Sunday, August 29, 2010

Sanpete Classic

Frustration. That's mostly what I feel today.

This was my first stab at the Sanpete Classic. A mostly flat 72 mile race out in the toolies of central Utah. I thought that with just some rolling hills and just a slight little jaunt a few miles before the finish I would have been bale to contend for a sprint finish. It didn't pan out that way.

I'm not a very smart racer. As I tend to do, I pulled in yesterday's race, way too long and way too hard. I'm not strong enough to reel in a breakaway and then have some gas in the tank towards the end. As often happens, once the race turned up hill, I waived bye-bye to my group. The harder I tried, the more behind I got. I ended up loosing 3 minutes in the last 7 miles.

The wind was ferocious. It battered the group all day long. It made for very slow going riding into it then made riding scary going across and it seems we didn't spend much time at all going with it. When we realized that 2 of the racers ahead of us were from our group a small unit formed to bring them back. A teammate and me where part of that unit but I expended too much energy. I'm not sure what to do sometimes though. In these races, I try to stay near the front to get out of the back end yo-yo effect and to be a part of any action. I often end up at the front though, pulling. I wouldn't mind so much except that others up there would gladly let everyone else do the work. I signal for someone to pull through and yet no one comes up. I swear that I would have to stop and get off my bike in order for someone else to pull. I have no problem doing my share but for my strength maybe I'm working too hard.

For LOTOJA, I'm hoping there's enough cohesion in our group to all work together. I am a bit worried though. Sanpete made me wonder what kind of shape I'm going to be in after the first big climb. I know that in order to keep in any kind of contact with the leaders I'm going to have to go all out to keep up on the way to Strawberry then again up Salt River Pass.

Essentially, I've done all I can for this endeavor. I'll do a recovery ride tomorrow, intervals Tuesday, tempo Wednesday, sleep Thursday, tempo Friday and then my Saturday ride to work routine. Next week will be all about rest, food and hydration. I've taken some tips from winlotoja.com for the last 3 days prior to the race. I don't want to ruin what I've done this year but I don't want to over-do it either.

4 comments:

  1. Ben,


    I thought you & the Excelerator boys gave a good showing in the 35B,s.

    Not being a sprinter myself I decided on a strategy of attack during the last 20 miles. I should have waited till the last climb though as my last attempt at getting away was right before the hill. It hurt, I was out of gas for the climb & dropped off the pace.

    Have to laugh though, me & Jeff from the canyon team duked it out for 13th spot with a sprint. He must have been really pooped to let me & my lame sprint pip him for that!

    I wsa the sole Spin cycle guy.

    M

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  2. Hey, thanks, man! I wish I could have been up there for the finish. You made a good break but that wind sucked! (or blew?) Were you riding Sram wheels? How do you like them?

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  3. Yeah SRAM wheels,

    They work fine, but as I've found with all SRAM gear do need a lot of maintenance. I have popped a none drive side spoke already, apparently this happens a lot with them. The drive pawls have to be cleaned & re-greased way too much for my liking.

    Wind! Wow!!

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  4. You getting nervous yet?

    Good look with the race.

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