Tour De Toona - Blair County RR

This was the race I was dreading, 20 miles, with the 1,700-foot grinding climb over about 6 miles. It had a few true flats, and several false flats. Had I not ridden that course Thursday with my traveling companions of Jim, Wendy, Todd Lee, and Mike Stubna, I would have been in for a rude awakening.

As it was, I knew I'd be popped sometime in the climb, as a true climber attacked. It was great to have friendly faces in there from local teams: Stark Velo's Mary Ellen Bailey and Sam House (both climbers) and Team Dayton's Krystal Lacy, and to have an inkling of when the attack would come based on Mary Ellen telling me to get to the outside with her. It wasn't a killer attack, but it was what popped me. Others had popped before me, so I didn't feel terrible. I knew Wendy was somewhere behind me, but I didn't know how close.

I dropped into survival mode, and was thrilled when the pavement marker of "1 K to go" appeared. I caught the woman in front of me, drafted off her, then took a pull. We caught two other woman, rested behind them, and then took pulls. I warned them about the nasty kick at the top, and we fell apart as we each struggled up it, about a 12-14% incline. It was great hearing Todd shouting to me to keep going.

I crested, and then it was take a quick breather to recover, and start chasing, with the glorious beginning of the descent, gentle at first, and still with a few small hills to climb. Some of my companions were still on my wheel, then I caught another two in front, and we started a paceline, everyone pulling. Good! Then, I heard a call behind me letting me know someone was coming up on us. I mashed on the pedals and caught the train as it went by. Now we were about 9 working together. Crud. I knew the big downhill was coming, and I really needed to be in front of the train to try to descend better than the Thursday dry run.

As it was, I was one of 3 who popped on the descent by our caution; I hit 46.5 mph, and when we came to the sharp turns, I was braking (the woman in front of me, too, was braking, and I wasn't brave enough to pass her), though Todd had assured me if he could do 50 on a non-closed course, I should be able to go down it without braking with the whole road open to me; at least I was faster than the 38 mph from that Thurs. run. I watched the other 6 slowly get away, and knew I was kissing those positions goodbye. Someone else caught us, and we were 4 making our way home, working pretty well together once a girl, who later told me it was her first race, finally figured out she needed to pull (I attacked at one point, having told the ladies we needed to pop her if she wasn't going to pull). Anyway, in the sprint to the finish, I was the one with the legs still left, and came across before them. Not that it truly mattered, since I was so far back (34th overall, and 27th in my field), 3:50 off the winning pace. I survived, and that's what I'm proud of.

Well, it was the hill race. Just one really long, ugly,long climb. At first I thought is was funny to have only a 20 mile road race, until I saw the course. There are some rollers to get out of town, you then make a right and start to climb. You just keep climbing and climbing. The hill turns really ugly the last 300 meters or so, there just aren't enough gears on the bike. The ride along the rim was great, then started the descent. I hate descending almost as much as I hate crits. This had some steep, twisted areas to it, so I was using my brakes. I really have to say, going into a one lane tunnel at 30+miles per hour is not a fun experience, especially after the race officials said it wasn't closed, so watch for traffic. I got lucky and the tunnel was closed to traffic. Not a bad course. After this, the hills here in Ohio look rather short.

70.8 miles of one tough race. The first 20 miles of the race may as have been a neutral zone, except for the speed. I think we averaged near 30mph until the feedzone. By the feedzone a group of 3 was about a minute off the front. So we started up Blue Knob, and the field shatters at the base. I actually started moving up the field...on a climb!? As we hit the final mile of mostly gravel I picked up Eric from Buckeye (who was taking Pete's place). I ended up blasting him accidentally on the final kick but then he caught back on with a group of 9 due to my cautious descending.

At the mid-section of the 10 mile descent before the next climb my legs felt like lead as I had been descending so long when we hit the rolling section I thought my brakes were rubbing but a quick check by Dan from BreakAway showed they were fine. I pulled back from the group at the 180 degree curve then rode solo for nearly the next 10 miles. After Blue Knob the second climb was nothing. Now for some reason I start seeing people abandon before the third climb. Soon I realized it was because some sadistic race director puts a steep 1k completely loose gravel climb up next (followed by 2k of pavement with a slightly smaller grade). As I ride up in 39x25 staying seated, because you can't stand on gravel, I nearly reach to top to hear a bunch of spectators cheering that I'm "almost to the pavement". As my wheels hit the pavement I tell the spectators cheering how miserable that climb is.

As I begin descending back to the valley floor I was never so glad to see the sign for the feedzone. I grabbed a bottle from Todd and neutral water. What amazed me where the number of people abandoning in the feedzone. The water didn't make it long. So I'm on the final climb of the day (10km long) and starting have a nice conversation with a Cat 2 from Advantage Benefits. I popped him once but then he rode back on and gapped me on the final pitch. After catching him across the top we ride back in together to a neutral finish because the cat 4's were about to start.

Some how through all this I still finished in just under 3.5 hours.

If it was possible for today to be even worse than yesterday, then Mr. Murphy must have been sitting right on my handlebars. In a 20 mile Road race with a 4mi. climb and about an equal descent there isn't much room for tactics. So it was basically a sprint to the bottom of the climb.
Again, within the first mile I was red lined, and on the climb the field just exploded.

Well there's always the Crit. tomorrow, and I've had lot's of practice at those.

ouch

I had high expectations for this race. Made it over Blue Knob within sight of the leaders and was able to bridge up within a mile or so. Can't believe how bad I felt climbing . . . legs had no energy today. The lead group was up to 35 guys when we hit the gravel climb due to multiple chasing groups being able to make it up there. It was difficult to keep the front wheel down on the gravel and I was losing power fast. Ended up getting popped off the leading group on the following rollers and I rode through the rollers and descents coming up to the feed zone and up the last climb by myself, and it hurt alot. At one point there was an official car shadowing me and I wondered if they didn't want to pass because they were waiting for me to fall over from going so slow up the climb. Then a rider or two from the women's field passed me, followed by a small kid on a tricycle who passed me also. Then the peloton roared by in the last 10 k and I couldn't even hold anybody's wheel.

Ahh well, there is always next year, and I'll be sure to not get sick before the race either.

Thanks to Todd for doing handups at the second feed and to Andy's **as seen on T.V.** from Breakaway for riding along in a van yelling things to keep me going.