2014 Patapsco 100
1st in the Open Men's / 2nd overall
Everything about this race was fantastic. My training this year has not been suited to endurance racing. But about 2months before the race I decided I am going back to endurance and I need to really prepare for this race. I wanted to try to win it again.
Since I didn't have a ton of miles under my belt (but I did have a lot of high intensity workouts). I knew I needed to start doing long rides. I modified my schedule so that I did 1 long and decently fast ride on Saturdays (5-8hrs long) and then Westside Worlds (my team's Wednesday killer fast ride) (2.5hrs long). After those two workouts if I had energy I would do another workout on Tuesday (threshold) but mostly I just went easy and took days off. Huge thanks to the guys on team AFC who went on those long training rides with me.. man that was fun!
This worked as well as anything and I boosted my ability to race endurance to the point that I figure I could probably race 'hard' for 7-10hrs... just barely enough to race Patapsco100 at my best.
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| Gordon, myself, and Greg Capelle on the starting prolog |
My pre-race prediction was that Kevin would go our harder than me and that Gordon would probably stick at more my pace. I figured on the 3rd lap that Gordon and I would start to battle each other and attempt to catch Kevin at the same time. My prediction was close...
The first few miles of the course are the most technical (8miles or so). Because I practiced that section before the race I had a significant advantage and I got a small gap on the 1st lap over Kevin and Gordon. They caught me in the Daniels Switchbacks, but that was fine.. I was going at a leasurly pace and I was happy to have the company. It was super fun riding with them for a bit. But it was not long before Kevin attacked on the flat sections of Woodstock. I let him go, knowing that I could not keep the pace he was putting down. Gordon stayed with me.
I basically rode with Gordon for the entire 1st lap. Haha he is the most friendly dude ever! It was super fun and felt more like a training ride than a race. I watched as he freaking crushed the uphills on his Single Speed and I thought to myself, he can't sustain that, I won't be seeing him on the 3rd lap...
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| Gordon and I crossing the water |
However, later in the 2nd lap Gordon caught me on the big climbs after Woodstock. He was just merrily riding along and he easily caught me. I was still feeling pretty good at this point but I was a bit worried with how quickly he came up on me. It was great to have someone to ride with again though!
Towards the end of the 2nd lap there is a flat section along the river. He bobbled on a log and I attacked. I got a very small gap but he quickly closed it down. hm.... I can't escape the Single Speed racer on the flats? I told him "dude if I can't drop you on the flats I am in trouble". He said something nice like "na man ur super strong" but we both knew who was stronger at that point. Turns out that when I thought he could not sustain that power/crusher uphill pace that he was throwing down on the 2nd lap, I was wrong. He easily sustained that.
For the first 1/2 of the last lap he rode with me... meaning that he purposefully went slow in order to stay with me and he could have gone faster at any time.. haha... I knew it and I started to just shift my mental focus on going fast enough to stay away from Kevin, who I knew was rallying and would never give up.
Gordon almost 'accidentally' rode away from me on a climb about 1/2 way through the last lap. It was like he tried to wait for me but I was just going too slow haha. Now I really had to focus on going fast enough to stay away from a surging Kevin. I was hurting but my pace was not too bad.
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| Coming into the finish.. so tired |
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| Kevin Carter, myself, and Paul Tarter on the Men's Open podium |
One of the best parts of the day was having my family at the finish line and my son Grayson to cheer me on :)
Everyone loved the race and the course. We are reallyyyy hoping to be accepted into the NUE next year. It would be a HUGE fundraiser for our team with the additional riders that NUE status would bring us.
Thanks to all of the volunteers and especially to Ed Dixon and Adam Driscoll, who are the other two race directors, for letting me race the bike all day.
