A weekend of firsts at the Tour of Washington County

So I have officially been bike racing for over a year now. Not surprisingly, I have fallen in love with this fast paced, adrenaline filled sport. A little over a year ago today i raced my first USCF Cat 4 race at Fort Richie in Cascade, Maryland. I remember sitting nervously at the line for my first Cat 4 race, my legs shaking with nerves and my stomach feeling like a couple of goldfish were swimming around and doing flips in it. As the gun went off the riders tore away from the line. This was certainly no Collegiate C race. I had never ridden in a race with over 40 riders and this 100 rider field was no doubt a first for me. I remember feeling way over my head after the first few laps. My head was spinning with the driving pace of this large field coupled with the faster more experienced riders.

Fast forward to today, June 2010 and I have now upgraded to Cat 3. After a solid season as a collegiate B, and some good finishes at the 4 level at the Tour of Atlanta, I earned enough points to move into a whole new category. This weekend I participated in the Tour of Washington County, a stage race in Hagerstown, Maryland. Below is a summary of the weekend.

The tour would start off Saturday afternoon with a 37 mile road race. It was extremely fortunate this race was not any longer as stepping out of the car into the 90 degree sauna, was not a good start. Luckily, it shortened the time I needed to warm up. The tour consisted of a fairly large field of over 50+ people, typical for a good USCF race. Anyway, as the road race went off I was nearly dropped on the first 6 mile loop following a strong surge up a hill into a sweeping descent. Fortunately, I was able to catch back on. On the third lap a group of riders went off the front. I was sitting about 10th wheel in the pack, and luckily, unlike my first Cat 4 race I had the confidence to go off the front and bridge the gap. Catching the group and feeling the bonk coming on, I did a GU, it really is amazing how a little sugar can make a world of difference to legs in a world of hurt! Re-energized I hung with the group and a few other riders managed to bridge the gap as well. I was now riding with about 30 guys. On the start of the 6th lap about 10 guys went off the front. I was not aware enough to go with them again. I made a desperate attempt to try to catch them and found myself out of water in no-mans land. FUCKKKKK, well at least I made an attempt I thought, I guess blowing up making an attempt at a solid finish is better than just dieing. 4 other riders who had decided to follow my lead went sweeping by me a gamjams, 540,evo, and kelly guy. I asked desperately for water and was fortunate enough to receive a bottle from the evo guy, i owe you man thanks a bunch. We took turns taking pulls and pace lining trying to catch the field to no avail. With about 2 miles left in the race I took a pull up hill and looked back to see that I had distanced myself from these 4 riders. I decided to go with it and broke from the chase, finishing my first Cat 3 road race in 13th! I was more than pleased for such a brutal race.

After the race Mike and I went to Dairy Queen for sub-par milkshakes and then went back to the hotel room to rest before dinner. We went to Five Guys, dinner of champions, and inhaled bacon cheeseburgers and fries. Of course i was still hungry after my burger, 2 rootbeers, and fries so we went next door to Weiss where I bought pretzel m&ms and some sundried tomato wheat things (warning: these things are like crack). We returned to the hotel room where we lounged about, computers open and blades of glory on, reminiscing about the day and the past collegiate season. We passed out fairly early, to rest up for the TT.

We got to the TT course a little over an hour early to warm up for this excruciating suffer-fest. As we pulled in the parking lot and i turned off my car i was overtaken with the sound of disc wheels. I watched as riders in skin-suits pulled Trinities and Transitions off their roofs like knights preparing to slay their foe (me) as he withered on the ground. I got a good warm-up in and was able to get most of the heavy feeling out of my quads before I went off. Before racing I had decided that anything under 28 minutes would be solid. I reached the up-hill turn around well under 14 and figured I was doing pretty well, until I saw 2 other riders had nearly caught me already. For those of you who dont know, riders in TT's go off in 30 sec increments. Before today I could proudly say that I had NEVER been caught in a TT. After today i can say that I have been caught only 3 times, I will not tell people that it was all in one race....I finished in 25 minutes and 2 seconds, i averaged over 24 miles per hour, and i got caught by 3 guys. I couldnt go any faster, i blow chips at time trialing, i can blame in on aero-helmets, aero-bikes, skinsuits, and shoe covers but when it comes down to it I got beat by 29 of 47 in the TT and that sucks.

After the TT Mike and i went and feasted some Panera and listened to a 6 year old girl sing "bad romance." This reminds me of a conversation that Mike and I had this weekend. Bike racing is our "bad romance" you pay money to hurt like hell and beat yourself to death and after the weekend you go home in search of more agony...ok so maybe were a strange crew, but I think you could tell that by the lack of hair on our legs. The crit went well for me, I think I placed 11th or 12th but Im not sure yet. I still await the GC standings to come out. Overall a very successful weekend where i was able to affirm to myself that I do belong as a Cat 3. I am definitely proud of the progress I have made in the past year from a scared 4 to a solid 3. Thank you very much to all of my team at school for helping me with biking stuff and the like. Thanks Cory for making me suck your wheel through 400 watt intervals, JOA for dealing with all my annoying ass bike questions and for teaching me to clean my chain and listening to me as I bitch about my fucked up rear derailuer, Wilson for building up my whip, and Adam o mr. president for all you do.

Well, thats all I can write for tonight as i can barely keep my eyes open and its only 8. Thanks for reading.