Frustrated in Pittsburgh

The great part about road racing is how a smart strategy mixed with strong legs can get you a decent finish in almost all circumstances. Well, today was the exception.

Today's race took place outside of Pittsburgh, PA on some hilly rural roads. The course suited me well - it played to my strong climbing abilities and quick power. In addition, the race mixed the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC) with the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC). For the first few laps, the group rode pretty consistently. A couple riders made it out of sight of the peloton, but we weren't to worried about the gap.

On the first climb of the third lap, a group of really strong riders from the ECCC broke off the front. Derek Laan of Purdue and I quickly latched on and buried ourselves to stay with them. We developed a large gap on the peloton pretty quickly. My group of five riders (an Army guy, a "Super ECCC" guy from Vermont, some green dude, Purdue, and I) descended strong and started our second climb of the "triple header" climbs. One of the guys (I think it was the Army guy) told us that if we rode hard up this climb, we would make it away from the peloton. Well, we certainly rode hard up the climb, but apparently not hard enough for the Army guy. At the top of the climb, Army proceeded to rip our legs off and slingshot himself off the front.

The rest of us worked together well to stay away from the peloton. A chase group of around five riders caught us, giving us more man power. I felt strong. The people around me seemed to be a lot more fatigued than I was. As we began the second climb of the final lap, I switched into my small chainring. Well, despite the hours I spent tuning my bike, the chain dropped to the inside. I couldn't ramp it up by shifting outwards, so I had to get off the bike and put it back on. I can't even describe the frustration I felt watching the group disappear up the road as I struggled to regain my momentum from a dead standstill up a steep climb.

I rode by myself for a while until another group caught me. At the end of the race, I didn't really feel like sprinting, since all the points had already been awarded, so I lead out my teammate, Greg.

I can confidently say that this race was the most frustrating race I've done. Watching the lead group of elite riders from the MWCCC and ECCC disappear up the road really took a toll on me mentally. However, a few positives did come from this experience:

1.) I'm now confident I'm strong enough to ride with the top riders in the MWCCC and ECCC.
2.) I can channel my frustration into tomorrow's criterium in Pittsburgh. I'm ready to rip some legs off.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.