Friday, July 17, 2009

7/16/09 - Race 3: Gistel Kermis, 116 km

So, kermis number two! Came to this race a lot more confident after having seen the competition at my first kermis… After I was dropped at the first race, I stuck around to watch and make sure there was no doping control (there wasn’t), which meant I got to see how the race broke up. At the end of that race, there were about 15 guys in various groups off the front with a battered looking peloton straggling behind about 30 riders strong. And since it always looks easier from the crowd, I had a goal to aim for coming into kermis version two: finish in the peloton!

In the Interclub UCI race last week the race finished with 4 laps of what was essentially a long-ish kermis course. The legs in the bunch were all pretty tired after 115 kilometers of racing so the accelerations were a bit more tame, but finishing with the group in that stacked peloton really helped me feel prepared to race at Gistel.

The Gistel kermis was held on a technical 6.85-kilometer course. It featured about 15 turns, one roundabout, about 500 meters of semi-paved cobbles and 100 meters of full-on Belgian cobbles just before a fast, false-flat finish.

The race started out well. I lined-up in the second row and got a good start, staying in the top 20-30 wheels. The good vibes lasted for, oh… about 5 km. Riding about tenth wheel through a crosswind on a narrow farm road I got squeezed into the ditch on the inside of a slight sweep in the road and before I knew it I was kissing the pavement. I did my best to take flight, but just ended up spread-eagle on the ground with the pack scuttling away. Without checking my bike at all (I knew it would be the end of my race if I did) I hopped straight on and made an all-out effort to get back onto the tail end of the pack. It took about three or four minutes of pouring on the gas, but I did make it. I really burned some valuable matches though.

Once I was back in the field I worked my way straight back to the front, finding a position about 20 spots deep to sit in and “recover” and take stock of bike and body (both were essentially fine). As an aside, my first impression is that recovering is something that you just don’t really get to do in these races. I think the best you can do is find a spot where you aren’t burning matches like crazy, but with so many turns there is never really a point where you can relax and settle in. I imagine someday I’ll look back and say “Aha! That was my problem - I didn’t know how to recover yet!” But for now it seems like a pretty tall order. Even sitting in the best place I could find, right near the head of the peloton, the accelerations were relentless. First, there were the jumps coming out of every corner, at least 15 per lap, none of which were easy. On top of that, in order to stay in a smart position, you have to jump several more times per lap to surf the waves of riders coming up the sides and match speeds with riders sailing off the front… If you don’t, you’re at the back in a heartbeat.

The race ended up being two hours and 40 minutes long, and huge portions of that time are a pure, blissful blur of suffering, accelerations, covering and countering, a feed, several missed feeds, and another feed inside the last 10 kilometers (that was the montage, in case you missed it). With about 30 kilometers to go I was severely dehydrated and fighting off some mighty cramps. I was lucky, having missed a few feeds, to know a couple Americans (Ross Berger and Martin Guess from Colorado) who were kind enough to share what they had with me. But it was a too little too late, I am afraid. I started to feel like I was going to keel over from exhaustion. Oh yeah and it was the hottest day since I have been here, probably in the low 80’s (so not that hot, but…) and I felt like I was going to have sun/heat stroke. My entire body erupted in goose bumps and I really was feeling faint. My lungs began to tighten and I bet my eyes were crossed and bleeding. Ah, sweet suffering!

Next week there is a big UCI stage race that I really want to be a part of (there are seven guys to fill six spots) and that prospect was dangling in front of my sorry, mashed ass as I struggled to find any source of motivation to push through. There was that and, of course, the fact that I came to Belgium to learn how to suffer - at a very high level! From 42 to 36 to 30 km to go all the way down to the bell lap I used every mind game in my arsenal to push through the agony. Once I reached two laps to go I knew I would make it. But shit, I really came close to packing it in.

In order to finish, however, I really had to sacrifice my pride. With 30 km remaining the group was together. The last laps would see over 25 guys jump away from the group in twos, threes, fours, and fives. These groups then join and recombine and were not to be seen again. I was absolutely keen on holding a good position to conserve as much as possible towards actually finishing, so I got to see the winning moves first hand. I held my tail between my legs as I watched guys jump away, knowing that if I tried to go with them, not only would I fail, but also the effort would shoot me straight out the back. But I had to keep reminding myself that today was for finishing, so I sucked up my pride and focused on that.

I crossed the line near the front of the first peloton and was satisfied with that. My legs were completely shot and cramping and I could barely stand after the finish. I don’t know if I have ever pushed myself so hard. Just don’t remind me that around here these are training races. Please, don’t bring it up. My average HR for 2:40 was 183 beats per minute and I probably performed no fewer than 250 quick, intense jumps over that time… That’s good training, right? And that’s not to mention 30 km’s (each way) commuting to the race and back.

I felt like a train wreck all night and today has not been much better. As I fell asleep, I scared my roommate pretty bad when I violently spasmed and uttered some sort of loud exclamation of surprise. Twice. That had to be some sort of bizarre display of my absolute physical exhaustion. Soooo, it is time to do it again tomorrow (Saturday). Sweet!

It will be interesting to see how things go without a crash, hopefully getting feeds, and focusing much more on saving every possible ounce of energy for the key moves towards the end of the race. Unfortunately, my guess is that those differences will amount to… Not a whole lot.

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