- Snelling Road Race, Cat 3
- 63 miles, 5 laps
- Windy, flooded roads, Norcal cobbles and some flirtatious rain.
Racing in February? On a road bike? This must be Norcal, and I must be crazy. I have raced my bike this early in the season before, but not while living thousands of feet above the snowline. My training has been coming along really well, but most of it has been uninspired sessions indoors on my trainer. It's pretty hard to get a real ride in outside when there is 3 feet of snow in your driveway. So when Nate started pimping the idea of going down to race Snelling, I was game-on – but had no expectations to finish well.
We drove down on Friday night to a Motel 6 in Merced, about 20 miles away from the racecourse. After a surprisingly peaceful night of sleep in a highway motel, we woke up super early to grab some breakfast. Our in-car GPS unit informed us of an IHOP near our motel, which turned out to be still closed on a Saturday morning at 6am. Because people don't eat breakfast in Merced at 6am, right? The Starbucks across the street was open though, so we settled on their nasty frozen-microwaved egg sandwiches.
Fueled and rested, all we had left to do was pin-on our race numbers and get in a good warm-up. The last time I did Snelling, I sat-in and easily drafted the entire race, waiting out the final sprint finish. I assumed it would go the same way today. I assumed wrong. My final words of wisdom to Nate as the gun went off were something like, "Stay in the first 1/3rd of the pack for the best protection from the wind." I would soon eat those words.
The 100-man Cat 3 field rolled off the start line to a 3 mile neutralized start before we hit the actual race course. As soon as we made the left-hand uphill turn on to the 13 mile circuit, the attacks started. The first two laps were balls-to-the-wall mayhem fighting for position from the wind. The backside of the course began to blow the field apart with 20+ mph crosswinds. Not listening to my own advice, I found myself near the back of the field as we hit the major crosswinds (and flooded roads!). With no shelter from the howling breeze, I hit the heart-rate redline trying to keep up with the peleton. Running out of gas and still not making any headway back into the field, I was passed by Nate who glanced at me and said, "What a train wreck" And that was it. The pack rode away, and I slowed down to recover.
After a quarter mile of rest to let some blood back into my legs, I decided to chase the field for another lap in case they slowed down. I was able to keep them within my sites for a whole lap, but finally had to stop charging when my legs cried out, "No more!" From there-on-out it was straggler city, passing or being passed by shelled groups and individual riders. I passed Christine from the Reno Wheelmen (now Reno Wheelwomen) on the 4th lap and slowed down to talk to her for 10 miles. Then it was one more final, brutal solo lap in the wind that made me regret not quitting earlier. But hey, I finished – placing somewhere in the top 100 out of 100.
Article was last edited on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 @ 3:00 PM
