Race Report: L’Esprit

A race report from team man Tony Roth....

Caveat: I struggle with race reports. They seldom appear accurate to the other racers involved. I guess that figures, given the constantly-changing point of view generated by a peloton. I have written it as I remember it and based on the unofficial results. I apologize to those who raced for any inaccuracies.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to race this past Saturday in La Grange, KY. It's just a little northeast of Louisville. The race was called the L'Esprit Road Race, I believe after the name of the area through which the 9-mile course wanders. It's a beautiful place, with rolling hills and one fairly shallow climb (maybe like an extended overpass for Central Illinois boys) of a half mile or so. The roads are almost perfect, as is the race organization.

Anyway, I entered the 36-mile cat3/4 race, which I was told by the official had about 60 entrants (there were reportedly roughly the same number in the 1/2/3 race and 100 in the 4/5 race, to give you an idea of the race’s draw). It was sunny and somewhere in the 40’s at the noon-ish start. The race only took 1.5 hours and I pre-rode the course to get familiar with the grades and finishing straight. My coach (That still sounds funny to me. What’s a 38-year-old punk bike racer doing with a coach?) and I agreed that this race would be only about practicing discipline, positioning in the pack, and the final sprint. Staying put in the peloton is not my style, and I have often been way too aggressive for my own good. Most cat3 races finish with a bunch sprint, so dulling the legs with multiple attacks can be a little dumb unless it's related to a team strategy of some sort. Naturally, a break of maybe 6-8 guys went very early. I was not allowed to try to get in it regardless of whether I thought I had the legs. It was really hard to watch it go up the road, knowing without teammates I had to trust other teams to bring it back.

It didn’t come back. It seems there was some real power in the break. At least a couple got dropped from the break, so I think 4 or 5 ended up finishing in the break. So, the way I figured, we were going to be sprinting for about 5th. There were several well-represented teams in the field that did not have a man in the break. No serious efforts to organize a chase ever materialized, though. A few times one team or another would send a couple guys to the front to chase, but the pack never really made a dent in the break’s lead. I pulled through a couple times when I found myself very near the front just to show that I was willing if we could get a chase going. I guess not enough guys cared or had the legs. It’s pretty early to expect a cat3 team to have organized chasing dialed in. Strength, fitness levels and strategies are all over the map at this time of year, I suppose.

I felt pretty comfortable the whole race and was resigned to a field sprint by the middle of the last lap. I had tried to race the whole time in the top 20 or so because it's safer and smoother at the front, as well as easier to follow any attacks. But I found myself about 25th with a couple miles to go and decided to move up on the right, taking a 15-20mph head/crosswind, rather than fight through the pack. The yellow-line rule was in play, so there really wasn't anywhere to go on the left. It was a good lesson to find out how easy it was to move up on the right. I was lucky enough to have the legs Saturday to handle the wind, so it was a really quick trip through no traffic from 25th to the first ten. I slotted in behind a bigger guy on the right gutter and waited. I wanted the right side, despite the wind, because there was a right turn about 200-250m before the finish. I wanted the inside of that turn more than I wanted to take no wind because I figured the inside would be safer and the right side was slightly better protected from the wind once the turn was completed. The big guy gave enough of a draft to make it worth it. I knew from my pre-ride and paying attention each lap that after that turn it was going to be a big headwind and things would slow dramatically. I knew I could not compete well in a headwind sprint that long and told myself to wait as long as possible before taking any wind.
 
Nice plan. Too bad I was not patient enough to enact it or powerful enough to overcome my lack of patience. Things shifted a little just before the right turn, with guys yelling at a couple racers who tried to move up late by ignoring the yellow-line rule. My big “leadout” man moved left in the shift. I moved up into his spot and came through the corner on the inside, finding myself about 3rd now but behind a couple of guys who were smaller than the big draft I had a moment before. It seemed like the last 200m were taking forever, so I jumped (if you can call it that) into the wind and it felt like I nearly stopped moving. I think I stayed fairly even with the first guy. Then big guys came past us on both sides. They had been better-positioned I guess and were certainly stronger finishers than me. I ended up tenth or so in the field sprint, which made me 15th overall (after results were posted but before they became official).
 
I was pretty happy with the day, since I really had no way to know where my fitness was. I have many things to work on. I learned some good things that hopefully I can apply in later races. Great thanks to the race organizers, officials and volunteers. Oh yeah, and thanks to those in the race. It was well-ridden and safe. Very nicely done by all.