Race the Ridge Cat 3/4 Roadrace

Race The Ridge Road Race

OBJECTIVES & GOALS
1. To secure Shawn's spot in GC placement because I had bombed the criterium and Shawn was sitting at 3rd place going into the RR.
2. To race smart and efficient

BACKGROUND:
My BP - 159
Max HR - 180
Race Max HR - 175
Race HR - 159 avr
Race RPE - 7.5/10
Race Time - 1:21
Race Distance - 4 laps of 9.6km = 38.5 km
Lap Splits -
Lap 1 - 19:43sec HR 157
Lap 2 - 20.39sec HR 161
Lap 3 - 20:27sec HR 161
Lap 4 - 20:48sec HR 160
Conditions - wet roads and then it dried up

RACE OVERVIEW:
Course Description - The course could best be described as a rectangle that is laid against a hill side. With the first 2 sides climbing and the 3rd short side as a decent, with the long bottom of the rectangle as a flat. The start/finish is at the beginning of the climb.

Lap 1 - There were 12 riders to start. Approximately 3 kms into the first lap, Shawn dropped her chain. My response was to get to the front immediately and try and control the pace of the group to give Shawn a chance to recover. Shortly after this, the 1st place GC took off and 4th GC chased. I responded as well. It became evident quickly that 1st place was going to be successful in her breakaway, as she had killed the time trial by 2 minutes on everyone. I made the decision to let her go and to concentrate on reining in 4th place GC to give Shawn a chance to catch up.

I stuck her tail and when she asked me to take a pull, I was rudely mute. She was getting pretty worked up after a while and was getting frustrated because I wouldn't work with her to catch 1st place. My goal was to make 4th work hard pulling to tire her out until Shawn was caught up. Eventually I heard a rider approach and I glanced over my shoulder and made out a white BPR blur. I called back if she was on? When she yelled "yes".
Well, giddy up, finally. I jumped to the front and took off at a charge.
The three of us hit the downhill, and as I expected Shawn overtook me on the fast decent. Except, it wasn't Shawn!!!
It was the 2nd place GC!!!
Wow, had I screwed up.

And then the Gods smiled on me, and 2nd GC wiped out on the steep decent into the corner. All I could think is "thank you thank you..."
I was given another chance! So I did what any dirty bike racer would do, I chased 4th place down again and made it my mission to harass her by slowing my pulls and making her take far more work than was smart.
Stall stall stall...
Eventually the real Shawn Wenger showed up around the 9km mark along with two juniors from Kamloops.

Lap 2 - as lap 2 dawned, we were in the chase group of five, with the 1st place GC out of sight and mind. We did the climb as a group and as we were cresting the top Shawn and I decided it was time for her to make a break because she is a super strong decender and we were about to hit a long downhill. I did a hard lead out that saw her away on the decent. When I hit the flats I saw that I had dropped the other three riders. That wasn't my intention. My plan was to sit back into the group and affect the pace to give Shawn an opportunity to stay away. Shawn was about 150 meters in front of me and the girls were 100 meters back. I decided to try to bridge to Shawn. I gained 50 meters on her but then was in a deadlock. I tried yelling to her to no avail. After a couple of kms I decided this was a waste of my energy and floated back to the group.

Lap 3 - Everything is going according to plan with Shawn staying out front by about 200 meters. I pressured the Kamloops juniors into working with me to keeps Shawn ahead by terrorized the poor 4th place GC. I instructed the girls to beg off on any pulls and to leave the pulling to 4th place. In the event that they do have to pull, then I told them to drag the pace. It was working!

Then Shawn hits a pig and bailed off her bike.

Again I immediately hop on the front of the pack and slow the pace. Every time 4th place gets frustrated and breaks, I ride her down and then cut her off. I was awful. The whole time I am hen pecking at the juniors to slow the pace to wait for Shawn.

Lap 4 - Eventually Shawn catches us again, and we repeat the whole scenario again...climb as a group and on the crest, I go balls to the wall leading her out and she's away again on the downhill.

Dummy me. After I sit up to admire Shawn's break, I look back and damned if I didn't drop those girls again. What a smuck that I didn't go with her. I start trying to chase my teammate down. Same thing happens again - I make some ground and then we are stalemated. I'm yelling again in vain. At this point, I realize that I need to start thinking of my own race. I was wasting my energy. I floated back again and drew equal pulls. When we were 400 meters to the finish, I made a break, and I placed 3rd behind Shawn by 42 seconds.

I felt great the whole race and finished with alot of energy still.

WHAT I DID RIGHT:
1. I felt great the whole race because I never red lined at any point. I felt strong and able to respond at any time.
2. I raced very defensively for my teammate.
3. I had a solid warm up on the trainer for 25 min and hit BP.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENT NEXT TIME:
1. I would break with my teammate next time.
2. I would race more aggressively.
3. Less defense, more offense.
4. Believe in myself...