Enumclaw Stage Race

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Jackson
Posts:3
Joined:Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:08 am
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Favourite Ride Style:Road
Enumclaw Stage Race

Post by Jackson » Mon May 22, 2017 10:13 am

I was the sole representative for the Wheelers in Enumclaw this weekend, racing in Cat 3. Day one started with a Merckx style TT in the morning, a short and sweet 10km time trial with a few gentle rollers and a few tight corners. This stage served more as an awakening for the legs and lungs after the travel day for me as I have a long way to go in learning the art of the TT.

Stage 2 on the evening of day 1 was a one hour crit around two blocks in a figure eight. Eight turns in 1300m made for a lot of cornering. I started at the back of the field behind a rider that had trouble clipping in off the line, so the first handful of laps involved a lot of chasing and sprinting to move up the pack until I could slot myself in comfortably in the top 10 wheels. Halfway through I took advantage of a brief lull in the race to jump out the front and do a solo lap to get a better feel for the course. I drifted back in the pack and rode the race, just keeping an eye out to make sure breaks weren't getting away. The shape of the race meant that any time you weren't moving up the side of the pack taking wind, you were getting swamped by riders and would find yourself 15 wheels further back within a corner or two. Unfortunately I found myself in this position with eight laps to go and I watched a two man break get away from the field 10 spots up from where I was. I worked to get myself back up into the fifth position over the next five laps and could see the break one turn ahead of us. With 2.5 to go I jumped the field, put my head down, and went in search of the break. With a lap to go I had made up some ground on the break but they were not slowing enough for me to catch them, so my focus turned to holding off the field. Coming out of the last turn I knew I had enough ground to hold off a hard charging bunch sprint, and took my first podium place in Cat 3.

Stage 3 RR took place on a 23km loop with a winding 3km climb with sections over 10% followed by a stretch of flat/false-flat road and then a long decent down the highway. For the first three laps nobody wanted to do any work, so the downhill and flat stretches were easy and then everyone would sprint up the hill. Not conducive to finding a rhythm or having a race hard enough to shed any riders. The fourth time up the hill the race blew apart with a small group making it off the front and myself in a small chase group. At the base of the descent our chase group was joined by another 8 rider chase group, but organizing the riders and convincing them to work hard enough to catch the lead pack proved to be a difficult task. It became pretty clear that the lead pack would not be caught, so I waited for the final time up the climb to break apart our chase group and ride in with a select group. By the time we reached the last 3k I had spent a lot of energy trying to chase down riders coming off the lead group and my legs were feeling the effects of the effort and probably also a little dehydration. I tried to catch the group off guard in the last kilometer and cramped the rest of the way to the line, finishing 10th overall. The time gap to the groups behind was enough to move me up to seventh overall on the GC. Another learning experience for me, hoping not to make the same mistakes in the next one.

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