Saturday -- Mason Lake Road Race
Saturday was the 2nd Mason Lake race and my first road race this year. With my involvement with the Aurora team I have felt it important to do a few road races. Being the "Mason Lake" road race, its not to hard to guess that the race might take place at Mason Lake located on the Olympic Peninsula just under two hours by car from Seattle. This didn't seem too bad until I realized that the cat 4 start time of 9:30 would require that I leave Seattle 6AM. Ugh. To throw a wrench into everything Friday was the day I had planned on cleaning up my rain bike and turn it into a road racing machine. The plan here was to be done with the bike rebuild no later then 8:00 so I could be thoroughly rested before the race. Things didn't end up going quite as planned and I ended up tightening the last cables, at 11:30. The morning came all too soon. Thankfully I had arranged to car pool down to the race with two other team members, Ben and Chris, once over at Chris's I passed out in the front seat of his Subaru.
The Race!
The race was a short circuit race, three, eleven mile laps. The Aurora squad had great starting position; we were all easily in the top 20 on the road. Rolling out, we rolled down the course, made a right on to the course, headed over a small climb, and then started the decent. I suddenly was reminded why I prefer ultras. Descending at 40 mph is one thing, but doing 40 sandwiched in a peloton of cat 4 racers isn't my idea of exactly a good time. Over the decent I'd slipped back a few spots, due to nerves. Then we zipped along a flat section, and took the other right hand corner. Now, I had a great line going into this corner but other riders had differing lines causing me to loose position again.
Going into the second lap, I'd slipped way back and was now near the rear of the pack. The team plan was for me to get out and attempt a breakaway going into the third lap, to facilitate this the idea was that some other riders would attack stretch the pack out a little and then right at the start of the third lap I would go. Nearing the end of the second lap, the only problem was I was still near the back. I started to move up, but it was quite difficult due to the road being clogged with riders. Then Gregg, another Aurora rider, went to the front and took a pull. The pack stretched out slightly, and I was at the front on schedule.
When I popped off the front, I dug, and developed no more then a car length gap on the pack. Two other riders shot up the road. Now we were a group of three. We started a pace line, and I looked back to see the peloton stretched out into single file just holding on. We started a pace line at the front doing fast rotations. The pace line worked until riders who weren't going to take pulls got intertwined in the line.
Turning onto the final 5KM stretch, Greg, Matt, and I went to the front to try and elevate the pace. Our attacks were fairly disorganized. At the 1 KM I sat up. I had promised myself that I wouldn't do anything past the 1 KM to go mark as there was no way I was going to get myself mixed up in a cat 4 sprint with Zabel wannabees.
After the race, Ben and I put in another 20+ miles on the road.
Recovery: 2 scoops hammer whey & 4 TR.
The Race!
The race was a short circuit race, three, eleven mile laps. The Aurora squad had great starting position; we were all easily in the top 20 on the road. Rolling out, we rolled down the course, made a right on to the course, headed over a small climb, and then started the decent. I suddenly was reminded why I prefer ultras. Descending at 40 mph is one thing, but doing 40 sandwiched in a peloton of cat 4 racers isn't my idea of exactly a good time. Over the decent I'd slipped back a few spots, due to nerves. Then we zipped along a flat section, and took the other right hand corner. Now, I had a great line going into this corner but other riders had differing lines causing me to loose position again.
Going into the second lap, I'd slipped way back and was now near the rear of the pack. The team plan was for me to get out and attempt a breakaway going into the third lap, to facilitate this the idea was that some other riders would attack stretch the pack out a little and then right at the start of the third lap I would go. Nearing the end of the second lap, the only problem was I was still near the back. I started to move up, but it was quite difficult due to the road being clogged with riders. Then Gregg, another Aurora rider, went to the front and took a pull. The pack stretched out slightly, and I was at the front on schedule.
When I popped off the front, I dug, and developed no more then a car length gap on the pack. Two other riders shot up the road. Now we were a group of three. We started a pace line, and I looked back to see the peloton stretched out into single file just holding on. We started a pace line at the front doing fast rotations. The pace line worked until riders who weren't going to take pulls got intertwined in the line.
Turning onto the final 5KM stretch, Greg, Matt, and I went to the front to try and elevate the pace. Our attacks were fairly disorganized. At the 1 KM I sat up. I had promised myself that I wouldn't do anything past the 1 KM to go mark as there was no way I was going to get myself mixed up in a cat 4 sprint with Zabel wannabees.
After the race, Ben and I put in another 20+ miles on the road.
Recovery: 2 scoops hammer whey & 4 TR.
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