Kirkwood Race Report

How was the weekend kids? I got some race reports for you! This is Kirkwood's Race Report.

Earlier I said think of this race as Strasburg Part Duex, and I think that description hits the nail on the head. A seven mile loop that consisted of rolling hills for the first half followed by steady risers to the finish. Cat 5. does 3 laps. The corners were fairly clean with exception of gravel here and there. None of the corners were all that tricky with the exception of possibly the downhill into a sharp left hand turn, but even that corner was manageable.

I get to the race with an hour till start time. I ride over to the registration tent and proceed to wait 15 minutes in the registration line. This is rarely a time kill. I think I just got to the tent at the absolute worst time. After getting the race kit on, I had about 10 minutes to warm up before it was time to ride over to the start finish area.

This of course is the big joke that gets played on racers. We wait 20 minutes for the previous race to finish. Granted the organizers have no way of knowing how fast or slow the previous race is going to be ridden, so I don't hold them too responsible. We all wait in the cold air for the race to finish. Wondering exactly why I even bothered warming up?

Someone yells out instructions as always and the race begins. The pace is nice and gentle in the beginning. Everyone is chilled. There is the regular sprinting out of the turns. All the fun stuff of a Cat 5 road race. I'm thinking that I should be able to finish with the pack.

There was a close call to me crashing. Coming out of one of the turns, I start sprinting because that is what the group has been doing. Apparently the group didn't feel like sprinting too much this time because I am on top of the guy in front of me. With my hands on the hoods of my bars, I ended up giving a little pat on the hiney. If my hands were not on the hoods, I would have probably went down cause his ass would have pushed my bars in one direction or another. I pull off to the left a little to avoid taking him and myself down. A second later I jokingly ask him if he wants to play grab ass. He laughed.

At some point during the first lap, I went from riding in the middle of the pack to riding in the back of pack. How did this happen? Because about 8 guys peeled off the back.

Finally, coming up the risers of the 2nd lap, There are some serious efforts being made. I know it is time for me to do work. A gap open up between me and the pack. I know I need to close this gap. I don't. I ride behind the group for about 2 miles trying needlessly to catch back on. I finish the race all by myself. No sprint to the finish.

So where is the weakness kids? What do I lack? Coach Matt pointed it out to me. Anaerobic power output! The short power climbs are my weakness. How to ride them efficiently and recover from them is currently my kryptonite! So over the next two weeks, I think I'll be focusing on trying to improve my anaerobic power.