Race Report: Tour of Washington County, Cat 3

Stage 1: Smithsburg Road Race

Our team had only four guys in the race: Drew A., Yon, Chris H, and me. It also should be stated that I think this is one of the funnest road race courses in MABRA.

Yon and Chris are both new to MABRA, so it would be their first time racing Washington County. I did well in the road race last year as a Cat 4, and Drew is our strongest time trialist. That being said... here's how it played out.

The neutral roll out wasn't. The first lap was neutral.

The second lap was mostly neutral, except for a few solo attempts to spice life up in the peloton. Nothing stuck; guys were merely hung out to dry. Mad props to Sam from DVR/Bike Rack for making a race of a group ride, though. He was really aggressive early on.

Drew and I managed to hold position extremely well. We were able to talk to each other, and I was the point man making sure nothing to threatening got far up the road without at least one of us in it. That was pretty easy with 60 pairs of antsy, fresh legs the first two laps. No sweat, aside from the 95 degree temperatures.

The third lap finally had some excitement. I made sure to stick with the leaders when a group of 8-10 guys moved up the road. Soon there after Drew comes up behind me and say, "Bert, I'm here." We really cooked it up the relatively short first climb on the course, that's for sure.

Perfect, right? Not really. More people kept crashing the party at the front of the race. The breakaway was forming too soon.

A guillotine hit the peloton hard and formed a lead group of 20 riders with a lot of strong riders. NCVC had Drew, me, and Chris in this move (though he told us he was worse for wear by that point). Drew and I both jumped in the rotation to push the pace and cause a separation - every team was represented - but the chasers were too motivated. Everyone wanted to be up front.

Gruppo compacto, the big break was caught and then things slowed down again. Throughout the 4th lap there were more small breakaway attempts, but nothing so threatening that we couldn't have swatted it down or bridged up with miniscule efforts. The fifth lap was similar, but pretty quick causing some attrition in the peloton. That was good for us as it evened the playing field. Fewer teams would have more than two pairs of working legs.

Up the big-ring climb on the backside of the fifth lap, the race unraveled. A breakaway of four snuck away when most of us were just too lazy to care. Because of the terrain, we could see where they were on the descent, and they were distancing themselves for sure. Mike Fawell and one other rider started chasing.

That triggered Drew to hit the wind, which triggered me to get him out of the wind. I rode up along side and nodded, then got in front. Tom Blonkowski was on my wheel, and the main group (by then maybe 25-30 guys?) simply let him and I ride away. Tom was blunt and quickly told me, "I can't help you Bert." It was a nice courtesy, so I set a tempo and, as he also recommended, made sure not to blow up riding "the wall" for the fifth time.

I think Tom realized that we cleared the peloton, because he started helping me bridge up to the pair in front of us - it was his teammate Nate M. with Mike. There were another few guys up the road. Tom and I caught Mike and Nate after the lap counter, but the rotation was scrappy and we all seemed beat.

Once again, from behind, Drew told me he'd made a clean bridge, too. He was able to follow some wheels without expending too much energy since I had been up the road. Not bad. He was telling me this, though, by using different words: "Stay with it!" That first climb took its toll on me since I'd put a big effort into bridging up.

Through the windy, flat section before the feed zone, our chase group finally got organized enough to gain on the leaders. We caught them halfway up the big-ring climb after the backside turn. Some of them must have thought we were the field, because they simply sat up. When that happened, a few of us made sure to let 'em know, it's just a dozen of us - hit it boys!

I had been putting a few too many wasteful efforts in to be in random breaks, so I asked Drew how he was doing. Okay, he told me. Good, because I wasn't as confident as I should have been at that point. As long as he was safe, though, I'd done my job.

We did keep the tempo hot over the climb, but with an obvious selection, few were willing to put much effort into the last few miles. The pace was low, so Drew told me to keep things in check. There was no reason to lose time to anyone with a mile or two left in the race. I stayed up front from then on, but we crested "the wall" with few serious surges and no casualties. And the next hill, and the next.

A Coppi rider and myself were side-by-side in front of another ten riders with too few hundred and some meters to go before a sprint opened up. From the front with deadlegs, I kicked, but the legs barely responded from a slow speed and then they refused to give more on the end of the uphill sprint. As I was fading, though, Drew emerged and passed me. Brigham from R1V took the win with an AABC in second. Drew managed to sprint passed a few of us for third. I held on for sixth.

Not bad at all - the race played out exactly as we had wanted, only because you can't credibly belive you'll always get a 1-2 finish with your teammate. If there was one change we would have made, we would have been more aggressive on the final stretch, though. The slow pace made the sprint crowded, and surely wasted time for the overall classification.


Stage 2: Boonsboro Time Trial

I set up my bike with used clip-ons I bought a few years ago for $25 and did nothing else to my bike (it had the MAVIC Carbone SLs on all weekend). With my new aero-helmet on, I pedaled hard as hell and it hurt. A lot. That's the gist of the TT, but there are a few key events.

Around the turn I knew I was gaining time on my 30-second man, Sam M. from DVR/Bike Rack. Unfortunately, it looked like I was losing ground to the guy behind me. The tailwind helped me keep a hot tempo, though, so I passed Sam halfway on the homestretch.

I overestimated the distance, so when I saw the white tent I was PISSED. I left a bit too much on the course and had to sprint at the end instead of gradually racking myself into submission throughout the last 3k, which I'm good at. I left some time on the course, but took back 11 seconds on the guy behind me - a Kelly Benefits rider named Cohen. Not bad. Drew followed soon after him, even better.

Drew and another rider, Mike Fawell, have the same coach, so they chatted after the TT. Drew estimated his time to be around 23:20, and mine was 23:42. Apparently Mike's time was slightly over 21 minutes.

Oh snap, the GC just got locked up.


Stage 3: Williamsport Criterium

We were under the impression that Drew was sitting seconds from the podium because road race bonuses had not been applied. He was actually on the podium, so his plan to be aggressive and chase some time bonuses was for naught.

Personally, I had little choice but to tailgun the crap out of this race. I sucked bigtime. My matches were left in Smithsburg.

If you've ridden semi-technical crits like this with me, you've probably learned that my rear wheel is a bad omen for your race. Siggy is not savvy, brave, or crazy enough to corner like a freak when I'm surrounded by a bunch of my best spandex-clad friends. I fear cornering in high-speed races, which means I gap myself.

Luckily, I'm really good at filling the gaps. It is a royal waste of energy, but it is my survival tactic. Unfortunately for you, if you're behind me, you have to fill my gap too.

This means three things when I'm playing tailgunner (as I also did in Leonardtown):
a) I feel like baked cow patties in a hot, sunny field.
b) Concurrently, I'm being courteous staying out of the way of the guys up front actually doing something.
c) If you're behind me, you're probably going to get dropped.

Along with my fellow tailgunner today, Nate Hakken, we were the rearward gatekeepers of the race. If the Cat 3 peloton at Williamsport were a pair of thermal underwear, we were the butt flap.

After the road race, I had zero gas and our race started out pretty darn quick for my legs. I went into survival mode. From arears, I was able to make sure Drew was safely in the group - he was riding a great race. Yon and Chris, unfortunately, got the proverbial butt flat closed on them; the pack shat out about 20 riders immediately.

The Kelly rider who started behind me in the TT eventually got away with one other dude and gained himself some massive time, plus a bonus. That sucked to hear because the break that I saw was Bike Doctor and AABC, but I had absolutely no power or will to do much about it anyway.

With two to go, I was bridging a few gaps as Bike Doctor put the pedal to the metal. It was a great effort on their part to nullify any calm before the storm. They kept things safe by keeping things fast.

But Drew was gone. He wasn't ahead of me - I was sure of that - and I didn't see him in any of the nearby little groups behind me. I was tailgunning the front group and there were stragglers behind me.

Crap!!! WHERE THE HELL IS DREW!?!

It made little difference to me in the race, but it turns out his chain went into his spokes and locked up his rear with about 2 laps to go. Thankfully, as I crossed the line in umpteenth with the lead group (next to GC winner Mike Fawell), Drew was awarded "same time" for his mechanical mishap.

Not bad.

- -

Drew and I finished 4th and 6th on GC, respectively. Cash money, upgrade points, BAR points, and the satisfaction of a good weekend of racing. Not bad.

We celebrated by watching the merciless battle which became 1/2/3 race with some disguised tasty beverages, of course.