This weekend I participated in my first ever road race, the Eagle Creek Grand Prix at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis. I'll get the less impressive part of the race out of the way first. I came in 40th out of 46 racers in the Cat 4/5 race. Not terribly impressive, right?
Well, the result doesn't tell the whole story.
Race morning was somewhat cold, although the temps were supposed to warm by the afternoon. With the race starting at 10 am, things would remain on the chilly side. Unlike many of my other races, I arrived very early at a little after 8:30 and rode around the park and the course for the next hour or so.
The course itself is pretty basic. A perfect 1 mile paved circle with only a few feet of elevation gain for a total of 45 minutes.
Well before the race was set to start I noticed a few riders starting to line up. I wasn't sure the line procedure, whether there were call ups or a free for all like the DINO races. I continued with my warm up, and at the end of the next lap I saw that most other people had stopped to get on the line. A free for all it was and I was in the back third of the field, although I wasn't terribly concerned by this positioning. As I explained in my previous post, I had no expectations for this race. I need to pick up the intensity of training in the lead up to the DINO season, and instead of intervals, a competitive event seemed like a good alternative for a solid workout, while keeping the race skills fresh.
So, off we went. At first it was an easy pace....which lasted all of 15 seconds. The pack sped up and began a series of fluctuations. Sometimes it would get spread out, but then it would accoridan in to a large mass which spread all the way across the road. I found myself rotating to the front several times where I was in the top 10 or 15 spots, but then I, and others, would drift back as other riders moved forward
In an act of self preservation (for my mtb season and my collarbone), I spent most of my time on the outside line. The course was a circle with a constant drift to the left. At the northern end, there was the closest thing to a corner, where the road took an actual angle. I figured the outside would protect against any crashes on the inside lines, or in the pack as we gradually turned left. Plus I was imagining myself bailing off the road and into the grass and using my wider 35 mm to heroically miss a terrible crash ahead of me. Luckily no one crashed. Things got dicey a few times. For some reason I recall that at 8 minutes in some silliness started. Seemed to be centered around a junior racer from a development team. A lot of shifting of lines, some ill advised braking, and profanity, and things got worked out. A few more of these moments happened during the race, and each time I was ready to bail for the grass. But, everyone stayed upright.
The pace stayed pretty high, although when 5 laps left was announced, there was a definite shiver through the field as the speed grew. The second to last lap things got nuts (from a mtb'er perspective) and the speeds grew up to 30 mph and beyond. I shifted to my fastest gear but still seemed to be going backwards. As we cross the line for the last lap, the pack really kicked into high gear and I was really getting dropped off the back. My gears were maxed out, so I got out of the saddle and got a good several seconds of power which allowed me to almost get in contact with the tail end of the pack.
In the process a rider who had found himself in a poor position in the inside and at the back of the pack all of the sudden dove for a gap on the outside, right in front of me. I saw him coming, but was pinned against the side of the road and tapped my brakes, slowing just enough for him to miss my front wheel, but also allowing the back to continue its charge forward. I rebounded and maxed out at 33 mph, but the back was easily in excess of 35 and so it went on for the final 1/4 lap, and I rolled in a few seconds later. To be fair, that final move by the other rider was not what killed me in the final sprint. I was already on the tail end of the pack, and was not going to match their speed. I do have to wonder if I would have been able to keep up if I wasn't running cyclocross gearing, but that will be a problem to be addressed later.
The race was fun, I got a great workout (basically a long interval), no one crashed, and it was a new thing I could check off of my cycling list of things to do. Will I do another? Probably, but I might save it for early season training. Now it is time to focus on mountain biking.
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