Last night was the 3rd race out at Portland International Raceway...a 1.9 mile closed automobile race course that they open up for bicycle racing on Monday and Tuesday nights during the summer. I've never raced in the road race before, but have raced short track XC out there in the past. The track is a pretty simple layout, just one really tight corner, two long straights and a couple of wide turns. The pavement is smooth and has very few objects on it that could cause flats so it's a nice venue to race on.
As wide as the track is you would think there would be enough room for people to maneuver, spread out and keep things safe for all those racing. However, there are some aggressive people that come out to race and from the looks of it could care less about their body, bike or anybody else for that matter...they want a line and they are going to take it...even in lap 2 of 12...Makes no sense at all, but some people are just JERKS regardless of whether it's on the track, in their car, at work, at home...just doesn't matter it's just in their nature. People need to rember that this is supposed to be fun and is in a family environment...my wife was videoing the race (at least the start finish) and has some guy clearly swearing at the top of his lungs because because somebody was in his way as he was spinting for a meaningless 25th place.....NICE.....there were a lot of kids right at the finish line that got to see a great showing of sportmanship there :(
Way to represent cycling there buddy!
As for the race it's self, it was very sketchy....the field size in the CAT 3/4 field was huge with 102 racers. That was probably the biggest field I've raced in to date and it was just crazy large. The nice weather brought everybody out to race tonight (temps in the upper 70's, clear skies and an east wind of around 8-10 mph).
The pace of the race was fairly steady for a lap or two, then breaks started to try and get away so the pace would pick up, then they would get caught and the breaks would shut down compressing the pack every time. Lots of wheels crossing, but thankfully the crashes were held to a minimum (just one on the 2nd to last lap). As with all races like this there were lots of people griping about people not holding their line, the pace going slow, etc....people just need to learn to shut up IMO and race. Worry about keeping your self upright and just race, quite trying to be the "Boss" of the field and race...if you don't like the way the guy in front of you is riding, move to the front, back or away from that rider....it's really a simple concept that many people just don't understand.
OK...rant over!
We had a large contingent of riders in the race (11 if I remember correctly) so we had good numbers. We met before the race started and everybody picked up rolls for the race. Some were going to chase mid race sprint points, some were going to chase breaks and we had two designated as lead out guys for the person we had set up as the final sprinter.
Going into the 2nd to last lap the pace started to pickup and the field started to stretch out just a little, but it was still an up and down pace. I started to work my way up the field as I was the primary, last lead out guy for the sprinter.
On the last lap, as always, the pace picked up to a very high pace as we crossed the start/finish line for the last time tonight. As we rounded the first corner one of my teammates jumped to the front, picked up the pace and strung out the pack keeping things a bit more sane. As I worked my way toward the front, I looked left and could see our sprinter doing the same. Down the back straight our 1st lead out guy was starting to run out of gas. I was sitting around 4th or 5th in line at this point and our sprinter was getting moved up front because nobody wanted to continue the pull at this point.
My original plan was to wait until we got to the final stretch to put on the heat and give a nice strong lead out...however with nobody willing to take over lead out duties at this point and the pack starting to bunch I decided it was better to string out the pack instead of have a mass bunch sprint...so I took the lead much farther out than I really wanted to (A little over 1K from the finish). So I put my self into lead out TT mode and dug deep around the corner and onto the straight.
Going through the corner I was holding around 35 mph which was fast enough the guys behind me were having a hard time holding their lines, but it strung the field out all the way around the corner which is what I wanted. As we hit the finishing straight we came into a nice cross wind that was hard to hold the pace up on...so I held on as long as possible. I was able to keep the lead up to about 1/3 the way down the final stretch where I had to pull off the lead.
As it turns out this worked out perfectly because our sprinter was 3 riders back from me and when I pulled off it made the guy behind me lead out for a short while until he died. The guy in front of our sprinter jumped to the inside and our guy went to the outside where he had a bit of shielding from the wind. From that point it was up to him where he threw down the power on a great sprint taking home the victory on the night by a good 3 bike lengths.
In the end it was teamwork that brought home the victory and everybody had a part to play. This is where racing on a team is great and having people that know what their role is. You may not be "The Guy" at every race, but you are part of a team that works together toward a goal of winning the race. When done correctly, it's a thing of beauty :)
So far this year...our team is 3 for 3 in the CAT 3/4 class out at P.I.R :D
No comments:
Post a Comment