2009 SC State Championship Road Race

Posted by Dan on 30. August 2009 06:40

The racing season is griding to a halt. Next weekend is my last opportunity to ride my TT bike (with its new carbon bullhorn) in competition. Celerity Cycling/Team Fitness Together and Hilton Cycling Club have joined forces to stave off the end by promoting the Bare Bones Training Series on Wednesday nights. Even GamJams has turned its mid-Atlantic eye to cross. To make matters worse, I had an epiphany somewhere in the rollers of Millersburg, PA last weekend and desperately needed to test my theories before winter came and I forgot everything while getting fat.

South Carolina came to my rescue with their state championship road race, held just south of Greensville. Not able to pass on the race, even with a 7 hour drive each way, and unable to recruit anyone to make the trip, I set out on my own Friday afternoon. This morning I set out for the race with a fairly good idea of what I was in for. Interestingly enough, the course I thought I would be riding was not only on different roads, but in a different direction. All my Google Earth fly-bys over the course and learning hills and wind directions was for naught. All the hills I thought I'd be climbing turned into descents and those areas I thought I'd simply coast down turned into climbs. Overall, the course was very mild - not at all like the roads we've been riding in Pennsylvania. There was one short 0.5 mile climb with a 6% grade that proved to be a great place to attack on the last lap, but not excellent.

At 11:00, the Cat 1/2 race started, followed shortly after by the 3s. The Cat 4s headed out about five minutes after that. I started in the last quarter of the field, but was able to quickly move up, testing my theories. Turns out when you make it a point to always be aware of your position and are constantly trying to improve it, you do better in these mass start races. Who knew?

As we approached the start/finish line at the end of lap 1, the pack swelled and broke the centerline rule (including me). The 1 km road to the line was very narrow and had no paint on it until we were nearly on top of the line. This would come back to haunt us about four miles later. As we tore into lap #2, a rider near the front went down for reasons unknown. Another rider rode right over him and went into the ditch. The pack continued, but there was quite a bit of concern for the first rider down as he was there to work for one of the larger teams. Shortly after that, the ref stopped us dead on the road and made sure we all understood that the centerline rule most certainly was in effect and that we could only have the full road on that last 1 km to the line on the last lap. If caught on the left side of the road before then, we'd be pulled. Lecture over, we rolled out.

Third lap and still no breaks. The pack kept a good pace (when we weren't stopped) and getting away proved to be difficult. We made it to the big climb and I somehow wound up on the front. I could hear the wheezing and shifting behind me, so I hit it. At the top, I had two riders on my wheel that helpfully said our gap was, "Not all that big." Well, too bad. I tried. We sat up and let the group catch up, but I'm fairly sure there were some that never did.

I was in the top 10 and had absolutely no intention of going any further back. I hopped on any wheel that went past me and stayed on the front. We made the last turn and the picked it up a little. It occurred to me that the sign on the right when we made that last turn said "1K to the Sprint". I remember taking a second to wonder if that meant 1K to the finish or 1K to 200m to go, then decided it didn't matter. I slowly wound up. With a few hundred meters to go, I sprinted, but didn't see a soul around to contest it. I was a bike length from the line when I was overtaken by one rider. Out of 65 starters and 51 finishers, I got 2nd. It looks like there just may be something to this "moving up" thing.

Bare Bones #2 on Wednesday and the Deep Blue Time Trial on Saturday.