Stick a Fork in It...

...2012 Racing season is over.

The Short:  3rd place, LA/MS district cat 3 road race championship.

The Long:  Don't call it a comeback, because I did get back on the bike in a "racelike effort" in a "timed event" in July...

Ryan's Lesson in Aerodynamics

...but I did come back to bucolic Natchez, Mississippi, for my (now) annual pilgrimage to the Louisiana/Mississississississippi Racing Association Championships.  I was looking to wrap up the wrist in an ace bandage, get on the bike one last time, test the legs after a little layoff, and stick a fork in 2012 road racing season.

Davis and the Race Wagon

The cat 3 LAMBRA race is 72 miles on a 5-mile circuit in a state park, 14 laps starting at the low point, going up along a dam on the edge of a pleasant swallow- and redneck-infested lake, turning net uphill for the next 2 miles through a series of 30-second kickers with short downhills.  The back half of the course, with a few rollers, twists through a bunch of fast and sometimes sketchy park-road curves for a net downhill into the start-finish.  The uphills are not long enough to drop people, and the downhill half encourages chasers to catch back on.  There have been breaks before, but not many in the cat 3 race.  Add to that a small field--16 (3 more than last year!)--and it looked like it would be, as usual, a race of attrition.  Add in Blair Krogh, who has done nothing but win this year (from breaks, in sprints, on a cross bike, on trails, in crits, in TTs), and I assumed that the race would be all about staying with the strong guy as long as possible. 

The race was mellow for the first hour--that was very similar to the 2011 edition.  There were a few little giddyups, but the course and the small field don't encourage attacks early.  Everyone covers everything, because there are no teams to chase--if the strong rider got a long leash, that might be it.  The field would break up trying to chase him down.

At the one-hour mark, though (and my power files confirmed it) the energy level went way up, and two or three of the strong guys kicked and punched each other until just six of us remained.  This was good news for me, since in 2011, we had the whole field together until the very last lap--this time around, the field had shredded by the halfway mark.  Power data confirmed it was a bit more surgey and strenuous than 2011.  The pace then moderated a bit, but I found myself cramping.  I was drinking copiously, electrolytes and gatorade, and it wasn't even that hot.  (It might have something to do with the big hole in my June and July training.  I don't know.)  But I diligently shirked my pulls, despite the New Orleans kid yelling at me, and let the strong guys do what they do as I sucked wheel.  Soon after, a stronger rider flatted and had to wait for the wheel truck--he never came back.  Lead group down to 5, I was almost guaranteed a better placing than my 2011 6th place.  The next lap, we dropped the 2010 winner, who looked like he had been training for the track exclusively...huge haunches but he got put in difficulty on the hills.  I was 4th or better, and doing all I could to moderate my effort for the oncoming slaughter. 

The turn onto the dam; I was scrupulously obeying the speed limit, of course.

With 5 laps to go, Krogh rolled forward above the feed zone--not attacked--and I let him, stupidly.  The New Orleans kid jumped across, and was left with the gap and the other rider.  I weighed my options.  I could jump across (they had a 100m gap) and fight my increasingly serious cramps and the two strongest riders for podium spots.  I didn't feel good.  I was mindful that my longest ride since early May was just over 3 hours long.  Just as the two strong guys pulled away, the 4th place rider, John, who was leading in the LAMBRA season points competition but quickly dying, made me an offer I couldn't refuse:  work with him to keep him in 4th place points, and I could have 3rd.  I took the deal.

Riding it out.

As anticompetitive or wussy as it was, it was the right thing for me--at least twice a lap over the next 4 laps, my legs would lock up, sometimes near-catastrophically (like, can't even keep the pedals turning, everything was so locked up).  The New Orleans kid had worked too hard, and Krogh dropped him like a bad habit within a lap and soloed in for the win.  I would have been dropped even more quickly, with the cramping.  Having John share water and pace me whenever the cramps attacked was nice, and on the long net downhill I was able to spin up to a high tempo pace, better than he could manage.  So we finished together, John waved me ahead for third, and we put a bit more time into the chasers, keeping his series points safe. It was by far the most cramping I've ever experienced.  I'm not sure if it was the heat (moderate), some pre-race hydration mistake (possibly), not drinking enough early (unlikely), or maybe just inadequate endurance (most likely?) but I'm deeply uninterested in ever cramping like that again. 

(Blog alert:  electrolyte post coming up!)

The "podium":  at least it was in the shade.

I was lucky to take 3rd, and lucky that the hard mid-race efforts were early, and split the small field so completely that I could maintain my position.  At any rate, it was a good weekend:  I made a comeback of sorts, got on the podium of two states at once, added 4 points to my upgrade total (to sit 2 points shy of my upgrade all winter), confirmed the wrist's racing fitness, and left myself a little to improve upon in 2013.

Davis in Ole Miss colors

Davis, in his first cat 4 race, drank less, worked harder, and still managed to hang on for the field sprint, which soon-to-be cat 3 Adam Morris took in a strong sprint.  It was a more climactic finish than the 3 race, for sure.