Posted by Dan on 22. June 2010 18:42
I spent the better portion of last week sitting around watching the sun kill my lawn. Saturday came at long last and Wick and I set out for fragrant Richmond and points beyond. 20 miles beyond to be precise. Team Nature's Path gathered some cones and officials and threw a killer circuit race at the Meadows near the Kings Dominion Center for People Who Can't Race Bikes Good Or Maybe Didn't Know They Were Doing It Right Down The Road. This course was advertised as having 9 90-degree corners and a hill. What it really had was 9 90-degree turns, a pair of constant-radius loops, a chicane ending with a 100+ degree turn leading to a short hill with a few more curves, corners, descents and swirling winds for days. The 200 meter mark was immediately after a left hand turn and 100 meters before the final right hander leaving little room for a proper sprint. Throw in the heat and you got yourself all the ingredients for a event folks will talk about for months and years to come.
Frank and Steve M. would also be joining us in our race, but before we got that far, we someone convinced fellow Monday night attendee to fork out the cash for an annual license and gear up for the 5 race. Kirk is a strong rider who's chased down our group from miles away without breaking a sweat, so we were sure he'd do well in his first race ever. Unfortunately, I missed the end, but word is Kirk rode a great race, staying near (but off) the front and covered all the moves. His race ended in a bunch sprint where he got 6th. Fantastic results for his first race. We all learned from his race that you didn't want to be too far from the front coming around the second to last corner on the bell lap.
We warmed up while the 3s did their thing and lined up an hour later. Our race would be 21 laps around the 1.4 mile circuit. Wick, Frank and I took the line with Steve right behind us. 42 other riders joined us and we got our last minute instructions. The ref blew the whistle and we were off. Once again, my left pedal betrayed me and the entire field passed by me as I sat there shaking my head. I eventually clipped in and took off, getting to the front after an entire lap or so as Wick led the pack on a high-speed run to weed out the non-cornering types among us. After 5 laps, I charged up the hill and found myself with a small gap. For whatever reason, they let me go so the gap opened to 15 seconds or so. I maintained that for another 8 laps while my teammates did their best to relax the pace in the chasing peloton.
I passed a few lapped riders on the descent when John Hessian of Carytown rolls up on my right, accompanied by Tim Pope of Fat Frogs and Hugh Brown of team Rostello/Cycor. The calvary had finally arrived. Our gap opened up to a week and a half as we worked our way through the remaining 6 or 7 laps. The heat, pace, hill and more heat took its toll. Only 23 of the initial 46 finished. The rest melted into a pile of carbony human goo. Of those that made it, only 10 were on the lead lap. My group charged the line and I fought to hang on, finishing 4th. Frank came in with the pack in 7th, Wick in 10th and Steve hung on for 18th. I'd say we were pretty happy with three riders in the top 10.
A giant "merci beaucoup" to Kevin Horvath of VB Wheelmen and his Photo Posse for the pictures. Thanks to Team Nature's Path for finding yet another great venue. Maybe next year's course could run through a waterfall or ride-through freezer? Just a thought...