Sharks

Sharks. That’s what I likened us to as we zipped along in the brisk Autumn air, drilling it for the final climb before the official end of the Wednesday Night Worlds course. It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving and Team Athens had finally scheduled a Fall training ride that I was able to attend and I was pumped! I met Ben and Dale at the RT. 50/339 park and ride and we loaded up our bikes for the 45 minute commute to Athens. On the ride there we chatted about the latest race news, new bikes, and other developments since our last ride. We were to meet two other teammates in Athens and were planning on riding the Wednesday Night Worlds course (which I had never ridden before). I was a bit apprehensive about this ride for two reasons: For one I hadn’t been riding as much as I was during the season, but it seemed that everyone else had. And secondly we were riding with teammates I had never ridden with before and I wanted to be able to make a “good impression”. My apprehension melted away as we mounted up and headed out from Peden stadium. We had actually only been able to meet Dan so our group had shrunk to four riders. We headed out of Athens and hit the first hill, one of the largest we would encounter that day. We were warmed up already, so I moved to the front and rode tempo. When we crested I looked behind me to see that Dan was the only one who was able to hang on, and he was laboring pretty heavily. My grin was a mile wide as we flew down the backside of the hill and headed out into the farm country surrounding Athens. I guess you don’t actually lose fitness as quickly as you think because as we took turns taking 30 second pulls on the rolling course and our speed began picking up to 27-28mph in the flats we all began to feel pretty good. The hills were definitely the decisive advantages for me as Dan and I were continually able to drill it on the climbs and blow our small group to bits. However, we did unfortunately pay for it in the flats as Dale and Ben opened the throttle and left Dan and I struggling to keep up. As we flew through the countryside, I again thought of us as sharks. As soon as one of us faltered it was as if the others smelled blood in the water. The attacks came swift and fierce with no reprieve. I attacked on the climbs, opening up gaps of nearly a minute, Ben attacked in the flats, and Dale blew us away on the descents. Everyone was feeling quite “randy” and it showed in our pace. We made it to the end of the out and back course only 3 minutes off of the fastest mid summer pace from 2009. As we made the turn for the return trip, Ben instated the town sign sprint challenge. We would have 4 intermediate sprints for town signs on the return leg and things were about to get quite interesting. Mind you we had all anticipated this ride being a leisurely paced, late season training ride…however it never seems to turn out that way. We had close to 30 miles in our legs by the time the first sprint took place. Ben caught us unaware and easily took the win. We buzzed along enroute to the second sprint and were within a quarter mile when Dan took a valiant, albeit early flyer off the front. I waited an additional 30 seconds before charging after him, riding tempo several bike lengths back. I timed the catch and opened my sprint 200 yards from the sign to take a clear bike length victory with my arms spread wide in the typical cycling salute. A mile and a half from the third sprint Ben pulled to the front and cranked the speed up to nearly 30mph. We hung on for nearly a mile until he attacked on a small rise and split the group. It seemed as though he was free and clear, so we saw him ease up a bit in the distance. As we rounded a bend in the road, a quarter mile separated us from the town sign, with Ben nearly halfway there. Dale and Dan were spent but I clicked up a few gears and began cranking for what seemed an impossible catch. Ben was sitting up coasting as I let out a banshee yell and crossed the line abreast of him, having sprinted nearly the entire way. He looked at me as if I were a ghost and then expressed disbelief that I had caught up to him in that short distance. Finally, nothing was left but the final town sign which also happened to mark the official end of the Worlds course. We all four used the next several miles to recover and enjoyed the scenery a bit before the final push to the finish began. About 12 miles out from the sign, Ben and Dan moved up to the front and began setting a blistering pace. Dale and I struggled a bit, they smelled blood and took off. I rode tempo and kept them within 15 seconds as we began a small gradual climb out of one of the valleys. They were working together and Dale had since dropped off the pace, so it was just me, the road, and the pain. We were entering the realm of pain that I had been in during this past year’s races, however the plus side was that not until this point had I approached the red zone and it was obvious that I had a residual fitness that far outlasted the end of the race season. By this point, Ben and Dan believed they had it wrapped up. I saw them crest and sit up a bit to recover…bad move. I saw my chance and attacked, charging over the top at full bore. I was out of the saddle and cranking hard as I pulled in behind them for a split second, clicked up a gear, and attacked on around them. They had no idea what just happened and I had 30 seconds on them before they could begin to organize a response. I put my head down and gave it everything I had for 10 miles, growing my lead to over a minute at one point. However, even with as good as I was feeling, I still was lacking that long term lactate threshold that I had over the summer. A mile before the final climb, my speed was waning and I was finally caught. Ben pulled up next to me looked over and uttered one word…”Owww”. I knew what he meant. Even though it was hard on me out front, I had made them chase at an unbelievable pace and I was sure it had hurt. I lost it on the final climb to the sign. I hung on until midway up when Ben attacked and willingly surrendered my post at the front. I rode tempo to the top and took a respectable third for the day. We rode a cool down lap of Athens and headed home feeling quite satisfied from the day’s festivities. I mused to myself on the way home that racers, much like predators are exceedingly good at reading body language. When a predator notices a laboring animal of prey, it capitalizes on that weakness. Bicycle racers do the same thing, friend or foe in each race/training situation. I can only hope that come the 2010 race season, I will be one of the attackers rather than the prey. Only time will tell…