Enumclaw - It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

The Enumclaw Stage Race is my favorite race of the season.  It has great courses, is well run, and usually has strong fields.  Because it is a stage race that is scored on total elapsed time rather than on points like an omnium, my time trialling ability  usually keeps me in the thick of things.  Entering the weekend, I was sure my time trial form was pretty good but was unsure how the criterium and road race would go for me.  The weekend began with all sorts of good omens.  When the time trial start times were posted, I discovered I was to be the final rider off in my category.  And as I rolled into town late Friday night, a shooting star fell shot across the sky, surely a sign of good fortune.  Saturday morning dawned clear, sunny, and with little wind and I rolled to the start line quietly confident.  The time trial went very well for me and I posted  a personal best for myself on this course.  The time was good enough for second place and I only missed my first win by two seconds!  Having placed myself near the top of the standings, now the key was not to lose time in the criterium or road race. 

After getting a call-up and getting to start on the front row due to my time trial result, the criterium started well.  As the race progressed, I thought to myself, this is one of the most civilized criteriums I’ve ever ridden.  The pace was very steady with little in the way of surges due to attacks, etc.  I avoided being caught up in or behind any of the handful of crashes and finished safely in the bunch with the same time as everyone else.  The overall leader for the weekend picked up a 3-second bonus in a sprint, but other than that no major time lost in the criterium was just what the plan had been.   Day one of the stage race could hardly have been better for me.

Sunday’s road race was going to prove to be a different type of experience.  It was dry when we woke up, but by the start of the race, a steady rain had started that would be with us the rest of the day.  I still felt good and optimistic as I had focused a little more on my nutrition this year and was five pounds lighter than last season at this race.  Surely that was going to help me on the climbs.  The race rolled out uneventfully towards its first trip up the Mud Mountain Road climb about 7 miles into the race.  I settled in near the front of the group and as we headed up the climb, felt comfortable (as comfortable as you can be climbing a steep hill in a race!).  The pack was steadily shedding riders and as we reached the steepest pitch about ¾ of the way up, only about half of us remained.  Suddenly, I went from being comfortable to being powerless.  I popped off the back of the group like a sinking stone.  It was an odd sensation, there wasn’t any period of struggling.  One moment all was fine, the next moment I had blown and was crawling up the hill.   After topping out, I tried to gather myself and hook up with other riders for the chase back on.  I had very little power though and found myself having to skip pulls to even stay in contact with the chasers.

 
As we hurtled down the descent, I smacked a pothole and my “food” bottle of Perpetuem bounced out of its cage and was gone.  I now had only a single gel in my pocket to get me through the race.  I continued to struggle and eventually lost contact with the chase group.  As a final insult, I managed to drop my remaining gel while trying to open it.  All in all, a day to forget and one that thoroughly scuttled my ambitions for a high finish for the weekend.

Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

The reasons to race bikes are as varied as the people who race them.  Of course it’s easy to enjoy it when you get a high placing and your friends are telling you how well you did, but for me some of the most rewarding races are those where I’ve had nothing on paper to point to when all was said and done.  This past weekend at the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race was such an occasion.  The Enumclaw race is a stage race and unlike an omnium where points are awarded in each event based on finish places and totaled for the weekend, all that matters is the total elapsed time for the events for the rider.  Ride a great time trial and don’t lose any time in the criterium or road race and you’ll have a high finish.

My time trials are usually solid and this year was no different with my ride being good enough for a 12^th place finish in the Masters C/D field of 47 riders.  As for the weekend’s other events, my previous attempts at this race have left me wanting in the “don’t lose any time in the criterium or road race” department which has led to bottom half of the field finishes for the weekend.  Road racing is full of moments where you are challenged to push just a little harder, hurt a little more to stay in the race.  Ease up in those critical moments and the suffering goes away, but so does the pack and any chance of finishing well.  For me, criteriums are full of those moments.  The races are usually about 30 minutes long and the middle third is the hardest and where the most doubt creeps in.  In the beginning, you’re fresh and have enough energy to hang tough.  Somewhere in the middle though, the strength begins to fade, the finish is still a long way off, and it would just be easier to let off a little and let the pack drop you.  You have to battle through these moments, and there may be several each lap, and keep telling yourself it’s just a little bit more until the finish.  Make it through that middle third of the race and the finish is close enough, you can take a little more hurt and get the job done.  This year I successfully fought off the self doubt and lost just 11 seconds to the leaders when a crash caused a split in the field early in the last lap.

The road race at Enumclaw is another race that has given me fits in past attempts.  The race consists of three laps of a 14.5 mile circuit that features a long, steep climb up Mud Mountain Road.  In previous attempts, I haven’t managed to top out on that climb with the field even once.  I have managed to chase back on before being dropped for good, but all previous attempts have ended in big time losses.  The ride up the climb is a lot like that middle third of the criterium,  lots of suffering and struggle while trying to focus on hanging on a few meters at a time instead of worrying about the miles to come.  As the top of the first trip up the climb approached, I was fighting for all I was worth and although I was beginning to lose the battle, I crested the top within easy reach of the pack and caught back on within a quarter mile or so.  This was a significant step in the right direction.

The second lap saw me lose contact about two thirds of the way up the climb and then join five other riders in a full throttle chase for the rest of the lap in an attempt to regain contact.  We worked very well together and managed to rejoin the main field a mile or so before the final trip up the climb.  The chase had left me drained and as soon as the final climb started, I lost contact as the front riders pushed the pace in their bids to set up victory.  As the climb went on, the pack’s pace moderated and I actually began to close the gap a little.  I was never able to close the gap, however, and was left to trail in a little over four minutes behind at the finish.

The results sheet shows that I finished 23^rd for the weekend out of 47 starters in the Masters C/D field.  The real story though, is that this was my best effort at this race and probably my best racing weekend in a couple years.

2010 Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

Seeing how it has been 6 weeks since I raced it, I should probably write a post on my experience at this year's Mutual of Enumclaw State Race.  This race weekend is probably my favorite of the year.  The race is really well run, the courses are interesting, and the fields are usually large and competetive.  Last year was my first crack at this race and I competed in the master c/d field.  This year, I opted to race category 4 instead.
Another change is that last year's race was based on points awarded by finishing positions in the stages and this year was a true time-based stage race.

Like nearly all weekend omniums or stage races, the Enumclaw race consists of  a time-trial, criterium, and road race.  Typically, in an omnium, I hope for a strong TT result to gain enough points for a decent foundation for the weekend's competition and try to defy the odds and gain a few more points in the crit or road race.  Because this was going to be time based, however, a strong TT would only need to be followed with staying in contact with the bunch in the crit and road race to garner a strong result.

The weather forecast for the weekend was for cool and damp conditions and the TT conditions didn't miss the mark.  A light drizzle and temps in the low 40s greeted me as I arrived at the race site.  Being unenthused because of the weather, I was a little slower than usual getting my bike on the trainer and starting my warm-up, and ended up with a little shorter warm-up than I probably should have.  I rolled to the start line hoping that wouldn't come back to haunt me.  As in Wenatchee the week before, I rode the TT without a heartrate monitor or a computer, just my body's sensations to guide me.  The course is a nearly dead flat, 6.5 mile u-shaped course around Mt. Peak.  There is not a lot of time to spare settling in to a rhythm.  The clock counts down, you hit the gas, and you've either got it right for the day or you don't.  Luckily for me, I was on a good day.  I quickly caught the two riders that started ahead of me, kept my pace high, and took all 3 technical corners on the course at top speed.  In fact, I slid sideways a bit through the final corner.  Immediately after the finish I was not all that thrilled as my time of 15 minutes even was around  20 seconds slower than the previous year.  Once the results were posted, however, my mood improved as my time was good enough for 7th out of 76 starters in my category.

With a solid position now established in the overall, I set my sights on the afternoon's criterium and not losing any time in it.  It had been many, many years since I had finished a criterium in contact with the main bunch so I certainly would not be taking it easy.  The weather gods smiled on us and we had dry, sunny weather for our race.  Criteriums frequently start off blindingly fast for the first several laps and starting position can make a big difference on how easy it is to hang in there during this initial intensity.  Another benefit of my strong TT in the morning was a front row start for the criterium as the top 10 TT finishers were called to start line ahead of the field.  The race started very fast as usual, but instead of struggling to maintain contact with the tail end of the field, I was able to gradually drift back through the pack over several laps.  By then, the pace had eased some and maintaining contact was easier.  Then the crashes started.  Our race was only 30 minutes long, but there were at least four different crashes.  The first took place in the middle of a straight away, right near the front of the pack involving quite a lot of riders and took a little faith on my part to keep my pace up while shooting through gaps between fallen riders.  I managed to stay out of trouble and in contact with the second group to the finish, losing only about 19 seconds to the leaders.  In the overall, I still maintained a top 10 position with only the next day's road race remaining.

Sunday's road race would be 44 miles in length and feature three trips up the Mud Mountain Road climb.  The conditions that greeted us at the start line could not have been bleaker, steady rain and low 40s, this was late May right?  It felt like March.  We rolled out and were soon soaked through by the rain from above and the water off the wheels from below.  The first trip up the climb soon arrived and unfortunately, just like last year, I came up about 200 meters short of cresting it with the pack.  As the field disappeared up the road, I was soon caught up by a group of other dropped riders and we began the effort of chasing.  Unlike a similar effort last year, however, we were able to regain contact and get back into the field a couple of miles before the second time up the climb.  This time I was only able to hang on until about halfway up the climb.  I resigned myself to the fact that they were gone for good.  I was able to hook up with a couple of other riders as we began the final lap.  We worked well together, but certainly without the urgency of the previous chase.  As we approached the last intersection before the base of the climb, the corner marshal asked us which group we were with.  We answered 4s and she said, "keep it up, they're neutralised".  I thought to myself, "Sure, but they're ten minutes or more up the road".  We came around the corner, and there they were only a few hundred meters ahead just starting the climb.  It might as well have been 10 minutes, though, I was pretty cooked  from the chases and the weather and we never caught on.  At the finish, I was about 4 1/2 minutes behind the field.  As you might expect, this doomed my overall result, but I still ended up 35th out of the 76 cat 4s that started the weekend.

Other than the weather, it was another great weekend of racing in Enumclaw and with a little more climbing training before next year's edition, I may just get this race figured out. 

Enumclaw Omnium Road Race - A pleasant ride in the country

Not being a great climber, today's goal was to stay in contact with the bunch up the Mud Mountain Road climb for at least the first of three laps. Close but no cigar. I lost touch with just a few hundred meters left the first time up and spent the rest of the first lap in a group of about eight riders trying to chase back. Most of us in the group understood the plan: pull through and swing off as soon as you hit the front. When we managed to keep it working smoothly, we were definitely making great headway coming back to the group. Periodically however, someone would sit on the front too long and the pace would drop and the rotation would be disrupted. We managed to get within a few hundred meters or so, but could never quite close the gap.

Approaching the climb for the second time, at least half the group shut off, probably feeling that even if we caught back on, we'd immediately get dropped when the climbing started again. That sealed our fate to a day off the back. Shortly after the climb began for the second time, a pack of riders with lead and follow cars miraculously appeared before us and we were gaining quickly. As we drew closer, our dreams were dashed as it turned out to be the Cat 4 field which had been neutralized to allow our field, the one we were chasing, to pass. A few of the stronger riders in our group attempted to climb past the Cat 4s and a few of the weaker ones had already dropped off our pace. My pace on the climb was just enough to match the neutralized Cat 4s and so I followed along up the rest of climb behind their follow vehicles. Climbing a steep hill while breathing the exhaust of the follow vehicles gave me a new appreciation for the pros you see climbing the Alps in the Tour led by a number of cars and motorcycles.

After the climb was crested, the officials released the Cat 4s and they began to pull away. Our little group had splintered and I found myself working with one other rider on the descent back to Enumclaw. He seemed a little stronger than me and we were working well so I was surprised when he told me he was going to pull out at the fairgrounds and bail on the last lap. I told him I was going to finish it off and was left to start the third and final lap by myself. On the flat farm roads that begin the lap I was making good time and soon found myself up the back of the Cat 4s who again had been neutralized for some reason. Just as I pulled along side their follow car to ask if I should attempt to pass or not, they were again released and quickly left me behind.

The third and final time up the climb, I just rode at a comfortable pace and topped out with another rider in view just up the road. I picked up my pace and soon caught him. He turned out to be another master C/D rider, but he was pretty dead and unable to hold my wheel. I set about trying to get myself back to the finish as quickly as possible. Partway down the SR 410 descent I was caught by two members of our original chase group. We stayed together to the finish where I put in a token 75m sprint only to finish second in our group.

All in all it was a really enjoyable weekend of bike racing. The event was well run and marshalled, although I'm continually puzzled why it takes so much longer to put together the masters results as compared to any other field. I will definitely try to put this race on my schedule for next year.

Next up is my home race the Methow Valley Tour in two weeks.