Lake Auburn Road Race, Mike Rowell, June 3rd
Wow, what a drastically different report the Cat4’s and some of the Cat5’s had than the one I personally had (Cat5 35+).
Weather was pretty miserable with steady rain but temp was about 60 so not as bad as Sterling. My wife and I stayed at our house in Bethel, Maine the night before and drove down to Auburn Sat AM. We got there early enough to pre-drive the course, which helped a little bit I think.
Our group had about 35 racers for the short, single lap, 24 mile race. Start went off without a hitch and we got rolling at a moderate pace with 2 team BikeMan racers leading. The back side of the lake (the 1st few miles) had semi rough pavement but the the entire group was over compensating in terms of calling and pointing things out so we never had any issue. Same with the turns. Given the weather nobody wanted to crash and nobody did.
For the 1st time in my racing life, I had strategy; hang back and don’t worry about trying to run the show until the end. That said, I spent very little time up front, a fraction of what I usually do, save a couple calculated attempts to inflict damage and one stupid move of chasing down a single breakaway on a 40+ mph downhill which, unknown to me, went right into the races biggest uphill. That hill spanked me and I lost contact with a lead break of about 7 people. The next few miles were spent trying to bridge back. Fortunately we eventually hit some down and I was able to catch but was so taxed that I again fell off on the next big up (in came the wheel car again, man is that humiliating). I managed to hold within 50 yards or so and when the course hit the final few miles I knew I had to get back in or give up. On one of the downs I was able to charge ahead an catch back in.
From there the course was all lightly rolling or down which allowed me to completely recover (finally). The finish for the race was a straight, flat/slightly uphill sprint. I rounded the final corner in 3rd with a small guy going for gold and the strong steady guy from BikeMan in 2nd. At 200 meters the BikeMan rider hit the gas and charged ahead and I stuck and as soon as I could see the finish line I came around him and got him by about a half a bike for the win.
Maybe the results jaded me but I really enjoyed the race and the course. I’m sure it would have been different had I gotten off course. It would be easy to miss a turn had the marshals not been paying attention or missing.
mkr
Mike