would have been a good day once I realized I had surpassed 1,000 watts. As a new member of the kilowatt club, I couldn't be happier.

Here is a photo of me after the race.

The funny thing is that for all the joy I took from that max wattage, I didn't know exactly where in the race it had occurred. I figured it had to be the sprint or when I had tried to separate myself from the pack heading into the final corner. I knew that attack was strong but how strong, I was not sure at the time. Post race analysis shows that it was indeed the attack that produced the max wattage value. I didn't hold 1,000 watts for too long but nonetheless it was a pretty good attack. With some help, I think I could have won the race. Oh well, there is always next time.

In the end, I was happy with the effort. I rode strong, rode pretty smart and had fun being a player in the race. I'll be there next year looking to have some more fun.

For anyone who is interested, my power file from this race is available here. There is nothing too noteworthy in that it looks like a typical road race. There are periods of high watts and lots of noddling around in the pack. One thing that is interesting is that I had pegged my threshold watts, those that I could hold in a steady state effort for an hour at 260 watts. The norm power from this race, which lasted 1:20, was well in excess of that value. Clearly the variable nature of the ride influenced this norm power value but it might be time to move that threshold value a tad higher. I'll have to smack myself around a bit to double check. The fun never stops!

See you out there.