It's been three weeks, I know, but I'm playing catch-up.
Boulevard Road Race - 03 FEB 2007 - Boulevard, CA
As previously mentioned [02/22/2007 - Oops, I noticed there was no previous mention, so here's some of the teams: Toyota-United, Slipstream/Chipotle, HealthNet/Maxxis, SuccessfulLiving], there were three full pro squads and several more very good riders at the line for the 90 mile Pro/1/2 race. Our team had seven.
We started out calmly, probably subdued by the 10 minute delay caused by the USCF officials demanding lots of riders fix their numbers for visibility. The calmness ended once we hit the long downhill. It took lots of attention to descend at 52 MPH with about 100 guys in the single right lane. I moved up when I could but wasn't able to get all the way to the front. Up there I saw a group of riders escape.
When the descent ended and the climbing began, again, it was pretty calm. It wasn't slow, just not jumpy fast. The biggest moves came from guys jumping ahead to take leaks on the side of the road and then scurrying to get back on pace.
The break had built a two-minute lead by the time the field was on the second set of climbs toward the start/finish. To this point, I was feeling good and confident, so on the way up, I even went to the front to test my legs on the climb. I then realized it wasn't the climbing that would get me, it would be the wind. I quickly retreated off the front to find shelter.
My day started unraveling when the fresh water bottle I picked up in the feed zone popped out of my cage when I hit a nastly pothole before the descent. It was also a hard enough bump to cause my handlebars to drop down a couple inches. I could still ride and control, but now my levers were low ridin'.
The second-lap descent was tough. The bunched-up first lap was challenging from a control standpoint, but this descent was challenging because we were flying just as fast down the hill, only this time it was mostly single file and the wind was blowing hard. I spun out my climbing gearing (12-25) and had to work quite hard to simply hold wheels.
The break's lead had climbed to 4 minutes but began to drop as we began to climb. It was not a frantic pace but solid-steady. I was fine through the first set of climbs but when someone turned up the heat on the second set, I just wasn't able to match the steady acceleration and fell off the pace before we hit the start/finish and feed zone.
I was told later the break was brought back and it was fast and Russell Downing (HealthNet) got the win. I rode the first half of lap three solo, got caught by a pair of dudes and worked the first set of climbs with them. One guy slacked on his pulls, then rode away from us with another guy we picked up just before the second set of climbs. Rude!
I mustered the strength (the stupidity?) to continue through on the fourth and final lap, completely solo. The wind beat me silly on the descent and I started to feel delirious on the way up the climbs. I calculated I was an hour away, but I kept slowing down, so I kept being an hour away. I wondered when a coyote would leap from the brush and put me out of my misery. Around that time, a carload of collegiate racers rolled up to me. The driver leaned across the passenger to ask, "Are you racing?" I nodded yes, and he quickly drove away. I laughed at myself because I failed to beg for help and I wasn't really "racing" anymore. I was just finishing.
When I rolled past the start/finish, they were packing away the official's platform. A guy shouts to me, "What's your number?" I shouted back, "Morrow, 62," and wondered if it would matter.
I pulled in to the staging area as darkness was setting in. I found out later I was about 45 minutes behind most of the finishers. And when results were posted online the next day, I saw myself listed as 47th, the last finisher.
Race results posted here »
-adm
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P.S. September, October, and November 2006 stuff is now ARCHIVED.
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