Pedalling Squares

Leesville Gap RR

Desription
The course is listed as 60 - but it's really closer to 65 miles. The road conditions range from excellent to horrific: in addition to very uneven, badly patched roads with lots of potholes, there are also sections of washboard gravel surface. There are some smooth parts as well. There is a ~1500 foot climb early on, and then two much smaller hills later in the race (one of those is the feed zone). The finish is flat and straight. There wasn't much wind, but it was hot - in the 80-90's. The field size was about 40.

How it went down:
I had a good ride at Pescadero and so I had high hopes for this race. I tried to drive the course beforehand to check out the climb and the shitty road - but I couldn't find it. So, I didn't really know what to expect aside from various people's descriptions.

My plan was to make the first climb very hard if someone else wasn't doing it already. Hopefully I could get into a small break. If that happened I was willing to take my chances in a small bunch sprint.

Not too many of the people in our field had ridden the race before. One dude (let's call him Magellan) got nominated to lead the neutral start since he claimed he had raced it before (there weren't many or any corner marshalls for this race). Well, 500 meters into the race Magellan took a wrong turn. So after we fixed that, we were on our way, cruising daintily along. We eventually got to a long straight road and were riding along at ~15 miles per hour. The 4's even passed us!!! I think some guys in our group thought that we were neutral - nope, just riding slow.

We came to a major highway crossing just as we caught the 4's. We agreed they would wait and let us go up the road and then they would follow. We crossed the road onto the crappy stuff. For those who don't know the Leesville race, the pavement rivals Copperopolis or Morgan Territory - badly patched, and lots of potholes. There were also some short sections of gravel road. We still had a ways to go before the climb really started, but it was a slight uphill most of the way. I stayed at or near the front. I took a few hard pulls and looked back to see how we were doing - still mostly together.

So then Magellan gets a wild hair and says "I'm going to have to neutralize this guys . . . all of the 3's pull over and stop riding". (I guess he saw the 4's closing in on us again.)

He was leading and I was on his wheel at the time and as I pass him and slow up some, he says "Hey Sharp's [that's me!] stop your f***in' your bike!"

Most people told him to go screw himself and we basically all kept riding. Who does this guy think he is?

After a few fun, exciting gravel sections, we came to the base of the climb - 1500 feet of badly-paved, uphill, switchback joy. Mmmmm, I could already taste the bile. But we were going slow, so I attacked like a doberman at the base. I didn't really open up a gap, but I had it nice and strung out. No one pulled through until about halfway up. I looked down several times at my heart rate and it was well into the 180's. I saw 186 at one point, which, as far as I know, is my max. Tasty.

Then another guy takes over riding a monster gear (remember him for later). There were around 8-10 of us now. He got a little gap but never stretched it out to much - maybe 10 meters. I was tired, but still felt pretty good, considering my maximal effort. As we came over the top, there were 7 of us left.

The descent was frightening. It wasn't technical, but it was pretty fast, and really rough. The descent alternated between wide open (but still rough) pavement, to dappled shade, where the potholes were really difficult to see, to long gravelly sections. We were doing ~30+ mph for most of it. For the gravel you could choose the washboard, which was like a jackhammer at descending speed, or the smoother gravel, which occasionally got a little deep in sections and made bike handling a little, uhhh, exciting. (Vaughn/Morgan, the trips down Curry Canyon really helped here!) I survived it.

When we finished the main descent - I sat up and took a look around. We had 7 guys, and 2 teams were represented with 2 guys. I tried hard, but we couldn't get the group motivated. They did not want to work. I had some words with one of them. He played dumb. So we putted around after trying to get some things going - and let a few more join up with us. I think we had 10-12 now. And, get this, the 4's caught and passed us again! Unbelievable. At this point one team (CRC) had 3 guys in our break

We get to the first of the smaller climbs and finally a CRC guy has the gall to complain about how slow we're going and he moves to the front. The monster gear climber dude (from the first climb) quickly takes over and opens up a gap on us. Again, it was nothing huge, but I moved up to second position to ride tempo to keep him in sight. The climb was pretty short, but I punched it over the top. When we got to the bottom we had 6 guys who were motivated to stay away.

The feed zone followed shortly thereafter and the same thing happened. Only this time monster gear dude opened up a pretty good gap and kept right on going. I wanted a little somethin'-somethin' to drink as it was quite literally "hotting up" out there. So I got some neutral water to drink and take a quick shower with. Once again, I was at the front riding tempo over the top. The remaining 5 of us decided to just chill and let the guy fry out there - he had made a total bonehead move (remember this for later) and we all knew it. The 5 of us worked pretty well together and eventually caught him - probably after 3-4 miles.

I should mention here that my cyclocomputer was completely worthless at this point. I think the rough pavement just knocked it completely out of whack. So I really didn't know how far we had gone.

Even after we caught him, the 6 of us continued to work well together. My HR was at a comfortable 160 or below and I was taking my pulls without difficulty. Then we turned onto another nasty evil, rough road and the group just stopped working. We slowed up some, there was lots of "C'mon, guys", but we just weren't working together that well. I wasn't sure how far to the finish so I thought maybe the guys were resting up for the sprint or something. We weren't really in danger of being caught and if we were it would probably only be by a few guys anyway. So this was frustrating. I felt great, but wasn't sure what to do.

In hindsight, we were going slow enough that I should have attacked the group. I felt fine, I think I would have had the legs for a 5-10 mile effort which was what I thought we had left. Someone probably would have joined me so it would have been doable. But, that's not the way it went down.

We turned onto what would eventually be the finishing stretch and were still fiddle-farting around. I kept trying to get the paceline going, but it just wan't happening. I was so naive not to understand what was really going on. So after much complaining and whining, the 1K sign appears out of nowhere. I took a moment to get mentally ready for the finale. I liked my chances in the sprint against this group.

Monster gear dude drops back for a few seconds so I'm now pulling the group. I pull way left to the yellow line and slow down - I do not want to lead it out. Monster gear dude accelerates hard, but not enough to really open up a gap. I'm all over him like white on rice. It's pretty clear now, that with an effort like this, monster gear dude won't win. He'll never recover in time. It wasn't a very smart move, but it was working beautifully for me as the sole recipient of his juicy, succulent wheel. I keep waiting and waiting for the swarming to start, but it never happened. I look back - it's just the two of us. A brief moment of slow-motion clarity told me that the group wasn't working because they were too tired! How could I be so stupid?!?!? After smacking my head like "I shoulda had a V8", I bounce back to reality. This guy is just hammering along at 30+ and I'm licking my chops like a fox in a hen house. I probably went way too early, at 500 meters, but then monster gear boy was wasted, so it really didn't matter.

I went as hard as I could, looked back once or twice to make sure I had it, and considered my victory salute options. I really like the Paolo Bettini arms-askew-like-a-cheerleader salute that he did at Milan San Remo. I also like the Iban Mayo pump-the-shotgun-shoot-the-fist kind of gesticulation at the Dauphine Libere. In the end, I just rode across the line with both hands on the bars. Since no one at the finish really knew me anyway, it wouldn't have been that cool.

Yeeeehawwwww!

Average HR: 160 bpm