Madera Cat 3

I just wrote this RR for the team list and thought I would share...

It's taken me a few days to get cooled off and able to actually think clearly, man, those first few hot days of the year always seem to come around as the Madera festivities begin...

Camping was a blast, good spots, great company, the second time this year I've had teammates at a race with our busy schedules and etc., so it was fun to scheme and plan a bit around the dinner table.

My goals were simple, to hopefully TT well and have fun while helping a teammate do well.

Sharon TT- 10:30 a.m. start- moved back that morning- already hot.
We warmed up riding the course, a good way to go and much nicer than the folks riding trainers in the heat.
I took off and was going well at first, but watching my HR, which responded to the heat poorly all weekend.
The legs felt ok, then better, but I did make a conscious effort to slow down a bit and control the HR around my threshold, even though it was a shorter TT, I wanted to keep a bit in reserve.
I gave it more gas around 4 miles to go, then went more gas around 2 miles to go, speeding up from 40-41 kph to 43-44, but finished feeling like I could have gone harder. 24:30 was my time I believe, a midpack result but without any real matches burned.
We headed back to camp then scurried for Madera, where we found our crit start had been moved up by 30 minutes, thanks, Velo Promo!

Team plan for the crit was conservation and a attempt to get the primes for time, Ron was up there on GC somewhere, we didn't get results till the next morning, but we protected him.
Mo and I were supposed to get the primes and let the other fellas watch the moves and ride tempo.
That is the nastiest crit I have ever personally done, hot, large, tracks, and slow, like 21 mph avg slow.
Some wind but not enough to really factor into things, and a hour long.

Big props to the Team Swift juniors, excellent teamwork on their part setting up their sprinter for the primes, we missed them both times, I went with them on the second one and got the door shut on me inadvertently by somebody who was bumped as they rolled by, by the time I came around his other side, they were in full jam and no soup for me, but I did ride some wheels over to a nice split that developed out of the prime sprint, we had probably 5 guys all fairly committed, I was a bit on the fence and watched the gap to the mob behind, figuring this could only be good for us either way if it came back together for a counter by a teammate or not I felt comfortable outsprinting my breakmates if we somehow lucked out and stayed away, but no sirree, we had some bridging as we got to 6 to go, then the next prime sprint made us gruppo compacto.
Galluppo suffered mightily to ride a last bit of tempo on the front and bring a straggler back, much appreciated, dude!
With 5 to go the jockeying and surging that only 65 field sprinters can bring began, I would get myself to a decent spot only to get churned around by the next lap and have to do it again, last lap I went up the right side by the RR crossing and came out ok onto the final stretch, but all that previous goofing around took a hard toll and I was resigned to rolling in safe in the pack.

We escaped Madera alive and went back to the lake for a nice dinner and BS session under the stars, no race till 11 for us, so we could afford to stay up a bit.

Sunday was a hard one, 97 on my mirror as I left town that afternoon, I brought 2 bottles and stuffed a small bottle in my jersey, but I was probably dehydrated to start the race.

Ron was sitting 13th, I believe, so we were going to need a solid break or split to do well.

The early plan was just to see what the race would give us and protect Ron until the field split, which was our guess at the most likely scenario with the bumps and the rollers and heat.
About 400 meters into the race
I followed a fellow up the side just looking for a better position, then saw the quiet clicking of the cassette and followed him right out of the pack, along with a few other fortune seekers, one notably a representative from one of the largest teams there with a man high on GC.
No Z-team, they had a couple guys high on GC- which in my eyes probably doomed things a bit, but also meant they would be working harder back there, hopefully softening things up some for later.
A good break, and two riders then bridged who at least one of them was very motivated for success, I was again on the fence a bit, but took quite a few pulls and also took a fair amount of crap when I wouldn't, deservedly so and I would harass and cajole someone too but that was my teams' hand and I felt comfortable with it, figuring if we could stay away for a while it would pressure the other GC riders and set up a higher percentage move by Ron or Dave A.
We got a decent gap on the bumps even with arguing a bit, then on the rollers IMHO we made a crucial mistake by dropping the blue and gold fella who had 6 teamies blocking, my take was he took tons of hard pulls on the flats even if he was suffering a bit on the hills he would have continued to help, but more importantly the 6 guys back would influence things greatly with 51 miles to go and a one minute gap....



When he went back they went to the front and we were home after a one hour adventure out in front...

My next job was to try to get the HR down and eat/ drink more, the entire time in the break the HR was running 7-10 beats over threshold and I could see how the heat was affecting me, we were riding ridiculously hard from time to time but even so the watts didn't correspond, nice to use the powermeter during a race and get a good idea of what's happening inside.

We had to chase out of the feedzone, but the entire team needed bottles and it was a bit of a fiasco, but we made it.
I moved back onto patrol for lap 3 and went with a bitty move OTF again that contained two of the previous breakmates who were driving it before, DA was there eating a gel when it went, I think we both wished he had drawn it instead of me, I got a vicious cramp while crossing to the lead guy and had to pull up and skulk back to safety, then, while trying to eat Clif Blocks in the peloton and drink all remaining fluids on board, I at first thought I was getting dizzy, as the front of my bike was wiggling around, only to realize I had a front flat, crap!
I rolled backwards like lots of folks that day, my teamies resting back there offered a wheel, but realistically with the cramps my chance to affect things was over.

Rode it in and admired the snowy peaks off in the distance, framed by the wildflowers in the pastures, all the stuff Inever see when bouncing along on a crap road trying not to hit the wheel in front of me TOO HARD.

Anyway, some good racing, I think we had a good time as a team, rose to the challenge ,and played the hand we were dealt.

Johnny

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