Looking back on Sunday, start day of the RAAM, things started out smoothly but hurriedly just like the days leading up to the start.
5:30am wake up call, last minute packing and final shower and we were off to meet the team at the rendezvous point at a teammates house to pack everything up and head down to the start.
Fortunately everything went smoothly and despite our pre-race jitters we got to Oceanside in plenty of time and were out on the Oceanside Pier dressed to the gill in our pink clothes, pink helmets and everything else pink that we could find. We were definitely a sight....
After the introductions, all riders and everyone else who wanted to ride with the racers headed out for a 13-mile parade through the San Luis Rey bike path. I was surprised at the large contingency of recreational and support riders who followed us through the parade...my guess is there were at least a couple of hundred riders who just wanted to ride with us. That was cool. Until the race pack decided to make a bathroom break towards the end of the parade and we ended up peeing in front of 200 people!!! That was not cool...but when mother nature calls, you've got to answer the door.
The previous day we had drawn numbers for the send off order and as luck would have it, I drew #1. After the solo riders were announced and sent off, it was my turn to execute on our plan to administer as much of a lead early on and maintain our lead from there. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I was off in my full time trial set up. My goal was to average over 30MPH for the 8-mile "prolog"...an effort I knew I could maintain...but unfortunately I was still blocked up despite the 13mile puts of a warm up. Mix in a couple of full stop signs and one traffic light and I cam in at about 20 minutes and managed to pass about 7 riders who started in front of us.
I passed off to our climbing team and headed straight out to Borrego Springs along with Josh (rider) and Victor (support). We had to take the back way to Borrego because race organizers didn't want too many cars on the tight course. We got to Borrego Springs with about 20 minutes or so before our climbing team finished.
The temperature was about 108, which is plenty hot, but not as hot at 115 the year prior. I took advantage of my affinity for heat and got back into my TT set up and started hammering the course. Our average times show the prowess of our time trial team. Our average speed climbed from just about 20mph through the first time section, which is incredible because it included some major climbs, to just under 25MPH through the second time station. This average continued to grow as we drove our average speed up to just under 27MPH through the desert. On a couple of sections, I personally average over 38MPH with the help of a strong side/tail wind.
I focused on keeping it smooth, steady and on the white line as much as possible and only if safe. I kept my power to about 90% of my LT (or about 270 watts) and just kept rolling through the miles.
It felt great to open it up and lay it down. I was riding angry and motivated....had a lot of emotional stuff to work through and I just let my legs do the talking. On my last section, what we thought was going to be about a 20min effort, ended up being 50min and I blew up. My speed slowly dropped from over 30MPH to just over 26MPH and I limped home sore, exhausted and severely dehydrated. But I had no choice, there were no other riders behind me and it was up to me to make it to the next time station.
Loads of fluids and a quick shower in our mobile home palace and I was ready to contribute again as the sun started to sink....
More on the next Blog
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National Director of Collegiate Cycling
USA Cycling
719.201.1004
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Founder
Del Mar Criterium Series
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