My Worst Nightmare

This was the second road race of the year for me. I picked this race because I heard the course was relatively flat and there are no mountain bike races for the next few weeks. Unlike most years, there are very few mountain bike races this March. I want to be prepared for the AMBC's in April, and racing is necessary to do that. With no mountain bike races, I've turned to the road this year. The 26 mile Brooks course is relatively flat to rolling with two small hills. The course is open to cars except for the last 200 yards, which were completely closed off. As I hate hills, the Brooks course would be good for me, a nice workout without the knowledge that I'd get dropped on the first hill.

I counted at least 25 Cat. 4 women on the starting line. The numbers in the Southeast have grown tremendously over the last couple of years. I recall a road race two years ago where there were 12 women total on the line, and that was a decent turn out. The 1-2-3 field at Brooks had nearly 40 women!

We were about 15 minutes late starting because of a delay getting the Women 1-2-3 off. I was hoping the first few minutes would be slow, so that my legs could warm up again. I got in with the field about 1/3 of the way back and looked around at the competition. I hardly knew anyone save for a fellow mountain biker and a few of the Genesis ladies. We rolled off the starting line and took the first turn slowly. The pace continued to saunter until we rounded the second corner. We then picked it up to about 25 mph. My legs were really tight, and I could feel a little twinge in my right knee, the one that was injured in last week's mountain bike race. I'd made my goal to hang with the pack until my knee started to really hurt. I wanted to get a good workout but did not want to blow out my knee. I began to take stock of who had a decent wheel and who to stay away from. Cat. 4 races can be pretty sketchy. You have a wide margin of pack riding experience and bike handling skills. I decided to try to stick to the 3 wheels that I knew. I'd ridden with these ladies enough to know that they were steady and wouldn't do anything sudden. As we cruised down the road, I got stuck to the right hand side behind someone who lacked the aforementioned bike handling skills. Twice, she braked suddenly, causing me to have to slow down. I tried to let the people behind me know that I was slowing and tried to not do it too quickly. As soon as I could, I got out from behind her. By about the 4th mile, the pace had settled in to about 23 mph, and most of the group was still together. Somehow, I wound up towards the back of the pack and nearly got spit out when we came around a corner. I sprinted to catch back on and made my way through until I was just behind the midpoint of the pack. I was on the right hand side, which in my mind, provides an easy out into the grass if something happens. My worst fear about road racing and why I haven't done much of it up until now is that I will crash. I've heard and seen so many horror stories of people crashing on the road; by the numbers, getting seriously hurt in a mountain bike race seems more unlikely. I have decent bike handling skills, but it is the other riders that I worry about in road races. I suppose it's kind of like driving--you are putting your safety into the hands of the other people on the road.

We were cruising along at about 22 mph when I saw riders and bikes start to fly. For about 3 seconds, the entire world slowed down. I saw Theresa S. from Genesis and her bike fly over two riders that were already down and land on her back. Someone then landed on top of her. I saw riders on either side of me go down. In my mind, I saw myself going down and getting hurt. A fraction of a second is all it took for me to unclip and hit my brakes. My front wheel hit something, but I stayed upright. Even those of us that were unscathed were dazed. I heard the screams of those ladies that went down, and my heart lept out of my chest. I helped pull bikes off of a few people until I realized that the wheel truck had stopped and help was on the way. It's a road race, you don't stop; that is what the motorcycle officials and wheel trucks are for; you keep going. This isn't a mountain bike race. I got on my bike and continued to ride. Somehow, I was able to snap my focus back to the road. I put the wreck out of my mind and stopped shaking. I concentrated on trying to catch the riders that were ahead of me. I climbed the first hill of the course by myself. I could see one gal in front of me and one in back of me. I continued to push my hardest, not wanting to get caught. I stood at the top of the hill and crested it. The downhill was bliss! I was able to recover a bit. I looked at my HRM and was only at about 170. That was a good sign! I had put the wreck out of my mind; I was focused only on the road ahead of me.

The woman that had been behind me caught up to me and got in front of me. Great! Now I had someone to work with. I asked her if she wanted to do a paceline (assuming we picked up a few more riders; the more the faster!). I got a blank stare. Paceline work? She said she wasn't sure what I was talking about. I explained it to her the best I could, and we agreed to take 60 second pulls. With only two of us, I didn't want to pulls to be too short or too long. It took a few rotations for her to get the hang of it, but within a little bit, we were working well together. About that time, we caught another rider and added her to our paceline. She hung on for a few miles until we came to the next hill. She wasn't able to quite hang on, and we dropped her. We came upon another corner, and I recognized my friend Frank acting as the corner marshal. I got a yell of encouragement. It was what I needed to pick up the pace little bit on my next pull. We had turned into the headwind. My legs were starting to feel the burn. They were no longer tight, but they were getting just a little bit tired. We continued with the increased pace until a wind gust blew us back. I had to drop into my small ring and spin until the wind subsided. The other gal's pulls were getting a little bit shorter; she couldn't hang on in front for the entire minute. Finally, we saw the 1 km banner; only about half a mile to go! She was in front, and I pulled up beside her and then dropped back behind her. We rounded a small bend in the road and could see the start/finish line. She got out of the saddle and started her sprint. It was way too early! I learned my lesson two weeks ago in Greenville. I sat on her wheel. Within about 100 feet, she slowed down, and I came around her. I stood up and glanced back. She was already several bike lengths behind me. I easily won the sprint for 7th place. I rolled up to see a few people that did not finish the race, having gone down in the crash. Two ladies were taken to the hospital; one had a broken collarbone, and there was no word on the other. Everyone else suffered some road rash and bruises. There were no serious bike casualties save for some untrue wheels and rear derailleurs. About a minute later, I saw Theresa S. roll across the line! I was afraid that she was one of the people taken to the hospital after I saw how hard she went down. I was very relieved to see that she got up and finished.

My worst nightmare having to do with road racing happened, and I survived. I may be back for a little more action on the pavement later this year. I think I'm beginning to enjoy it a little bit.

Other Atlanta Placings: Bryan Holloway of Atlanta Cycling won Brooks Omnium Cat. 5 Men's race, including a 1st place in the Road Race! Angie Vargas, Genesis, Won the 1-2-3 Women's race; Creed "Elmyr" Sewell, Genesis, won his first  Cat. 3 Men's Road Race; Leigh Valletti, Genesis, placed 4th place in the Cat. 4 Women's Road Race. The ladies of Nalley-Eagle and Atlanta Velo had strong placings in the 1-2-3 race.

Bryan Holloway of Atlanta Cycling winning the Cat. 5 Men's Road Race on his way to winning the Omnium.