ToAD 2018 – West Bend
Frustrating.
If there was a one-word summary for yesterday’s race, it would be that.
Frustrating, sketchy, dangerous, terrifying, fun.
If there was a slightly more thorough five-word summary for yesterday’s race, it would be that.
Day 5 of the Tour of America’s Dairyland – Day 2 for me – was held on a lumpy, bumpy, 6-corner crit in West Bend, Wisconsin. Despite being one of the quieter venues of the series, the crowds still came out in-full, and by the time the men’s and women’s pro races rolled around, there were fans lining the streets and cheering on every corner. I wasn’t lucky enough to hear an entire song because I was racing, but I heard there was a pretty jammin’ local band hanging out on Turn 5. I did smell a lot of good barbecue in the second half of the race, too – one of my favorite parts of spectating a downtown crit is the food trucks; having to smell the delicious food but not being able to stop is one of my least favorite things as a racer.
Oo that smells good. Is that pork? Fajitas? It kind of has a smoky flavor to it…– Oh wait, I’m going in to Turn 1 at 30 mph in a group of 120 guys. I should probably pay attention.
The Start
I line up at the back, like I always do, because I don’t like showing up 40 minutes early, just to sit in the sun and push my way to a good start spot. So for the first 15 minutes of the race, I cannot even see the front. By the time I get to the Top 50, we’re already 23 minutes in. And then I get stuck – for the next 20 minutes, I can’t move. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get out of this dangerous, stupid, and pointless position. You see, being 50 guys back is great if you want to sit-in and wait for a field sprint. But I wanted to be getting in breakaways, and attacking from 50 wheels back is about the dumbest thing you could ever do; you’ll run out of gas before you even get to the Top 20, let alone go off the front.
45 minutes in and I am finally at the front. It’s taken a long time to get here, and now I’m more motivated than ever to get off the front. I follow a couple of attacks up the hill, but struggle to find the right time to make my own. Nothing seems to go on the first part of the hill, so I attack on the descent. Didn’t work.
The Breakaway
A few laps later, a serious move is starting to go. There’s a group of 3 up the road, and a bunch of big-name riders is starting to push the pace at the front. I push and shove my way to the front (not literally, but getting yelled at and hip-tapped makes it feel like that) and jump across to the breakaway. The group is getting big now, and eventually we amass a group of 11 off the front. It’s too big to work.
The Finale
A few minutes later and it’s all back together. Now this is the point where I got frustrated. After being hard, fast, and strung-out for nearly the entire race, I suddenly found myself constantly being swarmed by the entire field, yet small groups of riders are being allowed to trickle off the front every single lap. I couldn’t stay in position. I was so uncomfortable, and it felt like there could be a pile-up at any moment – it didn’t happen. It was all in my head.
At 6 laps to go they called a $250 prime to the winner of the next lap. I knew the winning move was going to be a counter off of that. I knew it. But I was 50 guys back, and this course was too narrow and too sketchy (in this road racer’s opinion) to pass 50 guys in a single lap. So I watched the move go, and I could do nothing about it. It’s frustrating, but that’s bike racing.
Flat crits are fun, but I’m ready for a race with a hill in it. Wednesday’s race is in Port Washington, and let me tell you, that race is going to be hard. I predict less than 30 finishers in the Pro/1/2.
*Shout out to the Marian riders who have been absolutely killing it at ToAD: Hugo Scala Jr. who finished 2nd at the Giro d’ Grafton, Marco Wajda for being in Top 15 almost every day, and Hayden Strong for winning (!) the race I just described.
Ride Stats:
Distance: 42.0 miles
Time: 1:29:29 (The most perfectly-timed race I’ve ever done)
Average Speed: 28.2 mph
Average HR: 164 bpm
Max HR: 179 bpm
Average Power: 275 W
Normalized Power: 295 W
Max Power: 922 W
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1663405816
Next: ToAD – Port Washington