Deer Creek Road Race - Not Quite 3rd Place

Racing at the “Creek of the Deer” Ohio Valley Race #2 – Deer Creek State Park

Since our team/club was co-sponsor of this race we were requested to arrive earlier than most to assist and getting corners swept, setting up registration, signage, etc. Jen came with me and volunteered to work registration. Unfortunately, COBC did not need any assistance, at the registration area.
Jen and I went out to sweep a few corners before the finish, to contribute. The only thing I didn’t want to touch was the dead rabbit in the road. My broom was not worthy of dead animal, especially, since it would sit in the car while I was racing and bake in the sun and stink up the car – not good and ewwww.

This was my first road race or race for that matter, of 2009. It was the test of tests, to see how all the hours of sweat, hard work and hours of laboring on my skinny flat, pad-less saddle would play out.
Test indeed, the nerves and pre-race jitters returned. Looking around the parking area, lots and lots of new bikes, new wheels, carbon wheels, carbon bikes, a few SRM’s, a few of the new Quarq units and lots of the old standby Powertap units. The atmosphere seemed good, lax and 'friendly' compared to years past to me for some reason. The 30 minutes before we lined up seemed like the longest 30 minutes of my life and went by like the 30 minutes waiting in a doctors office lobby.
The Start - line-up started with the CAT 1-2, then the 3’s and then my group of good looking CAT 4’s, the CAT 5’s, then the Women and the Jr's. Each group had their own lead car, as usual, the USA Cycling Official instructed us not pass the car and stay right of the yellow line, except for the sprint from 1000 meters out.
BANG - We are off, guys in my group already play the Euro racing game and go off from the GO gun, and virtually chase the the CAT 4 car bumper. We all find out little home and settle-in to reel them back in. The first turn from our start is into the beginning of a head wind, but not the worst of the head winds for the day. Lots of guys in this section trying to get up front, make sure they are ready for any break that might happen. I think, "fine, let them sit up there". My game plan was to finish the race, play about in the group and see what kind of fitness I had for the sprint. This was one of the few races I have had a teammate to race with, Brian did quite a bit of work chasing some breaks down and doing his turn at the front of the group. I choose to not go up front and burn any matches, there were so many teams with more than 4 guys there, and enough people who wanted to do their turn up front, I wasn’t interested at all in sitting up there in the wind. Brian did way more work than I did to try to bridge gaps and keep the pace up front moving along.
In the sections with the worst headwind, we hit 8-12 mph and when the tailwind section came around on the backside of the lap, we were hitting 36-40 mph each lap. I think there was less than 40 or so that started the race, but when I went out towards the yellow line in the 2nd lap, to see who was left, I think there was about 25 or so remaining. So, in two laps the group had blown apart.
There were two small hills (rises) in the road on each lap, one on the backside of the course and one just after the base of the Deer Creek Dam. These little climbs, were interesting every lap for me, as I watched and studied those around me, their form, sitting or standing, what gear they were in and how much breathing was happening. Good stuff I thought. Many of the laps, I was in the back ¾ of the group, but would easily surge up through the group to the front 10, without much effort on my part. Even better. I rolled up next to team mate Brian and asked him how he was feeling lap 3 I think, he said not great. I guess that meant it was me for the sprint. We got the bell for the last lap, everyone got itchy (as ususal). There was the usual last lap initial adrenelene rush and then a severe slow down into the headwind. I think everyone was saving it for the tailwind and final sprint. We made the right turn, into the tailwind section and throttled the gas, everyone was working to dump everyone else. I stayed calm, got into the drops and found a wheel or two to draft. We make the sweeping left, which was a super nice banked turn, I go inside and carry all of my 30 + speed through the corner and find another wheel or two to get on, before we make our last right before the sprint. I don't see Brian ahead of me, yet, but as we make the turn I see not many guys in front of me, it appears I am where I need to be, I am sitting good in the middle of the right side of the road, I look over and see Brian's tail, flying by me on the left, just inside of the yellow, I think, "I guess this is us - we are hitting it now". I glance over to the right side of the road and notice the 1000 METER sign, after we had been going pretty hard for some time. Brian ramps us up to his limit and I get squeezed out by someone that saw the opportunity, I think to myself, "last time that will happen this season", Brian rolls off to the right as I stuggle to find a wheel to suck to stay out of the wind and I see a whoosh fly me right and left. Riders flying by and somone that was on our wheel the entire time Brian was working. The legs are struggling, I find energy to stand up and go again, to get into the top 10 I hope. Hindsight, I had more to give I know and will not let someone suck my wheel and beat me next time. Funny part is, the kid and I do mean kid sucking mine and Brian's wheel got 3rd place! He's 16 or 17 and certainly come a long way. His dad was a decent racer in his day. So, IF - Brian had waited a little longer to go for it - he and I would have been sitting pretty in the top 5 - I know it. In the Photo up left you can see the top of Brian and me just split off the three on the left. I was there, but will be there next time!@

A great video here from Dave Tinger of the Olympus Cycling Squad. My buddy Ben is in the car, doing those wheel changes. Go Ben! Nice Job Dave on the video.
Deer Creek Road Race VIDEO.

Tour D Burg - CAT 4 - Ohio State Crit Championships

Tour D Burg - Race Photos

And then, here's what I felt like on Sunday, even though I wasn't doing 260, it was more like 21-30.
The race layout is somewhat fast considering, road conditions, obstacles and many tricky turns, which are certainly cause for alarm. It's just one of those races where you finish and think, I am glad I didn't wreck or get taken out by something or someone. This course requires everyone to pay attention to all sides of your bike. Our start was fast, with several guys hitting it from the gun. I had a good position on the far right front line for the CAT 4 start. Our first left is a swishy turn onto some very old bricks. I was hoping they had finally replaced this section, since I didn't race the Burg last year, but no, it was there, with a nice attempt to repair what was obviously a big hole in the inside of the left off of the brick section. I must complain, I have never seen, witnessed so many racers, not pedaling in a section where they should be pedaling - lets just hope they show up to some cross races and they do the same. Out of the brick, our left hand turn, we faced a wicked head wind and I found getting a good postion on the brick helped stay out of the windy wind. This somewhat flat road section is in very poor condtion and has some lumpy whoopy doo's in the middle and outside of the road, which if you were not paying attention were a bit silly. Not too many laps did I notice the group as a whole lining up properly for the up and coming short left and right turn, before hitting the back flat buttery smooth pavement. Again, the group seemed to wait till the last minute to move to the outside line for the next left. I even hollered out at the group here once. This section was very short, but required good positioning, since there was not much room in this little sweep section before the finish and there was raised pavement with a slick manhole cover and some new blacktop in the apex of the turn, before making the last left before the final 300-400 meters to the finish. My idea was sit in the top 10, follow Mason from Jeni's, Darkhorse, the solid Saturn/dayton guys, sketchy Roll rider dude and the Raisin Rack guys. As the race progressed, I became more and more frustrated with the ability of some of these clowns to hold their line through the corners, "S" sections and what not. Guys were zipping all over the road, cutting people off - riding agressive, but not smart or safe. They just were picking bad lines into the corners and turns, then upon seeing their mistake of heading right over a manhole cover, they would turn to one side and not commit to the line THEY picked. I had to decide, did I want to rub elbows?, throw down hockey-style or go home without blacktop in my skin. I choose the safe route and planned to ride a little more cautious, be safe, set up for my finish sprint - on the last lap & on the bricks and after. It seemed to work sans getting cut off twice before the final two turns. Mason had a guy lock shifters/handlebars with him, then the guy preceeded to get mad at Mason, WTF. If I was a real ass, these dudes would have gotten kicked in the seat by me or if we were in a road race, they would be in a ditch, for this crap. I was in good position for the final two turns, my goal being getting the inside line, on the last turn, inside of the raised manhole cover, well, I was there, just not far enough up front to do throttle damage for a top 10 placing. My other issue was, somehow my chain, in the middle of my sprint, dropped to the small ring up front, I sat up slightly and looked down to see if it had dropped off completly or was still on the small ring, it was ok, I soft pedaled (at least 8 dudes fley by me) and got it back up and sprinted in for 23rd. Not bad, I'll take it considering all the stevie wonder dudes racing in a cat 4 race. I am not so sure some of these guys should have gotten their upgrade, but would guess since it was the "ohio state crit championships" that some of these dudes really wanted the win and the cool ass Festina watch >.
After what I left out on the race course Saturday, I will certainly take this finish result for a first year CAT 4 participant and being an old fart.