It is a Friday morning and I am rolling south on I-5 with Charlie and Courtney. We have five bicycles on the car, loads of gear, and are headed to Corvallis. Once there we pick up Erica, another bike, some more hear and head down to Junction City. This is the location of the first of four stages of the Willamette Classic Stage Race. Unfortunately the weather is not ideal. The temperature is in the high thirties, there is a bit of wind, and dark clouds are threatening to open up. The rumor is that everything should clear for an unseasonably warm weekend, but it has not hit quite yet.

Coming to the finish at the Willamette Classic

This is the first major stage race of the season. Initially I was really looking forward to this race because I felt that it played to some of my strengths. The first stage was a flat circuit race where we did three loops of an approximately 18 mile course for a total of around 55 miles. I was not planning on doing anything special here except stay in and finish with the leaders. The second stage, however, was a 17 mile time trial. Though this is not long compared to most triathlons, this is long for a stage race and I would be expecting to do well in this stage. Then later that day was another circuit race (i.e. a looped course) for stage three. Since the course was about a 9 mile loop with a number of short "power" hills over ____ miles, I was expecting to do well here too. By the way, hills are often categorized "power" hills because they are not particularly steep, less than ten degrees and maybe closer to six, and therefore are better suited for a heavier rider who generates more power but looses the advantage to the lighter cyclist as the hill gets steeper. As a rider that is between 185-195 pounds, I do not fall into the hill specialist category. The final day, however, does tip the balance to the hill specialist as the ride is 70 miles long with 5 climbs - three of them significant and over 1,000 feet - and a hill climb finish.

Despite not being at the fitness level I wanted, I was still looking forward to the race because 7 of my teammates from the Veloce / Felt Cycling Team, Erica was doing her first stage race, and so was a friend Courtney. There is something relaxing about just focusing on racing, stretching, eating, sleeping, and doing it all over again for the course of a weekend.

The first stage went off as planned. Not only did I finish with the main group but the weather cleared and it did not look like a cloud dared to appear the following day. Indeed Saturday was clear and temperatures were forecast into the 70s. Stage two was about 25 minutes south of Eugene in the town of Creswell. As Erica and I were driving to the start I felt myself a little more nervous than usual. Maybe I was putting high expectations on myself because I considered myself a time-trial specialist and expected to do well. Unfortunately my head was not exactly where it needed to be because when I set up my bike on my trainer next to my teammate Shayne I realized that I had taken off my pedals and put them in my toolkit and for some reason I had left my toolkit back at the hotel. I had arrived with plenty of time to get a nice warm-up and stretch, but now I would need all that time to head back to the hotel. Since I knew that I would miss my warm-up I cranked the heater as hot as it would go just to try and break a sweat and played some good tunes to try and keep me relaxed and get me in the right mood. (That only worked marginally well).

I think I would have made my start time except for the fact that my teammates in trying to help get my bike ready put air in my tires and flatted my rear tire. So when I got back I had to put on my pedals, get my race number on (which Erica was doing as I was trying to put on my pedals), change a flat, dig up my helmet and shoes, and ride as fast as possible to the start. I am not sure what time I got there, but I know it was late. I told them my name, gave my race number, put one foot down and then took off. I knew my heatrate was too high since I was all jacked up by all the activity, but I did my best to smooth into the course. When I finished my wristwatch said 35:40, but I did not know what this meant because I did not know the times of others.

Then, after a big burrito, plenty of time with my legs on the wall, and a quick nap, it was time to roll out to the stage three circuit race. Earlier in the day, following my time trail, I had watched Erica and Courtney complete this stage. On the last lap Erica was moving herself towards the front and I was excited to see what would happen at the finish. When the group came to the line I was surprised not to see her there, but it turns out that she had felt good and attacked the field but kicked off her chain in the process and had to stop and get off the bike to wedge it back out and into place.

Fortunately I did not drop my chain, and I felt relatively good. It was a bit disconcerting at times because our race had a full field of 100 riders and we are barred from crossing the yellow line, therefore you find yourself among many strong riders with little place to maneuver. I was able to find a couple places in the course to move forward and by the last lap I was not exactly where I wanted - but close. The race finished with a 90 degree left hand bend, then a few hundred foot climb to the finish. At 200 meters to go we are able to use the entire lane, and I swung left and rose out of the saddle feeling strong. I was starting to make ground when the rider in front of me suddenly moved left and pinched me off just as the rider who was to my immediate left kicked off his chain and ran into my left leg. I would have barely been strong enough to make a nice showing without this, but once my momentum was slowed I was toast and a few people rolled around me. I still hung onto a top 20 placing and was relatively happy with that result.

Kings Valley Estate Winery

When I went to check the GC the next day (GC = general classification, or overall race leaders) I found that I was about mid-pack 4:39 down. I also calculated that I missed my time-trail start by 4:00 which would have placed me 2nd or 3rd in that stage, and I would have been 4th overall going into the final day. I could not be too disappointed, however, since I had a feeling that the final stage would be a long one. Indeed it was. About ¾ of the way up the first significant climb I could not hold the pace and lost contact with the group. I did put in a hard effort to TT myself back to the group before the 2nd climb, but this effort left me without enough gas to hang on up the second climb and when I lost contact this time I was not to see the group again. I rolled with a variety of different people who had also been dropped and did my best to enjoy the fact that I was getting good training and enjoying the scenery - the latter was less difficult as it was another blue sky day in the seventies. The race started and ended at the Kings Valley Estate Winery which was an incredible location on top of a hill with expansive views. I must say that the "Kings Valley Estate ¼ mile" sign was one of the best that I had seen in some time.

Erica was there to greet me at the end - we made it back to the hotel for a shower just before check-out time, and had a massive hamburger and beer at the Steelhead Brewery and were in bed by 8:00. Now let's just hope that I can recover well and train smart to build on the fitness generated by this effort.