University of Delaware Blue Hen Dual State Showdown Race Weekend, Collegiate Men's A - Peter Chiu - 3-25-09
“You’re a ****. You don’t let anything go!”
If you’re doing your job correctly, then you’re going to rub a few people the wrong way. On Saturday, we did our job. A few hiccups meant that we didn’t have the points haul that we wanted, but getting the win was important for us in the first road race of the season. After an inordinate amount of time spent inhaling phenol and memorizing “The Bible” (/Clinical Anatomy/, 3rd ed. by Ernest W. April, PhD) trying to get comfortable enough with the head and neck to pass my anatomy exams Friday morning, my lungs and psychological state were in prime condition for a 68 mile road race. There is nothing like persistent cough, mild burning in the lungs, and mental fatigue prior to a race. I didn’t get to see any of the early morning races (I was studying biochemistry/metabolism in the van – fitting for the first RR!), but I had heard from teammates that there were sections of narrow roads and a nice rolling bit on the far side of the course before some sweet wide open highway riding with a rumble strip across which people would be attacking constantly. Good thing I had tubular tires and a lot of Chamois Butt’r.
I rolled around for about 15 minutes hitting my tempo zone for the last 10 minutes to warm up and cruised to the line thinking less about the race and more about the metabolic cartwheels the 41 riders in the field would be performing over the next 68 miles. This became even more pertinent as the breakaway rolled away at about mile 5 with a teammate of mine, Alex Bremer (Empire/Columbia), who is actually flying out to race the Redlands Bicycle Classic! Good luck! Can you imagine the amount of energy the breakaway group expended working together to stay away for 63 rolling miles and how different it must have been from the experience in the peloton? These guys rolled it and started working together quite well after Alex whipped them into shape. In the pack, David Wiswell, Anthony Hall, and I were stomping on breaks trying to bridge the gap. With the break increasing their lead and Columbia riders all over the front blocking and following moves, the peloton very quickly gave up and settled down. Here was the big difference. While those guys were chugging along at , I was alternating between recovery pace and short 30 second to 2 minute bursts to stomp on moves. My own overzealousness in insuring that as few people as possible were able to escape the group meant that the race was essentially one huge interval workout. We covered almost all of the moves, and one of my teammates, David Wiswell (GS Mengoni/Columbia), followed a group off the front in pursuit of the front guys. Unfortunately, a problem with the police, who didn’t realize a race was going on, meant that the chase group was stopped on the side of the road. We employed this tactic, because we were 90% sure that Bremer could solo away from his breakaway group to take the win. Otherwise, we might’ve employed a different tactic. Coming into the last 10 miles, groups continuously attacked to scoop up the last few points for the minor placings. I myself was not able to respond, because the constant jumping had left me with cramps in both quads. I rolled in with the remnants of the field with the knowledge that I had helped my teammate to the best of my ability. Great feeling!
Sunday had an ITT and a criterium in store for us. I spent the morning studying lysosomal storage disorders, lipid metabolism, and amino acidopathies, so I skipped the ITT and focused on the criterium, which featured an interesting corner at the bottom of a pretty fast descent and a nice little hill. With legs that were barely recovered from the previous day’s effort, I was pretty unmotivated to start. This feeling was compounded by the fact that the “interesting corner” had a strange lip formed by a brick crosswalk. This lip essentially became a jump at race speeds, and it resulted in a few nasty wrecks in every single field including the pace motorcycle in the Women’s A/B race. Here’s the problem. I was there to race, but my head wasn’t in the game. I was a little psyched out by the corner, and the legs weren’t good. In retrospect, it was pointless to race, because I was paradoxically reckless with my tactics and overly cautious in the corner. You have to be ready to race otherwise you’re wasting time and money. Fortunately, I didn’t waste that much time, because after 3 laps I put in a big attack and quickly gained about 10 seconds on the field. The legs surprisingly didn’t feel that bad… yet. Looking back, I saw a UVM rider as we crossed the only flat section on the course before the descent. Descending in his draft, we were making great time, but the next time up the hill… he attacked hard and dropped me. Here’s the next question. Did he really drop me? Or did I drop myself by not wanting to be in the race? It’s really unclear. I was going hard, but I don’t know if I was going to my limit. Attitude and motivation are so important to performance that I have no doubt that I gave up subconsciously before my legs gave out. A few more times around, and I was pulled.
All told, the weekend ended up decently. We won the Men’s A road race with good team tactics (and probably would have had a second guy in the top 10 if not for the police), and we had two guys in the top-10 of the Men’s A Individual Time Trial, which was marred by the fact that both were accidentally directed off course by the marshals.