WTFM Tour of Washington County

First of all I have to say Congrats to Brigham Lumm from route 1 velo and his winning of the Tour of Washington County. I did not pick him as the favorite to win because I was banking on the TT to weed the "sprinters out". Haha. Thank god for Brigham it was not a timed Stage race. I wonder why don't we have those on the east coast. I know in Airzona they do it and it makes the races that much more competitive. With the winners getting time bonus's. I only say this because I would have beat him overall and placed better than 18th overall.

Brigham did a fine job of working and taking first in the road race. He and Jose came down to my level and went out to dinner with me. Two swell guys who will hang out with a Muck Raker like me. So my hat is off to you guys. Now upgrade for heavens sakes. You will be the first person in mabra history with a 100 upgrade points.

Before the rest of the my entry gets scrutized by SFP this week I have to say I highly enjoyed Tour of Washington County. It was the most fun I have had at a stage race. Altoona fails in comparison to the quality of this race.  It was hard day in and out and that is needed in a good stage race. I have done 4 different stage races in my life and this tops them all on how it was organized. It was very organized and results were up within minutes of a races finish. This is awesome when most of the races in Mabra fail to be able to do this. Plus the results for my knowledge were right on. I am for sure going to do this next year and encourage those of you to attend.

Smithsburg Road race.

The race started out with 75 riders at the start. It was getting hot. I being a complete moron only brought 2 water bottles. I should have brought 3 for the 37 mile road race. It was hot out. The race was on a rolling circuit with ups and downs that favored a lot of the smaller spindly riders. I being by far the biggest rider in weight in the field I shot up to the front 10 for the first 3 laps. I did not budge. The course was a crit race that was 6 miles in length. I figured if I stayed near the front that when ever a hill came since I could slip back if need be and catch the tail end.

As we were making our rounds on the course it would speed up and slow down. The part that killed a lot of people was not the wall of the climb it was after that. After guys would sprint their hearts out to get to the top of the hill and then scream down a down hill make a quick right then sprint a gain to catch up to the guys in the front and by the time people thougth they would recover you would make another climb up a little riser and then a left onto a false flat and if you were just hanging on guys would gap you on the down hill. That was the most challenging thing of the race was that part.

I listened to Vic, Bubu, and Phil and did not work the front of the race. I still was in the wind a lot to keep position but figured why am I all the way up here. I slipped back and figured 20th position would be fine. We still had 3 laps left. I got back there and I heard Rayman say "hey Kyle, why are you in the back." I thought he was yanking my chain. I looked back and there was only 15-20 guys behind me. No freaking way we shelled half the field in the first 3 laps. I was having an easier time than predicted. Every time I hit the climb I would gain 5 or 6 spots. I know amazing for me to do that. But the secret was to spin up it as much as possible because guys were out of the saddle sprinting hard. I would spin till about 3/4s of the way up and then sprint to the top and carry my speed and weight down the hills. Thank god for the 12x26.

The next few laps we lost an additional 3- 4 guys a lap. I was sitting pretty and a lot of people said I looked great. I was hurting at times with the heat not being able to bring my heart rate down. When I saw 190 I thought “I never see it this high on this little effort.” With one lap left I was out of water. Doh. I could feel the effects a little bit in my right calf and it was cramping a little. I used the trick of biting my bottom lip and took pressure off of it with putting more power into my left leg. That did it.

Before the wall I jumped around to the front and worked in the wind a little too much and was the first or second person over the dang thing. That is ok since I am so big a lot of guys do not descend as fast as me so I should be fine. Two NCVC guys worked hard to keep the pace up at the front. I was sitting 3rd wheel and right before the climb before the finish I went to the right to hopefully get around these guys. I underestimated how steep this hill was. I was going up and there were 3 guys from another race on the course. One shoots to the left side of the road which was ok. The other two weaved back and forth and I had to tap my brakes to not hit them and I mean tap them. And that is all she wrote with my result. I had to push it harder now up the hill and was at the limit when I got to the top. Apparently so did a lot of guys because they sat their resting. I was thinking oh great I could catch up. Nope they then turned on the gas again and I just watched a slower then hell sprint happen. I figured why burn more of my matches if I am only going to get 20th. I figured I would save it more for the next day. I pedaled it in. I was cooked a bit of course and had to lay down in shade to cool down for a minute. I ended up 26th. There was only 30 or so of us who finished the race together. I loved it. 

Boonsbrough TT

I drove the course from the night before and saw it was no flat TT gosh darn it. It was a up and down course. Dang Hills. I decided to leave my 26 on from the day before and try my luck. I was hoping to get a top ten and then possibly a top ten in the crit if I played my cards right. I warmed up well on the road doing some jumps and some longer efforts to bring my heart rate up.

I lined up behind a battlefield velo rider who I knew could TT. The day before he broke away for a lap before getting caught by the rest of the field. He also rode Walkersville really well so I thought dang it I do not have a great rabbit to catch because it is easier to catch someone who is a little slower than you than to have someone just ride away. Then you start thinking when am I going to be caught. I joked around with this feller about how I will catch him on the down hill but on the up hill I would be done.

I was kind of right. The other thought in my head is how I did not want Lance Lacy from Abrt to catch me. No freaking way I wanted him to have that on me. So on the down hill to the flat part I pulled in about 10 seconds on this Battlefield velo rider. On the hill I pulled in another 5 seconds to the top. Alright I do not suck that bad since this guy probably weighed 40 pounds less than me. He made a turn around and saw me about to do the same. I loved the look on his face. You know the Ahh Shit look. I made the turn and made the mistake of trying to ramp up my speed to fast. I had to sit up for about 30 seconds for doing that. I got back down and started going again. The BV guy gained back about 5 seconds back. My minute and a half guy kept his distance but the guys chasing me within the 2 minutes looked like they did not put in any time on me thank god. On the down hill I was gaining sometime back on the guy and on the second climb I could see him inching away a little bit. My speed up the final climb was 16 mph. Luckily I held the low thirties on most of the flat section coming back. I had to settle for 13th place with a time of 31:11. I figured I had a 31:15 so this was even better than my prediction. And I pulled in 7 seconds on the BV rider.

For all of you power number junkies my power meter gave me an astounding wattage number of 900 watts on the flats. Can you believe it hahaha.

Williamsport Crit

I felt fantastic after the crit. I felt like I could keep riding and was predicting a banner ride by this guy in the crit. After sitting around till almost 4 for the crit my legs stiffened a bit. Warmed up they were feeling good. I lined up behind Lance Lacy thinking since this guy is pretty good he should start fast. He could not clip in like a goof-ball. Now being on the back I was thinking got to move up dumb-ass. So after one lap I moved up. I told some guys now is the time to go up. I got to the front and was involved in the games. I probably rode the top 10 about 90 percent of the race. 

The heavy hitters were just attacking left and right. I mean full on attacks. I loved it. The little hill was fantastic. I loved that thing because it seemed I could just move up when I wanted to. I would look back and see guys faces of death and concentration. Alright people were suffering. I was working it hard. A few times the front 5 would break off and I would bridge up to get to the group while not taking anyone with me. One effort I did not mean to ride away from everybody. I thought I moved up to the front smoothly and then heard There goes evo with NCVC. I looked back and we had a big gap. How did that happen. I was hopping I just strung the field out and have at least 10 guys with me. 

I tried 4 or 5 times to make a break work. These attempts each lasted a lap or two before I was caught. One time I worked hard to get going on the front and looked back and I saw my effort dropped 10 guys when I put in my attack. I was thinking man if I keep attacking like this at least we can maybe only have 15 finishers in the race and my work was not useless.

One lap I was sitting second wheel behind Greg, who claims he can eat a banana in one bite. I was thinking dude is really ramping up the speed. I also was thinking he has a history of crashing too. He did just that. His back wheel went skidding and he went down. Luckily for me I had an exit strategy up a curb into some grass and I rode about a hundred yards in grass and on a side walk. I got back in but man that took some energy.

I still had ants in my pants and with 5 to go and the pack chasing Jorge from artemis down I was waiting for the perfect attack. I saw steve wahl attack, perfect. I bridged up to him and pulled through. I know I have to work to stay away in the last 5. Steve sat on and then pulled up the hill. We were gaining on Jorge and were about 2 seconds off of his wheel. We then saw the pack then caught us. I thought it was perfect because guys were dead in the face. You could tell they were hurting. I was hurting. Then Jorge kept riding away. Brigham Lumm from Route 1 caught us. Rightly so because if Jorge, Steve, and I got together that would have been game over for the rest of the field.

I got back and tried to recover from that massive effort. I sat up and noticed there was only 20-25 guys left in the once 60+ field. I sat in thinking I could do something if I had any luck. I had nothing left near the end. On the last lap guys were defensive I thought I could probably sprint past more guys. I ended up passing 7-8 guys in the sprint for 16th. I could not sprint past Luke. He did an excellent job in such a hard crit. I should have raced more conservative and I think I would have placed so much better.

I placed 18th overall that puts me in the top quarter of those who entered.