Hi everyone,
I haven’t written a race report in a long time and there are some races that will have to be skipped (Chappell Hill, Fort Hood, Walburg, Pace Bend, Fredericksburg, Acadiana) due to time constraints. For a quick summary, I’ll just say that I had some good results at the end of last season (Chappell Hill, Fort Hood – see race results), and some bad results (Walburg, Pace Bend, Fredericksburg, Acadiana) after I decided to upgrade to a higher rank in amateur cycling. This is known as ‘catting up’ through the 5 categories in USA Cycling. Male riders (women have 4 categories) start at “Category 5” and move up through the ranks, to Category 4, 3, 2, and 1, from which professional teams recruit talented riders. Once a male rider reaches category 3 he is considered “pretty good” by his peers, whereas the top two categories contain the elite riders and the bottom 2 categories contain the inexperienced riders. Anyway, in order to move from Cat 5 to Cat 4 a rider needs 10 mass starts in road races or criteriums, to move to higher categories after that a rider needs to place high in finishes in order to earn a requisite number of points. I had 10 starts by the time I left college but I was advised not to move up until I became better. After my results at the end of the season I decided that I was ready to move up, so I submitted my application and was approved for the Men’s 4 races for the 2011 season.
Most competitive cyclists consider category 4 to be not much tougher than category 5, and looking back I find this opinion to be mostly true, but at the beginning of the season I struggled and felt like I would never become good enough to compete at the next level – I had the flu in February and I was dropped after 5 minutes at my season opener at Walburg, and subsequently dropped at the very beginning of the next 4 races. I can attribute some of my lack of performance due to looking for employment during that time period, but some of it was also due to pure laziness. However, at the beginning of March, I was able to secure employment and regain focus – I started riding with the Shama Cycles team every Tuesday at 5:30 AM and eventually reached around 8-10 hours of training per week. At first I dropped at the end of each ride but I eventually became strong enough to keep up, or at least catch up to the group after a hard pull or sprint. Philip Shama, owner of the shop and team worked with me to get the correct fit on the bike and recommended some equipment changes including a lower stem, shorter crank arms, and narrower handlebars. I felt strong enough at the beginning of June to try racing again at Fredericksburg but I still dropped early, although I was able to hang on for about an hour at the Sunday race. This was the first indication that I first started improving so I began to do intervals like I did last year – except with a staggered pattern – 8 x 4 minutes, 4 x 8 minutes, 2 x 16 minutes, and 1 x 32 minutes – 4 sessions of 2 hours each over 2 weeks, take the next week easy, and then start the pattern again the week after. I got about halfway through this schedule when my next set of races came up at Louisiana. I noticed a significant improvement in my time trial speed – about 23 mph, which was far faster than any time trial I had ever done (fastest was 18.9 mph). My friend Ken Day averaged 28 mph over the course, so that pretty much blows my time away – although I know I’m moving in the right direction.
A typical 5:30 AM Tuesday Ride. Photo taken by Philip Shama
During dinner Ken and Jon Sanchez gave me advice on my training – one of the things Ken mentioned was that at the end of each hard workout I should feel tired in a way that I don’t want to ride my bike anymore. However, most of the time I feel like I can ride quite a bit more so as time passes I’ll gradually increase my interval time to cover up most of the 2 hour training blocks – probably up until I have enough stamina to do 2 x 32 minute intervals or 3 x 20 minutes. Also worth noting was including maximum efforts and recovery – both of which I haven’t really been paying attention to. For recovery I’ve been making an effort to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep, since in March I was getting about 6 each day. Both of them advised me to also be aggressive while racing. Even though I may get a better result by sitting in the pack and conserving energy, I’ll be gaining better fitness if I attack and be aggressive off the front – even if that means dropping later on. It’s better to learn these things now than to wait until moving to Category 3 to try them and make mistakes. So on the next day’s road race, I tried staying near the front and taking pulls to bring back a breakaway – after about 2 hours I was pretty much spent so I used my last ounce of energy pulling my teammate Doug Baysinger back to the front after Jim Perrin, the eventual winner, attacked the bunch. I dropped off the back after that last pull but hopefully that effort let Doug, whom I knew was stronger, save some energy. If I had stayed near the back I’m pretty sure I would have been able to get a pack finish but I did learn a lot about what goes on in the front – and like Ken said, it definitely is smoother up there.
Alright – so here’s the main race report. After completing a schedule of intervals I felt strong going in to today’s race, Come and Take It at Gonzales Texas. I woke up at 4AM and went out to McDonald’s but found out it was closed, so I ate some caffeinated energy blocks to keep me awake until I reached another McDonald’s about an hour west on I-10, where I loaded up on 2 cups of coffee, a hash brown, and a sausage McMuffin. After I reached the course, I warmed up for about 20 minutes and met up with Doug, but I found out he was racing in the 35+ category so we wouldn’t be racing together. However, when I made my way to the starting line I found another Shama Cycles member, Bill Krause. Before the start, I saw that there were some heavy hitters – James Perrin of Bike Barn – who won Acadiana, and Tak Makino and Jaxson Appel of Texas Pro Health. I had ridden with these three riders each Saturday over the last year and I knew they would be strong. However, I only had one main objective for the race and that was to stay with the bunch until the finish since I hadn’t done that since I moved up to Cat 4. I felt pretty good about the course because it didn’t include most of the things that I’m bad at – such as strong winds, technical turns, or long climbs, but that also meant that the pace would be high when chasing down breakaways so I would have to pay attention to any unexpected surges that might happen. At the start, the pace was tough – around 27mph – 31mph as some people tried moving off the front but Jim, Tak, and Jaxson kept the race under control and no one got very far. About midway through the course Bill attacked off the front so I sat back and let the others do the chasing. Unfortunately he was caught shortly after but managed to stay with the pack. I moved up to the front right before they caught him and I was contemplating a counterattack, but I figured that I needed to focus on my objective so I pulled for a couple of minutes and moved back after a turn.
Tak Makino of Texas Pro Health rounds a corner during the crit on the previous day. Photo credit goes to Propaganda Bike Shop.
For the last 11 miles, attacks were coming quite frequently and every time the bunch chased them down. The hills were also getting steeper so this was when my legs began to hurt and run out of energy. Bill asked me how I was doing and I told him I was okay, but I was worried that I would get dropped. However, it was mostly the rough road vibration that was making me uncomfortable, and in terms of stamina I felt like I had a good amount left. At about 4 miles to go there was a steep hill and I knew this was where the final selection would be made, so I told myself that I was going to give it my all to stay with the pack on this hill – fortunately it was a lot easier than it looked and I felt fine after we went up it, and at this point I knew I had met my objective and that I wouldn’t drop toward the end. About 2 miles to the finish I started planning an attack, and about half a mile later Jim went on an attack – I yelled at the bunch to keep in contact with him as he was dangerous – and we did, and after that more people tried moving off the front and that’s when I decided to attack – however another rider was blocking my position and I kept screaming at him to either move up or move out of the way but he didn’t budge – I don’t know if he did that on purpose or if he was too tired to move. Anyway, I was angry but it was my fault for not being in the front earlier – so I moved all the way around to the other side and moved up front for the bunch sprint. I kicked in at about 200 meters to go but it was a little too early – I passed Jim, but Tak and Jaxson and the eventual winner passed me up and when I reached the line I counted 8 bodies in front of me, so I thought I got 9th or 10th place, but it’s hard to tell when everyone is so close and you’re not sure who passed whom and when. However, as I was packing my things Bill Fiser told me that I had gotten 7th and my first points towards my Cat 3 upgrade! I was pretty happy with the result but I think I had enough energy to take the win had I positioned myself better earlier. The course speed averaged 23.7 mph, so the speed has been steadily creeping up as the year moves on.
The peloton charges up the final hill, riders jockeying for position. Photo by Rouse Bicycles.
Right now everyone is telling me that I must have it easy on the climbs but I actually find that to be a weakness and I get dropped easily on long climbs – it’s hard to discover your strengths at an early stage but I think I’m developing into more of a puncheur – one who is not a pure sprinter with top speed but can accelerate quickly and go on short breakaways- since I’ve done last minute breakaways before and can finish high in the bunch sprint if I don’t get dropped, but I’m not sure yet because I’m still learning. There is something glamorous about being able to hold off a charging bunch after an attack so I’m hoping that’s what I’ll become, although it may very well be that I’m genetically a climber. Anyway I think right now it’s more important to focus on my weaknesses because if I don’t do that I won’t be able to get myself into a position to use my strengths. So, I’ll hold off on max efforts for now and focus on stamina and resisting the wind through my interval schedule, and work on my cornering at Memorial Park. My goals for the next race, Chappell Hill, are to be aggressive and ride at the front – although from my experience it will be hard for a breakaway to succeed, depending on the weather. However, I don’t think I need the validation of being able to stay with the bunch so it will be better for me to attack and risk my placing than to not be aggressive at all. Hats off to Bill Krause for his breakaway effort and Tak and Jaxson for their strong finishes, and thanks to Phil Shama and the rest of the Shama crew for helping me with everything!
The final bunch sprint – Charles Holsen takes the win. Photo by Rouse Bicycles.
UPDATE: Some news since I last posted – I’d like to congratulate Bill Fiser for finishing 5th in the Road Race and earning enough points for his Cat. 2 upgrade!