Race Report: Swamp Classic Road Race + TT
This weekend’s motto was simple: Have van, will race.
15th Road Race (pack finish)
2nd Time Trial
This was my first time at the Swamp Classic down south of Gainesville, Florida. It’d been a while since I’d done a road race (although sometimes the local group rides feel like one, too). Racing Cat 5 is…well…an adventure. I keep reminding myself that the easiest way to eat an elephant is bite by bite, so I came into the weekend with only a few simple objectives.
Finish (AKA don’t crash)
Test the legs a few times, especially in the TT
Learn something
Study the van
Simple enough, I thought. Thankfully, I feel like it was a successful weekend. Despite a less-than-perfect race outcome in the road race, I certainly nailed each of my race-oriented goals. To say the road race was slow and uneventful is an understatement. My computer says we averaged around 23mph, but it felt more like 13mph at times. In the starting group, there were a few teams present with a handful or so guys, along with more than a handful of guys who clearly had little to no experience riding in a group, let alone a race. There probably should have been a half dozen crashes, but thankfully everyone remained upright.
We rolled from the start at a blistering…19mph. The biggest effort of the day goes to my brain for holding my legs back from just taking off each of the dozen or so times the group slowed to a crawl. With a relatively rolling course, crappy, narrow roads, and the entire race cruising along in a peloton of 40+, there were seldom clear opportunities for a sensible break. In lap 1, I dog-eared the “2k To Finish” sign as the only place to make a go for it in the second to last lap. But, when we approached my marker, the wind had picked up, and the group was already chasing two guys who had a similar idea to me. Attacking while the group was already chasing didn’t make sense, so I sat in with everyone else for another painfully slow lap.
Eventually, we approached the 2k sign again, and I’d thankfully made my way to the front despite the group’s efforts to block all 10 feet of pavement we had to race in. Thinking very much that I didn’t want to be in a group sprint with these less-than-expert bike handlers, and I wanted a chance to test the legs, I picked the pace up over the last climb at the 2k mark and put a small, but noticeable gap on the group. The legs felt good, but the wind felt worse, and I overestimated how long my not-so-fresh legs would last. With 200m to go, the group came around, all over the road with guys bumping elbows for absolutely no reason. I’d not crashed, despite the universe’s best attempts otherwise, and I’d tested the legs. Looking back at my data, the legs must have had a lot more to give, as my HR stayed in Z2 for the duration of my little “break”.
Goal 3 was “learn something”. I did that, too, in the road race. Without sounding too arrogant, I feel pretty confident saying that I was one of the stronger guys in the field that day (see TT results). One thing I know for sure, the strongest guys don’t always win the race; sometimes the smart do, and other times the lucky do. I’m not sure which did on Saturday, but I do know that I could have ridden a smarter race. I’ve had countless training days on the saddle averaging 23+mph solo, so I probably should have trusted myself a bit better and forced the group to pick up the pace a bit and weed out the nonsense. My silly attack was certainly poorly timed: it was both too early, and too late. If I’d gone sooner, the gap would have been much larger, and all the teams’ sprinters would surely have gotten left behind. If I’d gone later, I feel pretty confident I wouldn’t have had too much of an issue staying competitive in the sprint, especially given it was a bunch finish even with me breaking things up a bit.
Want a crash course in bike racing? Go race Cat 5.
There were several hours between the road race finish and the time trial start. A luxury I’m not used to from my swimming career: downtime. Thankfully, I had the van. I’ve done my fair share of amateur racing over the years, and never have I been able to quite as comfortable as in the van. Just as I’d hoped, the van served as my own home base for the race. Everything I needed was in one place, warm, protected, and out of the elements. I could comfortably change my clothes, stretch, roll out, and recover without being bothered. Despite pretty crummy Florida winter weather (wind, rain, lack of sunlight), I barely noticed it in the van. Legs up, I took nap and even had a warm meal from the food truck between races. My final goal was another success, I learned a lot about how I think I want to build out the van in the coming weeks (stay tuned for more van content).
The Time Trial was the last race of the day, my start time was 3:52pm. I’ve always felt especially comfortable in time trials. With loads of triathlon experience, I’m generally comfortable on the TT bike, and my racing style is typically to be in the wind solo anyway. And, man, was there wind. I don’t know the exact windspeed for Saturday, but it was strong. The course mostly lined up with the wind, so it would be a strong headwind on the return to the finish on the out-and-back course. I’d hit the one little “climb” from the road course earlier in the day, so I knew what I was getting into for the most part, without much course recon. My legs felt good enough at the start, and I tucked in and sent it down the course with the tailwind. I averaged over 30mph for the first 5 minutes of the race, topping out at nearly 40mph. When you’re going fast on unfamiliar roads, you notice every little thing about the bike you’re on. I quickly realized that the Pitstop can I’d strapped between my aero extensions was too high, and it was really hard to get a good grip on the bars. My right arm rest was loose. Saddle probably 5mm too high. Computer position bad judging by the slew of menus popping up with my forearm pressing every button with every bump along the way. Nonetheless, I pedaled on to what felt like a well-executed TT. Pacing was good, HR was good, and even had a little left to kick it up and over the last little hill in the road. Finished 2nd in-category, and would have been 10th in the pro field. I’ll take it for the first race of the year.
Lots of learning opportunities, and a successful early-season raceday. Gathering points and starts as much as I can right now, and looking to keep honing my mind as much as my legs. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to start a race. “Better every time” is the motto for the next one.