First race for 2011 under the belt.
The course was pretty wet til the week before the race when we finally got some nice weather, which continued right up until 1 hr after the race was over. Perfect.
I broke my rear derailleur the week before on a similar race pre-ride. I used an old XT MTB derailleur with a new chain. I didn't want to break the chain because I was thinking of using this newer one on my MTB and swapping over a slightly used one onto my cross bike. Here is a pick with the worst chain slack gearing. I figured I would never be totally crossed in this gear anyhow so was not worried. Shifting worked close to flawlessly. Had no MechanicalsPunctures so this is always a plus.
While I had been training over the winter I never seem to get as much time on the bike as planned, but I did do more than I have ever done. Been starting to wind it up over the last 2 weeks. Hopefully I will peak for Summer Solstice Tag and Hot August Nights Solo. On the plus side I am definitely improving altho a bit slower than I hoped:)
My mood was good before the race, chatting it up with some of the guys. I knew I would not be in the front group and that I should not have any problems beating my time last year which was my only real goal for this race.
As per usual the race started off pretty fast with a big climb in the first km splitting the peloton into several smaller groups. I was feeling pretty good and was in a chase group that seemed to be closing in on a larger group. I was with a couple of team mates, but a couple other team mates I was hoping to ride with were fading a bit from the group I was in.
I had a hat on under my helmet which was fine in the warm up when the sun disappeared for a short while but 10 minutes into the race I had to take it off. So while trying to take my hat off I managed to drop my sunglasses so had to stop and lost the chase group I was with. My guys I had intended to ride with where not far behind so I elected to sit up and ride with them.
I was with David Wright now and we had a couple others with us but soon we were on our own. Not sure when but guessing 1 hr in we picked up a couple Kingston boys and Ian. We started working really well together. We had hammerfests on the pavement with each doing hard pulls and a very good rotation going. It was about this time that my knee was starting to bother me.
I think around the second hour we lost Ian when he stopped to help someone. So our group was down to 4. We were going along well and we picked up a few stragglers but none could hang on with us long and we spit them out the back. My knee was in a world of hurt and both legs felt like they were about to cramp up. The worse was easing up after a pull on the front when I could start to feel the muscle ball up a bit.
There was a climb near the end of the race I was thinking of attacking this small group I was in, just for fun :) My knee was hurting very badly at this point and if I got out of the saddle I felt knots starting in both legs. Otherwise I felt like I had a bit left to go. David was getting stronger as the race went so I was not sure I could hold him off if I went so I elected to stay with the group.
With the last 6 kms to go David spotted a few people ahead he wanted to catch. I was on his wheel when we made a 90 degree turn and David started to put the hammer down. We traded off pulls but I think Davids were longer than mine. We started to gap the Kingston boys and we reeled a few more people in and we caught Brian McPherson 100 meters from the line, who was David's target :).
I had fully intended to cross the line side by side with David as I had a great ride with him. Brian had other plans and rode by us right between us. I looked over at David and he didn't react. He had said he wasn't going to sprint for 100th place earlier haha. With the line coming up fast I decided to try take the line over Brian as I still felt good. With not much real-estate left I put the hammer down and made the pass. Beat Brian by .6 of a second with David 1.74 seconds behind him.
In retrospect maybe I should have kept the hammer down and hopefully would have towed my teammate in in front of Brian. Well it was fun and thats what its all about.
After the race my knee was quite sore and I hobbled around for the rest of the day and it was pretty stiff the next day. This happened the previous two Sundays but each time I seem to be less sore and recover sooner.
In summery it was a great race. I improved close to 30 minutes over last year. Next year I should make the sub 3hr mark and for now that will be my goal for next year.
Results
http://www.ridewithrendall.com/race-results-2011-crc/
Cheers,
Paul
