8/15/10: Air Force Academy State RR Champs

Having never ridden out at the AFA, I wasn't sure what to expect from the course aside from the very real potential for a stiff wind. The AFA is the location for the strongest winds in CO and the gustiest winds in the entire country. Plus, the parcours had changed from previous years so the lap configuration was new to all the racers. We'd all be seeing it for the first time on the first lap of our respective races.

The Pro/1/2 race was to be 9 laps of a 9-mile circuit, winding its way around the Academy. Someone in-the-know informed me that overall the course was mostly flat with one long, gradual climb of nearly 2 miles and a second steeper, punchy climb which would take somewhere between 30-45 seconds to top. We would hit this climb just a couple minutes after the first, longer climb.

The token break of 2 riders went away at the gun while the rest of us settled in with little sense of urgency. And it didn't take long for the break's lead to balloon to nearly 5 minutes over the course of the first 2 laps. My legs felt great - very fresh and strong. Accessing the watts was not an issue, but I also realized the race had yet to heat up. It was on the 3rd lap where things started to get interesting . . .

The 2 climbs were smack in the middle of each lap. Our third time up the long climb, a couple riders initiated a blistering attack that immediately shattered the peloton to bits. I was riding in the top 20, so was in a fairly good position to react. As I latched on to the back of the small front group of about 12 riders, I noticed that a couple of the heavy hitters were nowhere in sight. I also went right by one of the stronger Cat 1 riders as he appeared to be wrestling his bike to the ground; he looked really uncomfortable! Covering the attack put me in the hurt locker, but I recovered quickly over the top of the climb and on to the twisty descent before the sharp 2nd climb. On the descent, I looked over my shoulder and there was a sizable gap to the rest of the field. At that point, I figured going with the move was the smart thing to do. Unfortunately, things came back together and we were one happy family of about 60 again.

But, it was clear that the long climb, gradual as it was, would be the stomping grounds for shelling riders on every lap to come. The fourth time up this climb, my bike started making funny noises, like my chain wasn't quite shifting gears cleanly. I shifted up and down through my mid-gears and everything checked out OK. By the time we hit the climbs on lap 5, the noise was so pronounced that it sounded like a handful of marbles being ground together. Some guys around me made comments about how loud my bike was. My bottom bracket was coming apart.

The upshot is that the friction caused by the bearings grinding against one another quickly made it feel like I was riding with a brake rubbing against my rim. I fell off the pace the fifth time up the climbs as my legs got completely overloaded with the effort and increased friction. Luckily, a group of about 6 caught me as we approached the short, steep climb. I fought like hell to stick with them and subsequently had to sit on the back to recover, skipping way more pulls than I took. Miraculously, we caught the small front group of challengers and were back in the thick of things . . . just in time to hit the climbs on lap 6.

The timing could not have been any worse. By this time, my BB was so messed up and my legs were so torched that I got jettisoned immediately. And there was no hope of catching back on this time. As I crossed paths with the front group the remainder of that lap and during the 7th lap, I noticed that the pace had slackened enough where the group remained together until the final attacks on the 9th and final lap.

Me? I was out of the top 20 and, thus, well out of the points. My knees ached, my bike was effectively broken. So, at the end of the 7th lap, I veered off the course and rode up the parking lot to my car. A disappointing way to finish a race that started out with some pretty good promise.

Despite my bad luck, I absolutely loved the course. Definitely challenging enough, even without the wind which, by the way, materialized but never gained its typical gusto. It's a race I'd like to get back to next year.

Ride safe,
Nate