Race Result

Racer:	Richard Gendron
Race:	Turkey Day
Date:	Sunday, September 14, 2008
Location:	Upper Marlboro, MD
Race Type:	Bike - Other
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	0:43:37
Overall Place:	40 / 50
Comment:	Motivation for Off Season

Race Report:

There is something about bike race that is just wonderful. It's risky, challenging, hurts like hell at times, but when it's over there is rush that comes like nothing else.

Turkey Day is the last race on the Mid Atlantic Bike Racing Association (MABRA) Calendar. The course is on the Tradezone business park in Upper Marlboro. It's a big giant "D" that is sagging enough to have a fairly open turn at the bottom of the D's curve with each loop 1.25 miles or so.

We had 5 whole wheelers in this race.

- Two sprinters - me for lead out, and Chris to close
- Three strong LTs - Ryan, Wiki Mike and Art to keep the pace high and keep the race together, cover attacks or bring back breaks
- One Coach - Coach Roger - good all rounder and someone to help us keep our heads in he mix.

I knew we were in trouble when Wiki broke his seat post during warm up. 5 minutes from start time. Somehow he managed to swap bikes, and shoes with Rusty to get in the race.

So what do we do now ? - GO

Race started pretty quickly, but not fast enough for the officials, so they rang a Preemon lap 2, one of 6 total. Things got squirrelly as folks maneuvered for a good spot. I was simply trying to stay near the front to see who the sprinters were. I made a pretty bad move to get out of the pack and almost sent Ryan and an NCVC rider down. Unlike me, so I decided to settle down for a few laps.

About 5 or six laps in, Tri Mike Flanegan, who won the 3/4 race, got off the front with one other rider. I was not particularly worried until the break got to 15 seconds. About then I found Chris and explained the situation "big triathlete up the road". Chris said, "we need to bring him back". I found Art and explained the situation. Art and I started to move up. I think Art got a "yellow line" rule warning when we did, but he stayed in the race - thank goodness. I worked my way to the front and said "guys, we don't want this, there is a pro triathlete, up the road" [exaggeration, I know, but it may have helped]. I then hopped on the front and took my pull. As I fell back to recover, I'm pretty sure Art got up there and did some monster pulling.

As we brought the break back to something like 8 or 9 seconds, guys started to bridge up to the break, and it started to swell. At one point, it seemed that they were going to get enough engines to get away. I saw Joachim (Coppi) pull off the front to bridge. I was well positioned and figured if I could get to Joachim's draft, I could make it up to the break - so off I went - so much for being a sprinter.

I never quite made it there - I closed to about 5 meters, but just as Joachim latched on to the break, I lost his wheel and blew up. So I chilled and waited for the pack - who seemed to have found a will. From what I hear, Art, Mike and Ryan worked their socks off, and it paid off. With about 4 to go, we brought them back. I knew I had to recover as fast as possible and find Chris for that lead out we talked about.

I recovered as best I could, and started to feel human again with about 3 to go - Art slipped up beside me and and said, "let's give it one more hard effort", and he moved off to set a killer tempo and discourage flyers from making a break for the win. I knew I had to 1) find Chris and 2) find a lead out to take us up in to the top 10. Art set a pace too high for anyone to escape.

I later found Chris, and with 1 to go, Chris was on my left and
Mike was in front of us, Ryan to our left in front of me. All of us about 30-35 back. I hollered to Mike and told him, to give us whatever he had left on the back stretch (Top part of the "D"s curve) He didn't respond, but he tried to move up. After getting a few spots he got boxed in and I decided to switch horses to Ryan. Unfortunately, Ryan had not yet recovered from dragging back the break. So I decided to take responsibility and moved up, in the wind, to about 20. At this point, I thought I had lost Chris, and was a bit discouraged. Then I heard him say - "I'm still with you Rich, let's go" just after we rounded the bottom-of-the-D turn. I started to pedal harder, but it did not work. We were sitting about 20th and I was not making up ground, so I stood up, gunned it, and went totally anaerobic. I completely cracked about 30 seconds later, but delivered Chris to a nice position, about 12 back. I fell off the back and pedaled the last 500 yards, but just barely. I finished dead last in the field, but Chris laid down 1199w and got 3rd !!! So hopefully Chris agrees and I get a domestique award.

PS (added later) This is great, I get to put my trophy right in the race report. Here is a quote from Chris' race report, used by permission.

"After the 2nd turn, Rich made THE move with me on his wheel. He took the wind and charged ahead alongside the strung out pack as we were approaching the final turn. He brought me up into the top ten before he faded, and at the same time attacks from the field came and I quickly joined in the fun. I came around the last turn about 7 or 8 back and just tried to stay safe until the final uphill. I was running out of space as everyone spread out but I squeezed by on the outside before the road narrows to get to 3rd place and held it there though the finish."

Boy, that takes the sting out of finishing last.

Power data shows I burned a few matches early in the race that I could have saved, and really wasted energy trying to get into the break, but otherwise I'm not unhappy with the effort. My average power numbers were low and max numbers decent - given that I never put out a final sprint.

Duration: 43:37
Work: 543 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: 244
VI: 1.17
Pw:HR: 9.85%
Pa:HR: 1.88%
Distance: 18.465 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 989 208 watts
Heart Rate: 101 187 174 bpm
Cadence: 32 198 93 rpm
Speed: 3.5 35.6 25.4 mph
Pace 1:41 17:15 2:22 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 429 55 lb-in
Crank Torqu 0 1332 190 lb-in