Posted by Dan on 30. September 2010 16:20
by Andrew Vann
Since Frank just abused the entire team page over his cycling chronicles these last few weeks and than gave me the invite to provide my insight into last week's adventure I just couldn't pass it up.
If you read Frank's reports and believe even half of his skewed view on cycling and life in general some of the stuff he put down is actually true. So yes I am new to the racing world, I have been putting off racing for a while with multiple excuses but when Frank approached me about going down to SC and racing Saturday and watching the pros Sunday nothing even close to an excuse came to mind. Even Wick considered coming down, however he opted to stay at home and race and extreme 12.5 miles on Sunday at a team tri, in full Frank Cundiff fashion "I'll let him write his own race report" in the meantime on to the Cat 5 race.
So Frank and I met up on Friday afternoon and ran through the checklist: stingers, cliff bars, bikes, bags, pb and j sandwiches, water bottles... we had it all, almost even snaked Wick's Edge Tubulars off his Scott sitting in the garage, but in an attempt to clear some gulit I gave him a call and told him what I was about to do. After multiple expletives and other hateful words the most truthful thing Wick might have ever said came up, "dude your racing Cat 5 wheels don't matter". So the wheels stayed.
The drive went about as well as a 8 hour drive can, it even provided multiple alternatives to racing on Saturday, the John Deere Museum of North Carolina was having a special exhibit on Sat, the motor speed way in Charlotte had some sort of drag race extravaganza going on all weekend, even the local bar 4 miles away from the race was having a corn hole tournament all day on Saturday, the Cundiff/Vann team could have been a dominate force at that one. However all roads somehow pointed to the South Carolina State Championship. Getting there early Frank and I went up to register and check in. After cleaning bikes, Frank took me under his wing and showed me how to crumple my number, how you need 6 pins to pin that sucker on, how to fold it just right so it lays flat and you wont look like a full on Cat 5er....thanks Frank. However that is all, that detailed garbage about of how to fill a water bottle, which one to give to when, how to preciously make sure your Red Bull Water mixture is exactly 50/50, that he wrote about in his race report is just that, GARBAGE. I am new but I am not stupid.
Frank's race started at 10:30, mine started at 2, so after I got Frank on his way, I decided it would be a great time to go grab one last minute pre-race snack, I started with the idea of getting something fairly substantial and health, ended up stomaching a greasy breakfast sandwich from just about the sketchiest gas station I have ever been. Whatever "racing Cat 5 food don't matter".
I get back in time to start throwing bottles at Frank as he is getting through his race, and watched the Cat 1,2 race finish. Soon I see some more riders show up looking like they just finished thier long Saturday ride. However as I start getting ready for my race I soon realize these guys are my fellow Cat 5ers. I went into this experience not knowing how I would measure up but let me tell you as I was warming up I was liking how my odds were shaping up.
Soon I hear them rallying all the Cat 5 racers in the parking lot. Someone once wrote on facebook that he was nervous and had butterflies before his first race in a new Cat, and I figured if there was ever a time I might feel this same thing it would be then, so I waited thinking something like that might come, but it never did.....bummer right? Oh well, after getting my first pre race safety brief and getting called out for tactically folding my number so is was smaller I was off. MY FIRST RACE!
Once settling in and looking around I truly understood what Wick and Frank meant by Cat 5 guys. Let me take you through the line up, Camel backs, Red Tail lights on seat post, guys that didn't crumple their number so it was fluttering around in the breeze against their jersey, rear de-railers out of alignment (had a great soundtrack while riding in the pack), and tons of saddle bags with flat kits inside. Sweet, no need for a neutral support vehicle, half the racers can help me fix my flat. Maybe the next time Dan has a time trail he should ride with some of these guys. What? Too Soon? I was trying to lay low and just feel it out the first lap of my race. I figured i would just learn the course and see if I could identify a few stronger riders in the pack, solid strategy for the first 15 miles right?
Well boredom and frustration soon set in the pack acted like an accordion pretty much the whole time, people like to feel good about themselves and blast off the front when it was their turn to pull and then whomever else up there only seems to feel like they are racing if they are immediately accelerating to close the gap. After taking another turn up that the front and getting frustrated when no one would take their turn I tried to start a break. Opened up a 20 sec gap or so, looked back no one came. SOLID, stood up and let the pack absorb me. The next 30 miles went just like like the first 5 slow and yeah just slow. Finally on the last lap saw another guy break, awesome, there was hope. Got to give him credit, Taylor Little as I later found out on Sunday is a local Ashville rider that has been doing work on Cat 2 guys back home in NC on the hills, and is a strong wheel to be behind and working with. He and I got together and opened up enough of a gap that the main pack lost sight of us.
Things were looking good, 4 miles left only 2 of us up front, not bad for my first race. Then the cramps showed up, sweet. Maybe it was the awesome goodness I ate earlier from the gas station, maybe it was the lack of Wick's wheels on my frame, maybe I didn't drink enough Pedialyte with Frank the night before, but bottom line they were there and weren't going away. I tried to hang with Taylor and just suck his wheel, that didn't happen. Ended up sitting up again and stretching out and getting absorbed by the pack.
So great it was coming down to the sprint and I was focused on positioning myself for the last couple hundred meters in some sort of fashion that I would have a chance a second. This is where you can truly say I am still a Cat 5, and lacking some key experience. Long story short, I get boxed in and end up pulling out a seventh.
Sunday was legit. Our recovery ride turned into a 28 mile loop of the road course the pros were going to ride in a couple hours. Franks eyes were huge when he saw all the free promotions stuff venders were giving away. He even got a new pair of socks, maybe the green ones will finally be retired. We established that I can provide more power to a Bissell vacuum than Frank, and went and tracked down a few free water bottles when we camped out just after the feed zone during the pro race.
So I left SC hooked, I want more, a little tweaked about the result but not to upset. The goal now is to get to Cat 4 before the next deployment and see if I can maintain some sort of level of fitness while floating out there in the sandbox. So bring on the cold weather gear, plan on starting the winter training and getting a solid start on the '11 season, thanks Frank for the suggestion of driving down to SC and thanks Celerity Cycling for adopting me, guess I am truly am the redheaded Cat 5er of the team...for now.