Lake County Stage Race 6/20-6/21/09

This is the last weekend in the first half of the season. It was ridiculously hot. My cycling computer logged 97 deg both days, but with the humidity I think the heat index was well over 100. It was a typical stage race format with a criterium and time trial on Saturday and a circuit race on Sunday.

After placing well last weekend I was hoping to get on the podium this weekend. I did not have the team support of last week, but Ben did upgrade to Cat 4 and joined in the fun. Eric and Amy also raced the full schedule this weekend. Marco came down and represented at the Cat 5 crit on Saturday and Andrea came down to help Eric in the epic 80 mile road race on Sunday. I wish I was able to upgrade to Cat 3 just to participate in this road race. It was an 80 mile loop with a race caravan and everything. This is the first time they have tried this in Florida in a long time. I am hoping they are able to do this again next year when I have hopefully upgraded.

As I said it was really hot on Saturday and the crit course was in a new development with no houses, trees or anything taller than grass to provide shade. Our race was scheduled for 1:45 and even drinking water all morning and popping some salt pills did nothing to ward off the dehydration. Other than the heat the race was awesome. The roads were perfect and there was a nice little hill at the finish to really make things burn. Towards the end of the race I moved up to position myself for the sprint. We came around the corner and I uncorked a vicious sprint up the hill to the line. I put a good gap on the field and came across pumping my fist in victory. As I let up and rolled down the other side of the hill the field came by me and I heard a guy say "You still have a lap to go." Oops! In my dehydrated delirium I lost track of the laps. I managed to roll across the line just on the tail end of the pack. I felt really stupid, but I guess it can happen to anyone. It took the better part of an hour for me to cool down and get enough water back in so I didn't feel like passing out. I don't think I have ever felt that bad after a race.

The time trial was to go over Sugarloaf Mountain. This is the highest point in the Florida peninsula at 312ft. I don't know where they get off calling it a mountain, but it was steep and made for a hard time trial. The climb up the South side was not too bad with a few rollers and stair step ascents. There were a couple of 90 deg corners that would make the descent back down fairly technical. After topping out it is a straight shot down the other side with speeds topping 50 mph. The turn around was almost right at the bottom of the hill so I was not able to build up much momentum for the climb back up. This is the steep part at probably 15% grade. It tops out with a false flat that seems to go on forever then it is back down the other side as hard as you can go. The finish was just up a short hill and I made it about 10 ft past the line before deciding I was done. I finished 5th with time of 21:29 over the 7 miles. The winner put almost a minute on me.

Sundays circuit race was scheduled for 10:15, but they were running late with the start. Most of the delays were because of the start of the Pro 1/2/3 road race getting going. I was really unmotivated to warm up. It was already well into the 90s. I spun around easy for about 45 minutes and lined up to start. My plan was to sit in and follow the wheel of yesterdays winner for the sprint. The pace was fairly easy probably due to the heat. In lap 3 there was a big crash that took out about 10 guys. I just missed it as I was moving up the left side of the field. With just over 2 laps to go there was absolutely no motivation in the field. We were rolling along at a mere 19mph. I was feeling good so I attacked and put a good gap on the field. This was going to be my move, so I gave it everything I had. I was happy to get some help with 1-1/2 laps to go as another rider bridged up to me. He took a couple of strong pulls, but I could tell he did not have as much gas in the tank as I did. It was nice to have him there to give me a chance to catch my breath before the final push. with half a lap to go he was done and could not pull through. He managed to stay on my wheel to the last corner where I found another gear and gaped him. I came across the line in 1st with a 5 second gap on the field. A huge thank you to Ben who seeing me attack went to the front and broke up the chase.

I was really happy to get my first top finish and redeem myself after my mistake on Saturday. I am a couple points shy of the upgrade, but hopefully they will consider my high TT finishes and move me up to Cat 3 for the fall races.

Ocala Stage Race 6/13-6/14/09

I have been looking forward to this race for a while. The course is fairly close to Gainesville and we often go down to the road race course and time trial course on our weekend rides. I have been riding pretty strong and the team was willing to help me in an effort to get a podium spot. There were seven of us ready to go for the Cat 4/5 races. I think we had one of the largest groups out there which was awesome for one of the smaller teams in Florida.

The first race of the weekend was the Marion County Road Race. This was the course we have ridden a number of times. Our plan was to push the pace and cover any breaks that tried to go away early. My team mates would challenge for the King of the Mountains time bonus and Intermediate Sprint time bonus. The final part of the plan was to get me in a break on the last lap to try and get some time on the field.

It all went fairly well. Ben challenged the sprint, and came up just short of a bonus in 4th. He was also very active at the front of the race chasing breaks. Justin went for the KOM bonus, but again was just short in 4th. All the breaks were getting chased down quickly by the field. I think the heat had something to do with this. It was easily 95+ and it was hard to get enough fluid down. I started to get chills on the last lap a sure sign of dehydration. Talking to others after the race I found out I was not the only one. So a small change of plans we tried to line things up for the final sprint. Ben, Justin, Marco and Keith Lad all moved to the front, but I got boxed in and pushed back to about 20th place. There was one final small hill just before the finish. I was able to come around guys over the top of the hill and sprinted hard for the line about 500m from the top. It was a bit clogged up and I had to go around a guy on the grass, but I managed to finish 5th. This was only 1 place out of the money for the road race, but I was still happy with the result.

I was going to have to do a good time trial to keep my position and hopefully set myself up for a podium spot in the general classification. They used the same start finish line and ran us backwards on the road race course. The time trial was short at just under 5 miles, but there were a few hills to really make it hurt. As usual I forgot to reset my computer at the start, so I had no idea what my time was until the next morning. I chose not to use aero bars. With the hills I thought they would do more harm than good as I would have to get in and out of them when I shifted. We were happy to see a thunderstorm coming in from the North. It cooled the temperature down a bit. The only downside was the chance of rain and the wind. Luckily it moved to the East of the course and we did not get wet. I managed a good time of 11:13 which was a 7th place finish for the time trial.

Sunday's road race was in Ocala National Forest. It was on a flat loop course of about 11 miles. There was a short spur road that we started and finished on. The tricky part was going to be getting into position before the spur road and holding it. There was a 90 degree corner at 200m to the finish and I was going to have to be in the top 5 to 10 to get a good finish. Our plan was to push the pace and line up a good lead out on the spur road to keep things fast and safe. The race was fairly uneventful. Unfortunately there was a lot of acceleration and then breaking which really clogged things up. We managed to get 4 or 5 of us towards the front on the spur road, but a couple guys got caught behind a crash and were gaped off the back. The spur road was really scary an you had to fight to keep any position you had. I managed to move up and then got swarmed and was sitting back at about 25th with 1k to go. This was not going to work, so I took a chance and tried to squeeze up the right side through a small opening. I got bumped a bit and almost went into the ditch. I managed to keep the rubber down and got by the guy. I went around the corner in about 10th place and hammered it. I turns out I was a bit too far back and came across the line in 6th.

With my good time trial performance and consistent results in the road races I managed to finish 4th place overall for the weekend. My teammate Keith Lad finished 5th. It was a bit disappointing to not get on the podium, but overall I was really happy with my result. I really appreciate all the work my teammates did this weekend to help me out. I would not have finished where I did without their work.

Next weekend is the Lake County Stage Race. It is the last race before a month off racing. It is going to be a fun race. The time trial goes over Sugarloaf Mountain, the highest point on the Florida peninsula at 312ft. Hopefully I will be able to bring home some hardware.

Trip to the Dog Park

Theresa and I took Sadie to the dog park on Sunday. This was our first trip to the dog park here, so we were excited to see what they had to offer. I think Sadie was pretty excited too. Sadie in the car ready to get her play on.

She does like to run.

and run.

She even made a new friend.

I think everyone had a good time.