The demeanour expresses everything.
(Still editing this. Expect some changes. Others may have seen it differently. But it's how I remember it.)
Time Trial:
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Violent. The only word I and most others could use to describe this. Violent start, violent effort, violent recovery. Violence done to legs, lungs and will.
Pro tip: don't eat breakfast.
The course was a roughly 3 mile out and back over deceptively steep rollers for wave 1. Wave two had a scary winding descent and climb approaching 20% grade tacked on for 4.3 miles.
Short efforts require long warmups and maximum efforts. No time to go out easy. You won't get the chance to make up time later, you've got to push it from the gun. But push it too hard and you will pay doubly for it on the return leg.
I knew that key to the course as to take as much speed as possible into the base of each hill, downshift rapidly, spin up and sprint over the top to hit maximum speed on the way down and bring it into the next incline.
With all the rapid shifting and out of the saddle efforts, it probably wasn't worth using a TT bike. Which is fine as I wouldn't have space for one anyway. I did opt to slam my stem and go with an aero helmet and skinsuit. I also installed a set of clip on aerobars, but wasted so much time getting in and out of them while shifting that I doubt they were any benefit. I don't have even a semi-aero wheel available so had to go with my 32 spoke box section rims and 25 mm tires - at least I had my get-out excuse already lined up.
Warming up is key. Shorter the event, the longer the warmup necessary. Ideally 45 minutes easy spinning followed by 10-15 minutes with jumps and short hard efforts. 7 am starts are not conducive to getting my stuff together. I managed 10 minutes on the course and a few jumps while waiting around to start. Not ideal.
Starting off into the first hill I gradually increased pace and shifted sensibly through the gears. However I just couldn't find the jump to bring me over the top at speed and I knew that, even though I was in the 11 tooth, I should have been spinning faster on the downhills. So it went, into and out of the drops, shifting, into the aerobars, back out sprinting and spinning - but missing something. The turnaround was a bit weird, there's usually a volunteer right there pointing at the correct turnaround cone. Instead there were a couple of officials and a volunteer standing in the ditch and a line of two cones, a 55 gallon drum and one more cone. Nobody indicating anything in particular. I've never seen a barrel used as a turnaround marker before, but I guessed this was the particular marker and went round this, not without scrubbing way too much speed in the confusion.
Heading for home I realised some urgency and forced myself to concentrate better. Smarter shifting, exaggerated crouch, more pain on the uphills. Threw no more time away. When the finish line at the top of the last hill came into view I shifted into the highest gear I could turn, and did an all out maximum standing effort up the hill. Crossing the line with a final throw and knowing I had aced the return.
The next ten minutes were a violent silence of empty heaving stomach, crouched over bars, blurred vision. Joined in the concert every 30 seconds or so by the next rider to finish. A silent cacophony of pain.
Definitely not a bad effort, but I left a few seconds out there.
It might be surprising that such a short effort could have a long effect, but the damage done to the body was definitely to be felt in the road race later that day.
Road Race
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Herd: A collection of animals acting together in an unplanned fashion. Each individual choosing behaviour corresponding to the majority of other members.
A herd tends to group together to protect against predators. even though they present an easy target, the principal motivator is risk-dilution.
Herds can be controlled by other species. i.e. sprinters or trackies. Or even motos, but motos tend to be more effective.
By definition, herds are preyed upon. Usually by sprinters or sandbaggers, or both.
Pack: A pack is less well defined. The big difference between a pack and a herd is politics. Packs have hierarchies. Packs have leaders. Packs have competition for leaders. Pack members will have different roles, such as workhorse, climber, sprinter. Packs split, self destruct and get absorbed by other packs.
Pack members have personalities but will work together for a common purpose. Usually attacking a herd. Packs sense weakness and attack. Sometimes packs attack anyway just to weaken the herd. When the herd is duly broken, it gets savaged and the pack will fight amongst themselves for the best spoils.
When folks like Druber and Little Lord Sprockula use words like outstanding, classic and brutal to describe a course, you can expect it to be a leg-breaking and selective with the pack shattering into drabbles of ones and twos and only riders who are willing to suffer and try hard getting to the finish to fight it out for the win and top placings.
My goal was to get a break going, or whittle the pack down, to a lead group of 5 or 6. That number I am confident I can work over to get a good result. More than that then it's just too hard to get away, too easy for others to hide in the draft and keep the legs fresh to respond. It didn't work out. I have two regrets. Not attacking more and turning up to race.
When cat 4 races on such a course end in bunch sprints, with fewer than half the starters shed, then you know that 'racing' is a loose term for the activity and a truthful account of the 'racing' that took place would be a very blank page.
I don't really get the herd mentality, so I turned to my best friend, Lucy, see above, and her telepathic skills to channel the thoughts of some of the participants during the event. She's an expert on herd dynamics and has years of experience and participation with the pack, so she could provide some useful insights.
The Weenie: "Ok, here we go! Mantra: Don't get dropped! Don't get dropped! Don't get dropped! ok, stay out of the wind. Need to be further back than 20th place at all times. Here's the first hill. Good. Nice and steady. Barely feel it here at the back. ... Crap! there goes a guy up the road! He's joined up with two others who were gapped off the front. Don't like the look of this. Better yell something and then pretend it wasn't me. Good. Two guys jumped across and slowed things down. That'll teach him.
Hills. I'm scared of hills. Better set an example from the back. Go as slow as possible. Yell that there are hills coming up. Conserve. Make sure everyone is as fresh as possible so that we all get over each hill together. Worst thing that can happen is that we shred the group. Then I would have no where to hide.
..ok, got through almost all the race without a problem. That last big scary hill is coming. better slow things down even more for that. oops! looks like 3 or 4 guys are sliding off, including the big TT guy and that scary fast sprinter. Can't have that. Sit up over the top. Soft-pedal, eat and drink. comment on how hard that was. Took a couple of minutes but they're back on. Can't risk diluting the herd. We need those guys to hide behind at the end. Nice. Five mile downhill to the finish. We're almost all together. Lots of shelter from the big guys. That guy punching it at the front has no chance. Last few curves. Cross the line. I did it! I didn't get dropped! Still in the bottom half of the field but at least I did what I could to emphasise the groupthink; and I didn't get dropped!"
The Sprinter: "Hills. Hate 'em! But the cat 4s have been good to me so far. They've handed every race to me on a plate and I've barely broken a sweat. Even though I'm 15 kilos over weight and have may be two accelerations in me, I'm sure they will figure out a way to keep me with them to the end. They always do. ok, rolling along nicely. I'll just stay her in 10th position. Out of the wind and keeping an eye on things. Uh, oh! There goes that guy, hammering over the top of the hill into the false flat and joining up with two others. This looks bad. Better bite the bullet! Ok, I jumped onto the back. There are 4 of us. Now let's kill this thing. That guy is pulling through like a monster but the other guys pulls are barely hard tempo. Here's my turn. Two quick spins of the pedals and pull to the side. Put that guy back in the wind before he even knew it and took a good 1 mph off the pace. Nice! The pack has nearly caught us. Hope that puts the dampers on
things. If one or two others really wanted to work I could be in trouble.
Alright, first lap over. That hurt. But I managed to haul my ass up those hills. Now that we've dropped all the non-climbers it's going to be a Sunday stroll to the finish. Anyone who ups the pace is gonna be made pay dearly in the end.
... Not looking forward to this. Steep hill. Sliding off the back.... Knew I should have stuck to crits. Too far from home to DNF, better struggle on. At least I have some company. Was really expecting to win this weekend.
what's this? They've all sat up over the top. Drinking and chatting! What a well-mannered bunch. Just a minute or two of tempo and I can catch them before the downhill. These guys sure don't like dropping anyone. Knew they'd find a way to help me out. This is too easy. ok, one big effort for the last hill. Don't lose the wheels. Now the downhill. Lots of shelter. Move up gradually. 500 m to go. Thanks for all the help. Time to go to work!"
The Cat4ever Altruist: "There he goes. Jump on his tail. Nice and smooth so that the pack can follow me. He sits up. Good. The cheek of him! Thinking he can break away in a cat 4 race and subvert the order of things. You're gonna have to cat up buddy if you want to race like that! And I'm going to do my best to make sure you never do. You're staying with me in the 4s forever till you give up or learn to play the game.
What the heck? Attacking over the top of the hill? Doesn't he know there are strong riders off the back. Guys who could win this race if we agree to stay together. Better put the dampeners on that. Nice and smooth acceleration, get on his wheel make sure to drag the others with me. Good, he's given up."
"Very interesting Lucy. Any more insights?"
"Dude, you have to learn to play the game. It's dead easy. Run with the herd. Dilute the risk. Your motivation is racing, theirs is fear. Fear of getting dropped, and fear that not everyone is socialised to the groupthink. Be patient and do nothing. Someone else will do it for you. Just bark and growl a couple of times and watch the sprinter. It's that simple.
"Thank you Lucy. But I'd rather die."
"Your loss. Racing is for fools. Now, how's about my walkies? Woof!"
The Crit
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Pointy oval. Turn were manageable. Only sketchy part was where the backstretch narrowed, widened and narrowed again. Cat 4 races are always a minefield, and on such a course where the field would keep together one false step could result in many of us losing limbs.
I wrote in an email to a buddy the night before: "I will attack three times, the field will chase me down each time and Stan the Sprinter will win". So it went.
We started off at a fast pace and attacked every corner, as cat 4s love to do. I hung at my customary place at the back, just barely hanging on. About 10 minutes in a bit of zip went out of peoples legs and I could sense the pace starting to fall off and the field beginning to bunch. The previous Cat 4 race resulted in a massive last lap crash with ambulances called, collarbone breaks and multiple carbon fiber fatalities. I value my life highly these days ($200k according to work insurance), so I wasn't going to take any risks. A fast race equals strung out equals a safe race. Slow race equals bunching equals banging equals unsafe with too many fresh legs for the last lap.
You don't get upgrade points for cat 4 omniums, but it's nice to get some exposure for the club jersey all the same. I don't start with the aim of finishing second (see my Leland report), so the only way to win the overall was to win the race outright. And the only way to do that for me was get in a break or win solo. Never seen a successful break in a cat 4 race, but I believe one may have happened back in 1985 - so might as well give it a go.
I jumped to the front where the alley widened for a few yards, and hammered it out of the tight corner. Got a gap of a few seconds. Got aero and as I passed the announcers, did a maximum gurn - complete with full teeth clench and slobber out the side of my mouth. Gives a good photo op and impresses the ladies. Keeping up the pace into the wind on the backstretch proved difficult and the field worked hard to close me down.
Next time round I jumped again, increased the gap and hammed it up for the announcers again with my best Tod Hetzel impression. This seemed to tick off the chasers and they worked even harder to close on the backstretch. My hope was that if I could do this four or five times, then they might just give up and let me go for a solo attempt and force some of the omnium guys to chase. Or maybe the field would break apart on a corner and I would be joined by a smaller, more manageable group. But at least the speed kept up. Third time around I jumped again, did my best batface with drool out of both sides of my mouth this time, but the exertion of the previous day were taking their toll and pretty much died into the headwind - the field finally made contact. Of course another guy jumped immediately, the field ignored him, and he won the upcoming prime. A couple more primes kept the pace up and we were into the endgame of the last few laps.
Thankfully, the pace never really dropped, things were kept reasonably strung out, we had put the hurt no some of the weenie riders and it was pretty easy to move to the top few riders when we heard the last lap bell. Five riders took off, I tagged on but got gapped slightly and was never able to close. Amazingly, two of the riders ahead blew up, and after negotiating past them, I was 5th wheel into the last corner. The rider in third then spectacularly failed to read the bend and headed straight for the curb, a couple of us were forced to brake check to avoid him and his sketchy recovery and that was the end of that. A line of fresh riders flew past me on the inside and I wasn't able to wind it up to speed again.
As predicted, Stan, Stan the Sprinter Man won the race (and the omnium overall) with embarrassing ease.
Carlos - GC threat!
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There were a couple of riders marking me during the crit. While I'm complimented by being considered a GC threat, why on earth would anybody bother marking someone who has never even gone top 15 in a crit? Why would you blow your wad chasing me down? Shouldn't you be letting me die out there, or trying to bridge up to start a break? Are you surprised when you blow up in the final lap, but not before giving a free leadout to a rider who has never lost a crit?
When one starts the race in first in the omnium standings, shouldn't one try to hold on to first? Keeping the race together meant conceding the win and the overall to the best sprinter in the field. Why not work to drop him? As it was, the marking didn't work too well - I was ahead into the last corner. If I had sat on for the full duration, instead of vaingloriously trying to race, I'd have been relatively fresh and maintained my lead - the odds are you'd have been bumped down even more.
That's how I remember it anyway.
That's cat 4 racing. My regret is not attacking more. The one place I should have attacked, but didn't, was over the top of the steep hill on lap 2 of the road race. It was the only part of the race where I went to the back to rest for a bit. Both the top 2 Omnium guys had been dropped and we allowed them to catch back on. Had I been able to fight my way to the front in time and pushed the pace for a minute, they would have been dropped to minor placings. With a conservative crit ride I could then have won the overall rather handily. But if you ever see me sitting in for the sprint, please shoot me.
Anyway, I was hoping to win enough to cover gas money and a six-pack. I failed. I need to drive a Prius and develop a fondness for PBR.
Some conversations:
Racer One: "I've seen you do that off the front thing in other races as well. Why do you do that?"
Carlos: "I'm not a sprinter. It's a race. You're supposed to race"
Racer One (with confused expression) : "Oh?"
Racer Two: "Those were some really strong pulls you took in the road race yesterday"
Carlos: "umm.. They were attacks actually" - (hangs head in shame and slinks away)
