Another Classic at NWA

3:30 a.m. my iPhone buzzes under my pillow and I'm quickly brought into a state of awareness. I was aware that I had about thirty minutes to shower, finish packing, load my gear and bike into the truck and be on the road if we were to keep our 4:30 departure time. I hate being late, especially if I'm the one who sets the schedule. We had decided to all meet at Andy's house and leave from there. I arrived with about ten minutes to spare shortly followed by Zach and Erin. Once we saw everything we were taking we were a little hesitant about everything fitting into the FJ but with a little shuffling and rearranging everything fit snugly and we were off to the races.

The trip to Prairie Grove was nice. It was cool to get to hang out a little and catch up on what's been going on with everyone, discuss some team tactics, sleep, watch each other sleep and really just get a chance to enjoy each others company. We made a short little pit stop in Sallisaw to hit up the local Braum's for some Hotcakes and coffee. After that it was straight to Prairie Grove. The closer we got to Prairie Grove the worse the weather looked. The temperature was gradually dropping the further west we went and then once we crossed into Arkansas we were greeted with the rain. This looked to be another epic NWA Classic. Fortunately for us about 20 minutes or so before we reached our final destination the rain stopped and the sky somewhat cleared. The wind, however, did not.

We had decided that we would drill it right from the gun just to see what happens. Either they let us go off the front or we know real fast that it's not going to be that easy. That lasted all of about three minutes. At this race you have a neutral rollout of about maybe a quarter of a mile or so and then it turns right. That's were we went, when it turned right we all went off the front. It didn't seem like such a bad idea until we hit the open field about 2 minutes away. That's were we were hammered by the crosswind. There was nothing to shield you from the wind and it was showing no mercy. That crosswind and the fact that the road was turning upwards seemed like a perfectly good excuse to wave our little white flags. We sat up and slowly filtered back into the field.

This race seemed real negative to me. Not individual attitudes but the attitude of the whole peloton. Everyone seemed pretty content on a light tempo pace and the only real surges were the jumps to prevent a break from going off. Once the break was caught everyone just went back into chill mode until the next one. This type of race is always hard for me at the beginning of the season, not the course or the distance, but the need to be patient and conserve energy and see how the race unfolds. I'd rather be towards the front and hoping for a break to stick and find myself in it. That's great when you burn just a few matches attempting it but when you pretty much burn your whole book it's bad news. I keep thinking I've learned my lesson but then find myself relearning it at the beginning of each season.

We tried several times to get a break established but nothing worked. It didn't matter who we went with, guys with numbers, guys who could solo the whole course by themselves, it just wasn't happening. At one point, by accident, Zach found himself in a solo break just because when he was at the front everyone else sat up. His break lasted about 1/3 of a lap and then he was back in the peloton. The whole time he was off I was just thinking how did that happen and if he could just get out of sight we might actually be able to pull this off.

It wasn't until the third lap that we were successful in getting a rider up the road and in a break. Erin was able to establish himself in a four man break somewhere around midway through the final lap. We'd been hoping for a break all day and finally it's off. I moved up a few places to the front and "did work". Myself and a rider from Bicycle Shack Racing assumed the responsibility of keeping everything under control and not letting anyone get in the mood of bringing our break back. BSR had a teammate in the break also so it was in both our best interests to do what we could to help it succeed. In the end it all paid off with Erin pulling off another excellent finish at 4th place and the Bicycle Shack racer taking 2nd.

Myself, I rolled across the line in 14th place. Once Erin was off I was hoping for a top ten but after attacking, countering and covering when it came time at the end to sprint it out my legs just didn't have it. I somehow managed to avoid cramping on the last climb even though I could feel my muscles trying to seize with every pedal stroke. If I look like I'm in pain in the picture below that's because I AM!

Ah, NWA, until next year. Maybe, just maybe...

FINALLY!

Well, it finally happened. I finally got the opportunity to join my new teammates this past Sunday in Prairie Grove, AR for the NW Arkansas Classic Road Race, which was my first race of the season. Zach and I hit the road around 4 a.m. Sunday morning for the three hour drive to visit our neighbors to the east. The trip down seemed pretty short as we talked about bikes, races and family life. I always enjoy the day trips on race days. Getting up early doesn't really bother me, I do it every day, plus, I really like the conversation. Zach and I have been day tripping since we started racing together late last season. Once we got close to Prairie Grove we stopped at Braum's to grab some breakfast. Pancakes, the breakfast of champions. FYI, Braum's will not let you trade you piece of sausage for another pancake. After breakfast it was straight to the staging area to pick up our race numbers and meet up with Ryan.


Prior to getting to the starting line there are always some very important decisions that need to be made. The biggest one is what to wear? It's like 36 degrees right now but supposed to be in the mid 50's by around noon. So, what exactly should I wear without having to shed clothes or freeze. This is usually decided by asking everyone around you and then in my case adding a little extra. Seems like I get cold easier now with my old age.

Now that everyone is all dressed, Zach, Ryan and I all made our way down to the starting line. I was stoked, it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. I was even happy to see people I'm not too crazy about. Just to be lined up there with everyone else...it was great. After roll call, we were off. This race is a 23 mile loop and we will be doing three laps for a total of 69 miles. I had already decided that I was going to race fairly conservatively and try to be smart about the moves I made...the exact opposite of how I raced last year. I knew with this being my first race of the season I couldn't be too certain as to how many "matches" I had to burn and didn't want to find myself burnt out when push came to shove.

The attacks started earlier than I would of expected. There were guys attacking early in the first lap. For this race, that is way too early. We still had someone cover the attacks, just in case, but they were short lived and didn't take too much effort. The good thing about the early attacks is they really help get things opened up. You get that initial burn in your legs and kind of prepare your body for what is to come. This course has a little bit of everything, it's got your flats, some rollers, a nice gradual climb and one fairly steep climb about 3 miles from the finish. This course is perfect for a break. If you can get with some guys who are willing to work you can have a successful break. There's a lot of blind spots on this course so it's easy to be "out of sight, out mind" and with those climbs mixed in it's easy to shell some of the weaker riders who might be mixed in with your break.

Early in the third lap Zach was able to position himself in a break that had at least one rider from each team in it. As his break started to establish itself I moved to the front with two Team Accelerade guys and we set a nice tempo pace. This bought a little time but with everyone knowing that could be the winning break we started seeing guys jumping around us to bridge up. The break was eventually reeled in and they rejoined the field. To me, and probably to everyone, that looked like the winning break. Shortly after that break was reeled in Brady, Fossil1, jumped and was immediately able to open up a nice gap but he was solo and there was too much time left so I didn't really worry a lot about it. Brady is strong and the guy can motor but I couldn't see him doing it by himself. Then a few guys jumped to bridge up to Brady, two of them being his other two teammates. When I saw that happening I knew I had to go. So, I jumped on and before we knew it there were like 13 guys in the break. It didn't seem to take too long before we were established and I started settling in. I knew Zach and Ryan would be holding tempo at the front of the field helping to buy us time, so I just kept pushing and trying to motivate everyone else to do the same. I love breaks. Next to winning a sprint, it is my favorite part of racing. You put yourself in a group of guys 5, 10 or 13 and it's you against the rest of the field. A game of cat and mouse. After about five miles or so I was totally invested in this break. I knew this was my chance and this was very possibly the winning break. The crazy thing about this break was that the team with the most to lose actually did the least amount of work. I didn't expect that at all. In fact, I would say that one member of that team did 90% of the teams work. It doesn't usually work that way. The main reason this break stayed off was because there were enough of us who only had one guy from our team in the break and we put everything we could into staying off. If we would of been caught my race would of been over. Something else that kind of surprised me was that no one tried to nail it up the last hill. I was prepared for someone to kill it there and was hoping I would be able to hang on. It didn't happen, we pretty much all climbed it together and then nailed it once we reached the top.

The big scare came shortly after that climb. The wheel truck pulled up along side us and let us know there was a group about 500m back trying to bridge up. That gave us the needed incentive to turn it up a notch and try to ride this one out. All I could think of was, "were in the hell is the 1K marker" at least once I saw that I would know how much further we had. My PT cpu was jacked up and wasn't reading right so I was just guessing the whole time. I knew that I wanted it over. As we came into the final stretch a few guys started to pick up the pace, I went with those guys hoping for the best. I was hoping to be able to catch Fossil's train and contest the sprint, however, that didn't pan out. When we hit the 200m mark everyone accelerated and I was able to match that acceleration but as we came up to the 100m mark I was toast. The sprint opened up and as I stood up to give what little I had left my legs started to lock up. I weighed my options real fast, 1) sit back down and roll it in for a top ten, 2) try to hook it up and sprint it out and risk my legs totally locking up and finishing last out of the break. I chose to sit down and roll in for a 7th place finish.

Overall I am happy with this result. Sure there are things I wish I could of done differently and hopefully I remember those things at my next race. I raced smarted this race than what I normally do. I'll be the first person to admit that I race stupid a lot, or did last season. My problem is I want to race and it's hard for me to just sit still and wait. I came to race 69 miles, not 200m. This was my first race this season and first race since Emily was born, so I really couldn't ask for more.

It's time to race boys!