Bang, Pop, Whiz, Grind

Hi friends,

Its been a few days since I've thrown down an entry for y'all and it is time for a full race report.

This weekend past was my racing season's first stage race. A stage race being defined by multiple individual stages over multiple days in which a competitor must complete one day's stage to be eligible for the following stage.

This was the Valley of the Sun stage race and had 3 stages. Friday was the Individual Time Trial where it is a rider and bike VS the clock. Saturday was the Road Race stage of 90 miles in which the battle is against the distance, the tactics, nutrition and hydration, and 84 other racers that want to win. Finally, Sunday was the Criterium stage, a criterium being a short and fast course which is raced by laps.

My team and I headed up Thursday afternoon from our Tucson training camp to get settled in to the hotel in Phoenix for the race. Because of the nature of the Phoenix metroplex none of the races were particularly centralized and required 45 minutes or more of drive time to get to which made a schedule important. The weekend's schedule was executed well and there was no stress about time or preparedness which was great.

Friday's Time Trial went well for me. I did the race without any of the prescribed aerodynamic gear because I don't have any with me on my trip. I was still able to maintain a relatively competitive time in relation to the leaders. It took me 32:45 to go 14.2 miles so about 27.5 mph (Dad hows my math) and I maintained a heart rate average of 180 beats per minute, it hurt so good.

On Saturday my teammate Adam and I lined up for our 90 mile road race. Adam was in 8th place on the overall after the time trial so our plan was for me to race more aggressively and he race more conservatively. Plans change.
Here is the tale of this entry's title.

Our 90 mile course brought us around a 16 mile loop 5.5 times and over 6 climbs total. Because of the wind direction we had a fast tailwind up the climb and that added speed which ended up being added danger. The second time up the climb, just as we crested the steep pitch, two guys got tangled up and crashed right in the middle of the whole field. The domino effect ensued and I was ensnared. A guy's bike flew right in front of me and I had no where to go but down, to the asphalt, at 25 miles per hour, in spandex. Using trampoline trained tuck and roll skills I missed hitting my head and took the force with my right side back, hip, shin, and ankle. I must have rolled too because there are some wounds on my left side also. Unfortunately my teammate Adam was caught in the carnage too and his impact happened mostly on his knee. It looked like I went through a cheese grater and his knee got chunked by an ice cream scoop, yummy.
Bang.
After seeing that our bodies and bikes were still mostly ridable we began the hard chase to catch back on with the main field (the guys that don't crash keep racing and do not slow down). It took about 10 miles of hard chasing to catch back on and we picked up stragglers from the wreck the whole way. By the time we made contact back with the main field there were about 15 guys that had chased back on. "Ok, reset button Adam" I said, "That never happened, the race starts now." Boy did I speak too soon. Not 10 minutes later I hit a nasty pothole in the road and got a flat front tire.
Pop.
There is a wheel service car that follows the race and I had a new wheel on fairly quickly. Again though there is no pause button or time outs if something goes wrong, the race keeps rolling. This time there was nobody with me to assist in the chase so I set my sights on the field and got the job done by myself. I was lucky to catch back on just before the steep pitch of the climb on which there was still a fast tailwind. Just as we crested the steep bit again there was a bad bump of bikes and a crash, in the same exact place as before. This time I was in a position of higher maneuverability and only just avoided hitting the deck again. Some poor bastard's bike went flying in front of me and I ran it over.
Whiz.
The danger, now having mostly worked itself out, became the tactics. There was a breakaway of 5 guys about 2 minutes up the road and the main peloton was certainly not chasing hard enough to catch them. With about 30 miles left to race two, then two more guys broke away from the main field. I recognized the savvy in this move and jumped across the 25 second gap to form a group of three and we three chased down and formed up with the first two. There was now a cohesion among us, so as to go fast enough to catch the 5 riders still up the road. First two of the 5 original breakaway riders were caught but quickly fell back, not able to maintain pace. With about 10 miles left in the race our group of 5 caught the other three and now we were 8. At this point we were ahead of the main field by about 90 seconds. There was again a temporary truce between the 8 to make sure we stayed away. However, when we made it to the bottom of the climb for the last time with about 3 miles left in the race all bets were off and it was every man for himself. My self had already been asked a lot of that day and the fatigue had set in. Unfortunately, I was not able to maintain pace with most and I finshed the day out by beating one of the 8 and placing 7th on the day. It wasn't until after I finished and made it back to my team van that I realized the crash, 70 miles ago had knocked my brake caliper loose and the brake pad had been rubbing the whole rest of the race.
Grind.
Because of our substantial time gap over the field I moved up from 30th place to 9th place overall and now just had to get a decent result in Sunday's criterium.

The day on Sunday started a little frantically when I realized my bike was more damaged than I had originally assessed. The bolts that hold on the derailluer hangar had been stripped out. Luckily because of knowing the right people in the right places I was able to borrow the hangar off of someone else's bike and make mine ridable again. The race itself was not particularly exciting as far as crits go. Everything stayed grouped together throughout the race and everyone stayed upright (All the sketchballs had already crashed themselves out). I positioned myself perfectly for the field sprint. We came around the final corner with 400 meters to go and I was sitting 3rd wheel. The all out drag race started with about 300 meters to go and I was able to pull out a 3rd place finish. It was my best field sprint yet and I have to give myself credit for mixing it up with those guys as I am not built to be a sprinter.
The race overall stayed the same and I ended up 9th for the General Classification. If there had been a Red Jersey for this race I think I earned it.

Now I am back in Mesa, AZ at a gorgeous McHome with a huge TV, my Xbox, a fridge full of food and a Valentine's gift from my girl. There is some funky looking Duoderm healing my wounds and a good book at my bedside. Happy boy here.

Talk at you soon.
Ride on people,
Drew

P.S. I'm not sure if the picture will show up as I an typing this on my phone but it should have a shot of my back wound.

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