Pain and suffering is what was handed down on Saturday, May 15th for the LaRue-Denzer-LaRue road race which turned out to be a true race of attrition. Mother Nature handed out one of the nicest days for cycling in spring with temps ranging in the low 70’s. The course though was anything but nice to those who don’t care for roads that pitch to the sky. Two long, grueling climbs per lap led to many burning legs and seared lungs as riders churned out the climbs.
Cat 3’s started out fairly mild with the first few accelerations waiting until the mid-section of the first climb on the half-lap. Half of the field was shattered off the back after the first climb. The front group continued to get smaller each time up the massive climbs. The real action started on the last lap of the race when an attack went off the front on the first climb. The attack was quite impressive to say the least. Jordan Cullen, a junior and Cat 3 racer bolted off the front like there was no incline at all. I would say it was like Contador attacking on the first opportunity he could in last year’s TdF. The attack was so impressive it took 8 of us in a rotating pace line over 5 miles to pull back the break. Cullen threw off another great attack on the Denzer climb and got away from the field again but was swallowed up with about 4 miles to go. He gave us all a good tutorial on how to climb.
The last miles were all downhill and the tactics started to play out. On the last descent, a rider from the XXX Racing team sprinted and I grabbed his wheel. Once he tired I threw off my own attack hoping to create a gap on the field. It didn’t work. I sprinted hard to catch the back of the pack and without warning, my right hamstring turned into concrete and cramped severely. I sat up and rolled in for 8th place. Ouch, that hurt. Legs are still feeling the beating almost a week later.
It was a painful but fun day. Descending the hills after the climbs was a welcome relief but took some serious concentration because we flew down the hills at 50+ mph. Top speed on the day for me was 51.4 mph. The Madone 6.9 floats on descents. Without having any weight advantage I was able to easily coast by others on the descent. The bike’s frame and the wheels ceramic bearings all most likely played a factor in the superior descending. Fun stuff, look forward to doing it again next year.
Congrats to all who braved the hills on Freedom and Denzer roads!
Team Extreme results on the day: Cat M4/5 – Terence Beilfuss; Cat 3 – Travis Heller 8th; Cat M3/4 – Jeff Melcher 1st; Rick Amen 8th; and Brian Petted 18th.
Cat 3’s started out fairly mild with the first few accelerations waiting until the mid-section of the first climb on the half-lap. Half of the field was shattered off the back after the first climb. The front group continued to get smaller each time up the massive climbs. The real action started on the last lap of the race when an attack went off the front on the first climb. The attack was quite impressive to say the least. Jordan Cullen, a junior and Cat 3 racer bolted off the front like there was no incline at all. I would say it was like Contador attacking on the first opportunity he could in last year’s TdF. The attack was so impressive it took 8 of us in a rotating pace line over 5 miles to pull back the break. Cullen threw off another great attack on the Denzer climb and got away from the field again but was swallowed up with about 4 miles to go. He gave us all a good tutorial on how to climb.
The last miles were all downhill and the tactics started to play out. On the last descent, a rider from the XXX Racing team sprinted and I grabbed his wheel. Once he tired I threw off my own attack hoping to create a gap on the field. It didn’t work. I sprinted hard to catch the back of the pack and without warning, my right hamstring turned into concrete and cramped severely. I sat up and rolled in for 8th place. Ouch, that hurt. Legs are still feeling the beating almost a week later.
It was a painful but fun day. Descending the hills after the climbs was a welcome relief but took some serious concentration because we flew down the hills at 50+ mph. Top speed on the day for me was 51.4 mph. The Madone 6.9 floats on descents. Without having any weight advantage I was able to easily coast by others on the descent. The bike’s frame and the wheels ceramic bearings all most likely played a factor in the superior descending. Fun stuff, look forward to doing it again next year.
Congrats to all who braved the hills on Freedom and Denzer roads!
Team Extreme results on the day: Cat M4/5 – Terence Beilfuss; Cat 3 – Travis Heller 8th; Cat M3/4 – Jeff Melcher 1st; Rick Amen 8th; and Brian Petted 18th.
No comments:
Post a Comment