This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I competed in the Eugene Celebration Stage Race. It was my first race as a Cat3, because I recently upgraded from Cat5, and it was also my first ever stage race. A stage race, for those who don't follow cycling, consists of multiple races over a period of time ranging from 3 days to a month, depending on the level of race. The competitors are timed for each "stage" and a cumulative time is kept as the days go on. At the end of the entire event, the racer with the lowest cumulative time is declared the winner.
This style of racing presents an interesting and fun set of strategies and tactics, especially when racing with teammates. Since each stage is different, it is never a guarantee who will emerge the victor, as each stage favors a different type of rider, and the rest of the field tries to minimize their time losses.
The Eugene race went as follows:
Friday- 3 mile uphill TT (solo effort)
Saturday- 57 mile road race (the entire field rides together)
Sunday- 15 mile flat TT,
45 minute criterium (whole field together, on a 1km loop till time is up)
I was in third place after the first stage on Friday. Climbing is not my strongest discipline, so I was 50 seconds behind the leader and .5 seconds behind second place. I feel I could have ridden faster, but my energy was not great, and my warmup process could have been better.
On the second stage, I attacked twice, but the field was highly motivated, and the teammates of the second place rider (Portland Velo) worked hard to bring me back on the first attack.
On my second attack, with 15 miles to go, the second place rider went with me, and since his team would not chase him down, we managed to get clear, and finished with a 10 second advantage over the rest of the field, including the leader of the race.
The time trial on Sunday proved to be the defining moment of the race. I started third to last, with second place behind me, and first following him. The time in-between our starts was 30 seconds. I knew this would be my only chance to take over leadership of the race. I had an excellent race, recording my best speed ever for 15 miles (27.8mph), but it wasn't quite enough, and second place caught me, and moved up 50 seconds on me overall. The previous leader lost 1:10 to me, and 1:50 to second place, and fell to third overall, behind myself.
This pretty much sealed up the final results, because it is practically impossible to gain any time in the criterium stage, try as I might. My three attacks were covered by Portland Velo, who I give a total hats-off to for their work this weekend, they were on top of it! It made for a very fun race.
2nd place overall, behind Jeffrey pollock, who is an absolute beast!
I'm pretty darn happy with this result for my first stage race and first Cat3 race. I got enough points from the weekend to get me 3/4 of the way to Cat2!
Congratulations to everyone who raced, and thanks to OBRA and the volunteers for a great event!
