Race Tactics 210

Welcome back...this week we'll look at how to race successfully after mastering the art of shaking the unwanted wheelsucker.

Step 1
Suffer. For example, just running through the warm up this past Tuesday night, I knew it was going to be tough. I felt like I was still looking for my legs after my successful, but difficult 100 miler 10 days earlier. They ached and moaned on the flats. I gave serious thought to dropping out of the TNTP, but opted to stay in for a while longer to see if the pace would drop when the group started splitting up.

Step 2 (Post Warm Up)
Suffer more. The pace past the ball fields on Ruffner was definitely higher than normal and my entire body did not fail to notice this fact. When the hammer really dropped, it was all I could do to withstand the initial onslaught of speed, but, as I had anticipated, things eased off just a touch and I was able to hang in the middle of the pack all the way to the end of Ruffner. Even though the pace eased a touch, we still did the fastest Ruffner leg of the year by 10 seconds, averaging 25.4 mph for the duration.

Step 3
Yet more suffering. On John Rogers drive they decided that I must be on the ropes and that now was a good time to finish me off. We hit the bottom of the hill (the steepest section) like a runaway freight train and flew up to the traffic light (which despite my best wishful thinking is never red). Digging deep into what Paul Sherwin calls the "suitcase of courage" I gritted my teeth and hung on for all I was worth. Slowly the riders came past me, but by the time we got to the light I was still firmly entrenched in the middle of the peleton. And even though the speed increased, the gradient decreased and so although I was wheezing like an old pipe organ, and my eyes were crossed, I made it over the top with the group and managed to keep up on the downhill back to highway 78. This isn't as tough as it might sound because on downhills, gravity likes me better than the flyweights that shoot up the hills at the speed of sound.

Step 4
A brief recovery. Highway 78 up to Old Leeds Road gave me a little time to recover, though it always gets very hard just where the hill stops climbing. It's as though I'm riding through wet cement. But by the time we make the turn onto OLR, I'm good to go again.

Step 5
Return to suffering. See this is was bike racing is all about. Suffering. Realizing that when you dangle off the back and a gap opens in front of you, that the headwind your riding into isn't going to be your friend. You have to do whatever it takes to stay on someone's wheel, or else you'll be doomed to fight the wind on your own. It takes more effort and it's slower than riding with the group. So I lost concentration and found myself letting gaps open, 10 yards this time, 20 yards next time and so on. Each time, I had to put my head down and pedal harder to get back on. By the time we got to the fire station, where the sprint to the top of the hill starts winding up, I was feeling much better, and really flying. It was about this point when I was coming up in the work line that "Mr. No-Gap-Is-Too-Small" decided to reach out and try to grab my handlebars. I really have no idea what this jerks problem is, but I'm sick of his antics. When he missed my bars, he tried the next guy in line and the next after that. Luckily he didn't get any of us, but I think someone's going to have to tell this accident looking for a place to happen that he's just not welcome to ride with us any more if he's going to be pulling that garbage. I heard quite a bit of complaining about him on the cooldown back through Mountain Brook.

Step 6
Getting home with no legs. Somehow I managed to climb Smyer and Shades Crest and make my way across and back to home. It was overall a good ride and I was extra pleased that I had forced myself to stay with it and push through when I wanted to give up and just go it alone. Yes, my legs still hurt tonight, but that's okay. They needed a wake up call, and last night's ride was just the ticket.

So the key to this lesson is suffer, and when you don't think you can hang on any longer, suffer harder. And harder still if you need to. Eventually you'll be done and the suffering will be over.