For those of you that don't ride in MABRA, the Jefferson Cup is a widely respected event that serves as an NRC Qualifier for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Its usually held in inclement conditions in March, but reports of snow storms moved this year's race until May. Its like the East Coast version of the VOS race, but not a stage race and its harder with more on the line.
I went down a day early with Cutler so that he could ride the Wintergreen Ascent to see if all of his crazy threshold training had paid off. His coach, Ranjesh Pindar of Mumbai Power Solutions, had him on a pretty intense plan but those guys really have a method to their madness and its paid off for us so far this season. Cutler got second in the 3s with a respectable time on an off day and Chris Rabadi got 1st in the 5s despite missing his start time. His time would have won the 4s and the the 3s (I think). Records were set and the day was wonderful. We pre rode a few laps of the course after to get some openers in and my legs felt as if I was a geriatric that had spent the better part of their life being clubbed with metal bats by large silverback gorillas. Sunday would be interesting.
The remaining teammates rolled down on Saturday night and we got solid night of sleep as well as some good breakfast before the race. Rolled out to the course way early when it was still a bit cloudy out. I went to get changed in the bathroom, which was the first of the day's many adventures. It seems as if the pre-race nervousness of hundreds of riders had turned the bathroom into a moist cave that smell like a Sumo Wrestler had taken a shit on some hot sauna coals. I decided to change in the car, but realized that I had lost one of my numbers and spent the better part of 20 minutes searching for it only to find that I had left it at the reg. table. I decided that it would stay chilly and the weather reports would be incorrect so I applied a nice thick layer of embro. The Masters racers were doing it so I should too right? More on that later....
Got a pretty long and solid warmup in for once and felt surprisingly alright. I got the bright idea to fill my bottles with slightly diluted coconut water and 1/2 scoop of Accelerade. Accelerade is hard to take down normally so it only makes sense to make it even less desirable for the first truly hot race of the year. The stuff supposedly has more electrolytes than 5 bananas so drinking two cartons is like eating 10 bananas and drinking 30 gatorades. Sounds like a recipe for domination to me....
Everything felt fresh at the very least and we got rolling to the start line. After waiting for what seemed like forever to start I finally got a good clip in and was right near the front with Cutler and DD right behind. A few attacks went, but none were threatening. I remember Cutler bringing some people out, which gave us an idea of what teams and riders were willing to put effort in as well as who to potentially mark. I recall accidentally rolling off the front to reel in two breaks that were actually pretty terrible and found myself a decent distance in front, but on the first lap. I would have been fine being out there a bit longer if there were a few people to work with, but each time I caught someone it looked like they were pretty much done for. I like watching Thomas Voeckler race, but I'm not going to pretend that I can successfully race like he does. In retrospect it was quite good that I didn't attempt anything so risky/rewardless.
The second lap was fairly uneventful and the race set into a predictable pace; the group would accelerate at the top of the hill, come back together and then little attacks would go off on some of the rollers. All 3 of us were always together in the top 25 and everything went according to plan. Cutler and I were either in every decent attack (not juniors pulling out max effort sprints into No Man's Land only to get reeled in 45 seconds later) or countering whatever moves went. There were quite a few times where both him and I ended up in a move, which helped DD a bit since he never had to do a single bit of work chasing anything. I felt like the moves weren't too challenging which just goes to show what some motivation can do to override any bad feelings.
My terrible drink choice started to really mess with me on lap 3. I was really thirsty, but I had no desire to drink the stuff because it only made me even thirstier. I remember covering a move and then sitting up for a second to wipe the caked up salt/Accelerade mixture off of my face only to see a giant glob of greenish-whitish stuff all over the sleeve of my jersey. I also vaguely pulling the field through the feed and cursing myself on the inside for not taking 1 full bottle of pure water. Seeing the bottles dangling just made me want to work a bit harder so the race would end sooner.
Lap 4 was unremarkable, but I assume that I got some water from someone because I don't remember it sucking as bad as lap 3. Cutler was taking care of things at this point and I had marked 3 riders to watch one of which was Sonny, the eventual winner. On Lap 5 Sonny leaned over to me and told me to stick by him because he had marked one of the same people so I attempted to relay the plan to my teammate, but accidentally told the dude in the VA road champs jersey (it may or may not be the same color as ours).
After getting some much needed water I decided to finally use my gels. I'm not sure how, but lifting my bib legs up to get them reactivated my embro in what was surely 80 degree weather and my legs began to feel as if someone was singing my leg hairs off with a butane torch. By this point my legs were on fire, my mouth was a giant mush of gooey mess, and I had lost track of the lap count and wasn't sure where we even were in the race. I almost thought that I was so dehydrated that I was losing it mentally, but I came to my senses after realizing that this would have been a relatively cold race day back in Arizona.
Organized disaster struck on the final lap and the worst possible moment. The organizers decided that the 1,2,3 race was surely going to pass us and pulled us over ON THE MIDDLE OF THE HILL in what is probably the dumbest move in race history. The false flat at the top was only another 30 seconds up and we could have easily been stopped at almost any other point before it. We waited for 2.5 minutes for the 1,2,3 break to pass (they told us they were less than 30 behind) as well as the chase groups and all stragglers. After 5+ minutes of standing there in the middle of the climb we were finally allowed to get moving.
I cramped up almost as soon as I started pedaling and the dead legs kicked in. Cutler road up and asked me how I was doing and I told him that I only had 1 dig left so I had to use it wisely. He got on the front and did what he needed to do and I stayed close to Clint and Sonny. Things were going exactly as planned. The break was a good 30 seconds off the front and with only 3k to go I did the math in my head and figured out that someone needed to start chasing and soon. Cutler channeled my thoughts and we agreed that it was time to use that dig. After almost taking out a DVR rider (Honestly, my fault dude. I feel really bad, but shit happens when you're tired, cramping, and your nerves are at a high) I made my way to the front and decided to use that last effort on the descent and a few rollers to bring the peloton up to the break. It worked and we caught them shortly before the corner and I was pretty much roasted out. I stayed with the group that was passing on the left about 3 or 4 rows back from Sonny and things weren't feeling too great. I tried to move up and was cut off by the UVA kid who had almost put his derailleur in my spokes 3 or 4 times during the race, hit my brakes to avoid some 30+mph carnage, lost some speed and the gap was formed. That was that.
In retrospect it would have made more sense for me to have stuck with DD for the leadout and for Cutler to have brought back the break, but such is life. DD finished 8th and Sonny took home the W with his marked rider giving him a perfect leadout. Shoulda stuck to that plan.... After soft pedaling across the line with Cutler I was informed that I was somehow 12th in the 4s, which salted the improperly-timed-attack wound with a pound of kosher. Oh well.
I felt about 80% of normal during the race, but used my role for motivation when things just weren't happening. The numbers were ok and I was able to do everything I needed to do for my teammates, but the snap wasn't there. A nice week off is in order and then I will start back up with a more sensible ultra secret build for a key event in late Summer. Ranjesh has a plan in order and MPS has been pretty spot on with their athletes this year so hopefully I can avoid the follies of trying to train myself into the ground.
On a sidenote, I honestly wonder if teams get together before the race and decide 'Ok, our tactic is to ride like shit. Do whatever you can; take your hands off the bars mid climb, stop pedaling in the middle of the group during an attack, half wheel people on a descent and try to pass them on the inside line, or even unclip during random times and let the group swarm around you'. There's no point in naming names, but there is one team that seems to have recurring issues at every race and not just with me, but with many other participants as well. After today's Giro I'm glad that we haven't had any terrible accidents so far this year, but some people need to really be careful so that we can avoid such a tragedy in wonderful old MABRA.
Other than the self-inflicted gunshot wounds and being neutralized on the climb, sounds like a great race!
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