A WEEK OF RACING, MAY 2022

To be precise, this was four races plus a warm-up day over eight days.  It started with the USAC Texas State Time Trial Championships in Hempsted, Texas, then two time trials and a road race at Senior Games Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  We had planned to take three days driving, starting on Saturday, May 14 in order to race on the 18th, 19th,and 21st.  Then I found out about the State Time Trials scheduled for the 14th.  Fortuitously, Hempsted is on the way, so we just backed up our departure time a couple hours, did the race, and immediately got in the car to head east.

USA Cycling generally attracts a faster group of participants than Senior Games.  And their distance is more challenging at 20k (younger riders do 40K).  At Senior Games the time trials are 5k and 10k.  However, this was going to be a pressure-less race, in that, for whatever reason, there were no competitors in my age group.  Our arrival time was on schedule and I could get in a good thirty-minute warm up which included cadence repeats.  I've found that short bursts of high cadence (preferably around 120 rpm) gets the heart rate up over 130 bpm, or about 80% of max.  

The Hempsted course is quite simple: out-and-back on a straight, smooth asphalt, mostly flat road.  I eschewed the small starting ramp and just held onto a rail and eased into the start.  It took about a quarter mile to stabilize HR, cadence, and speed at around 90 rpm and 21 mph.  Interestingly enough, even though I was into a slight wind going out, I was faster, using less watts than on the return.  The small dips in the road made the difference.  The average speed of 21.2 met my goal of 21mph.  For Nationals I felt I should be over 22mph.  

Before the race, I asked the race director if I could pick up my medal after the race so that we could hit the road toward Fort Lauderdale as soon as possible.  Not only was my medal waiting for me, he held an individual ceremony and announcement.  Classy!

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale Monday afternoon and immediately went to credentials pickup at the convention center.  I was a bit put off by the apparent lack of organization.  The goody-bag was sparse.  A portent of things to come.  On Tuesday I first drove over to the time trial course to preview.  It was a loop around the parking lot of the Panthers hockey rink and included several turns which required coming off the aero bars.  I tried the one corner and could maneuver on the bars at 18mph but not higher so resigned myself to not trying it.  This only costs at most two seconds, probably just one.  It would be more should there be a slower rider entering the corners ahead of you.  The road race course was a thirty-minute drive and would be conducted on city streets with coned-off lanes.  Naturally, there were no cones on Tuesday.  I made the decision to just ride a square portion of the course, avoiding a left turn in traffic.  As it turned out, I also mis-read where the start line was.   Not previewing the whole course was a mistake.

My start time for the 5k time trial on Wednesday was 7:36am and I arrived at 6:15 and prepared to warm up.  The course would be closed before the first person went off at 7:00, but I was able to get in three loops before that which allowed me to bring my HR up.  The remainder of the warm up was on a road around a shopping mall and this is where I did my cadence drills.  I left time for recovery and took the opportunity to observe the early starters in order to get a sense of how things would go.  The starter called the age group up, but because this was chip-timed he didn't feel the need to have them start in their assigned times, just so long they were in the assigned group.  I took advantage of this in my race and when my group was called, I was first in line.  Because the 5k was a loop and a half, Marilane chose to see me at the finish.

The race itself was uneventful.  You would think that at Nationals they would have a start ramp and a bike holder.  They had neither.  I pushed off and clipped in at the first rotation then accelerated.  In the past I'd push too hard at first and miss the clip.  The first turn was only about thirty yards from the start, so I didn't get into the aerobars until after that.  Then it was quickly up to speed, coming off the bars for the left turn, and back into them.  Cadence, heart rate, and speed were all according to plan and I finished strong.  Third place (22.6 mph), not close to second and well ahead of fourth.  First place is always Durward.  He is a nice guy, my age so I can't age away from him, and much faster than me.

But that's not the end of the story.  Even though we were chip timing, apparently the computer wasn't programmed to sort everything out.  Rather than take ten minutes after the last person in the group finished, after several hours of waiting it was announced that awards would be done the next day after the 10k.  There was some hope results would be online at 3pm, but it took almost 24 hours before they were posted.

For the 10k, warm-up was identical to the previous day.  However, they had learned their lesson and we now had to start at our assigned times.  Carbon copy of the 5k except twice as long.  Actually, the 5k was a tad short and the 10k a tad long.  I made a change in tactics and went with a slightly lower cadence (6rpm) and higher gear for the first three laps then picked it up for the last third.  My computer speed and the official timing isn't the same.  They have me at 20.9 and I have 21.7mph.  They are also off by at least ten seconds in the finish time.  It didn't matter.

When calling the groups to the awards ceremonies, they skipped ours.  Apparently there was a discrepancy.  Well, let me tell you!  This is where I found out these races were being held without a race director!!  The head timing guy was tasked with making all the decisions.  Here's the whole story.  Some old people come to the Senior Games with very little race experience and some with very little common sense.  The race map very clearly shows the 10k as 3 1/2 laps of the course.  That means you go through the finish line four times.  Multiple times the starter would announce the course as three and a half loops but sometimes would not add that that meant passing the finish line four times.  One guy in our age group did a 5k and stopped.  The guy who was second in the 5k stopped after the third time.  Rather than being penalized with a DNF, they were allowed a Mulligan.  He was slower on his second attempt but still faster than me, so I got the bronze medal (21.7mph).  It only took a couple of hours before getting my two medals.

Friday was thankfully a rest day.  It rained off and on all day, some of it quite a downpour.  When driving to the road race on Saturday we passed the time trial course and it was under water.  A 7:14 start time meant leaving before 6am.  Bummer.  The races started at 7:00am with various age groups going off at two or four minute intervals.  There were twelve guys in our group.  Durward, me, and nine other guys who did the time trials and were slower than me.  And George.  George didn't do the time trials so was coming in on fresh legs.  I knew all I had to do was hang behind Durward and I'd coast to a medal.

As we started, one guy led out and I grabbed his wheel.  This lasted about a minute before Durward came whistling by and I jumped on his wheel.  We got a gap immediately and it got bigger and bigger.  We were about a mile into the race and I checked my mirrors and saw nothing and announced that it was just us.  Less than a minute later George had caught us.  The three of us were around three and a half miles into it when two younger guys came past.  Durward jumped on their wheel, I on his and George was gapped.  But they were cruising at 28mph and I can't hold that for very long.  Sadly I had to let them go and not long after that George had made up the gap.  But he made no attempt to share the front and sucked wheel for a couple of miles.  An aside, the first lap is 10.5k and has a left turn and the second lap is 9.5k and you go straight.  After a right turn you need to be on the left to set up for the turn.  There were no signs and the volunteer wasn't very loud.  George and I didn't immediately set up for the turn and unfortunately a large group of fast guys on their last lap almost ran us over.  Anyhow we got through unscathed and got back up to speed.  Since George was on my wheel, I decided I'd ride at a comfortable pace and get ready for the final sprint.  But I had about seven miles before that occurred.  At around the eleven mile mark the other guys caught us.  For me, that was a blessing, in that now I could draft.  George continued to draft.  With a half mile to go one guy accelerated but was quickly caught.  That put us into sprint mode.  We made the final turn and upped the speed.  I had managed to maneuver myself five guys back and knew I'd made a mistake.  It was now a free for all and one guy and George were distancing the rest of us.  I upped the cadence, dropped down a gear, and immediately passed the four guys and saw the other two coming back to me.  It felt like I was around 130 rpm but the computer says only 114.  I needed another ten yards, losing silver by 12/100ths of a second.

But that's not the end of the story.  The race computer didn't record my time at all.  I didn't know this until about a half hour later when I inquired at the awards area.  I had to go back to the finish line to register my complaint (because there was no race director).  As it turned out, there were a handful of people in front of me.  I don't know the whole story, but after about an hour of waiting, I went back to the car, Marilane gave me a 3x5 card and I wrote out my complaint and cycled back to the computer truck.  Once again, they announced they would get things straight and make the awards the next day, or mail the medals to those (me) who wouldn't be racing the 40k road race.  To their credit, they also had a camera at the finish, and that is how I know how close I came.  Durward, by the way, finished 4:15 ahead of me.

Three bronze at Nationals is not too shabby.  Fort Lauderdale gets a D- in organization.  Next up is USA Cycling Nationals in Albuquerque.  I'm thinking seriously about going, even though I really don't like altitude.  Next year Senior Games Nationals is in Pittsburg.