Missouri Road Cycling Championships

May 21, 2005

I traveled north to Clarksville, MO (population 490) for Missouri Road Cycling Championships. I entered the roughly 40 mile old guy race since my form isn't really where it needs to be to go 100 miles with the open field. I only have one Big Shark teammate (Joe Walsh) with me in the M40+ field.

Other than being in the middle of nowhere, the Clarksville course is without fault. The course opens with two (some would say three, but the third is much smaller) climbs followed by about 10 miles of rolling terrain. After that is a flat section that always seems to have a cross wind. The lap finishes with the feed hill which can be done in the big ring if you're serious about getting away. From the top of the feed hill it's about 800 meters, mostly downhill, to the finish. Each lap is roughly 20 miles although no claims have been made as to the accuracy of that measurement.

The field moves easily over the first climbs. Nobody wants to mix things up so early. About halfway through the rolling section the attacks begin. None gets very far away, but the sorting has begun. Everyone takes a break on the flat section and we end the first lap all together.

On the first climb of the second lap, the pace is considerably higher, but no serious attempts to escape are made. On the descent, I speculate to Joe that the field may well stay together the whole way. He agrees.

I go to the front at the base of the second climb, hoping to at least shed the back half of the field so we have a more manageable group for the sprint. About 400m from the top comes a violent reaction as the top riders are sensing that the field may be ready to crack. It's all I can do to match the acceleration, but I do get on the back of the group. By the top we have 10 riders clear.

As we are getting organized on the descent, Joe finds himself adrift off the front. Although it's a long way to go, he seizes the opportunity and quickly opens up a decent gap on the remaining nine. Three riders bridge across. I would like to join them, but I'm afraid the gap isn't large enough yet and if two Big Shark riders are in the break, the whole group might come up. I sit on the back of the line, waiting to see who will chase.

The answer turns out to be nobody and while the lead group makes their exit, we are joined by three from behind. I'm none too pleased by this turn of events, but that's the way things go in road racing. At least I can sit on the back and rest.

The pace stays high enough that we aren't caught by any more stragglers, but no serious attempt to catch the lead group is made. Approaching the feed hill, I get back up to the front just in case someone tries to go clear. I set a stiff tempo up the first part of the hill and that's enough to dissuade any attacks.

I drop back to fifth in line as we start heading down the hill to the finish. The windup develops slowly and we are on the flat section before the real sprinting begins. At 200m, I move to get on the front, but have to tag the brakes hard as the rider ahead of me goes for the same hole. I get extricated with about 100m left, but don't have quite enough distance to get around the last two riders. Waiting so long to go was a dumb mistake given the relatively slow windup, but overall I'm pretty happy with third in the sprint. Physically, my form is further along than I thought.

Joe ended up getting third overall. It's nice to know that my patience at least helped a teammate get a medal. He deserved it - it was a gutsy move to drop the hammer solo so far from the finish.