Race report - River Falls, Marietta SC March 7, 2009

Race Report for River Falls, Marietta SC March 7, 2009

Some folks scared me a bit this week with comments about the River Falls course, mentioning the downhills and in my mind there were images of Tour and Giro descents with switchbacks and gravel in the corners... not so much, but there was a pretty cool hill up to the start/finish.

James and I pulled out around 9am, and I really must say again - Cat 4 start times are awesome so far! You actually get to eat breakfast and finish your coffee before you leave the house!

We got there in good time - maybe 1:20 before 12:05 start time - plenty of time to register (a note here - apparently what they mean by a $5 "line fee" is merely for giving you a number, though I don't recall any information specifically to that effect on the registration site. So, if a race calls itself a "series" - i.e. the "Greenville series" - you should save and bring with you to subsequent races the number you get at the first race. Maybe that should have been obvious to me, but it wasn't and I found it quite irritating that I responsibly pre-registered etc and then got asked for another $5. Irritation is definitely not what I need in the moments before a race; I get worked up enough by myself!)

The races seemed to go off pretty well, and we were right on time to start - the called the 45+ to the line and with them (behind) the cat 4s. I thought we were in the front row or 2 of cat 4s, until they asked everyone to raise hands, and 5-6-7 rows up there were guys with hands up as Cat 4 racers. Suddenly start position not so good.

So we're off. The first lap was pretty flaky and jittery; the course is a good one but quite narrow. 3 wide felt pretty close! As the road wound along the back side (miles 2-4 or so?) there were several times where if you didn't pay attention you'd suddenly run out of road on the right side. This happened to a couple guys on lap 3 or so; they got right back on though.

The poor starting position and narrowness of the course made it very very difficult to do anything interesting in the race. Frustrating when you've got something to give and no real opportunity to let it fly. My takeaway is that to do anything in a race like this you basically have to take a lot more risks (by going up the right side and risking getting run off the road) than I usually am comfortable with. Laps 2-3 kept speeding up, but I had no trouble just staying in, not really working much. Lap 4 (James later told me) was a bit slower, and I felt like I had a lot at the hill (not that long, but up to 10% grade, again per James. Frankly it really didn't FEEL like 10%, but who knows how one's senses get altered in the heat of race day...)

So I went... nowhere.

Boxed in, and nowhere to go, in fact probably lost some position and had to really get on the horse through the start line & down the hill to get back on with the group. Lap 5 was a little more heated up, and at the hill I started to cramp. ACK! Fell off the peloton a bit, but remembering our discussion on the way down I determined to give it my best. Cramps died down and I was able to put some power down... there were a few moments when I had hopes of actually catching the group, but no dice.

On the back stretch, riding by myself I looked back and saw what I thought was a group, and I felt sure I would be swept up shortly, but only a few guys came across to me, one of whom was Webster (Hi Scott!). Eventually 4 of us formed a paceline, and worked together till the bottom of the hill. The other guys mostly took it easy from there, and I rode in by myself by default. Eventually saw James finishing, and a few other guys - he said he watched my whole last lap from about 100M back. So... didn't win, didn't place, but I gave a good effort and found out where I stand - I need more long (40+mi), hard rides (80% + effort). I can climb pretty well comparatively, but as with sprints, you need to be in position to make moves on the climb or it doesn't help.

I'd really love to see somehow an effort to open portions of the course somehow to allow stuff to "happen" in these races. If on a given course like this one the climb is where something is likely to "happen" then I wish they'd make some effort to provide the space for it to happen there by opening up the whole road, just like the do for sprint finishes. It shouldn't be all about the luck of getting into the first 3 rows on the start line, or about choosing between being safe or literally riding through/over people to get to the front. I'm not asking for a risk free race, or for a free ride, just saying that a course as narrow as this becomes anti-competitive if there's no room to make the race interesting. Maybe if it were longer it would be fine, but a 40 mi race (actually it was 34.5 or so - what happened to the extra mile/lap?) is short enough that almost everybody has enough fitness to stay with a group for that long, as long as you don't lose too much on the hill. Thoughts?

So there you have it. Race 2 for 2009 under the tires...