Can't Get 'Nuff of a Free Thing

Whitnall was back for 2010!!! That news came to me like a burst of good news a few months ago. You see, Whitnall profile with a 3 step staircase is a perfect match to my strengths, but the event was cancelled this year. With great excitement, I prereg'ed for this event (1st Cat 3 rider to do so) without checking the weather forecast. Oh, Mother Nature, you suck worse than showing up to the Lake Forest METRA station early Sunday morning to find there's no Mafia ride that day. The skies were pouring buckets as I debated the merits of using the car's heating AC in place of a warm-up on the bike. No dice, so I rolled out in a drizzle that progressed into a full rain by the start of our race.

I was coming off an R&R week, so I figured that a key early strategy would be to ease into progressively harder efforts on the staircase climb and hope that no one launched a successful early attack. Well, attacks took place, but they weren't successful, so goal #1 was solid until PSSTTTTTT. Crap! Flat rear tire just as we're about to make that right turn into the 1st hill. The next 5min became an intense cross training workout as I proceeded to sprint up the hill backwards in the wet grass. I did remember to stay calm and shift into the 53x12 before changing out the rear wheel. Unfortunately, I didn't even think about all the crud that lodged into my cleats during my slip and slide sprint up the hill. Let's review a good restart fundamentals following a free lap restart.

1) Stay calm.
2) Ensure that you're in the correct gear to accelerate up to field speed.
3) Get ready for 2 painful laps as your body reacclimates to the race pace.

Hold up. There’s a 2a) step that became clear to me as the race official pushed me off to the main field.

2a) Clip in.

All that crud in the pedals made it close to impossible to clip in, but I finally managed to coerce the cleats into the Speedplays and punish the legs with a harsh acceleration back to the field’s pace. Two laps in and I was finally grooving along with the field and moving up well towards the front. I decided to stay over to the right as I crest the first of the three steps and slot in behind a rider one back from the front of the pack (let’s call this guy Joe). Suddenly, I look over and the rider to Joe’s right swings over to the left and just clips Joe’s front wheel. You all know that horrific sound of overlap wheels. Up until I started bike racing, I thought the sound of William Hung singing anything at all was the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard, but now the sound of overlapped wheels has assumed the top podium. Overlapped wheels are the true test of a riders skill ability. In fact, USA Cycling should give you 20 upgrade points to Cat 3 if you demonstrate that you could save overlapped wheels without going down. Well, that guy in front of me would have been deducted 200 upgrade points. That dude panicked so bad that he almost immediate went down right in front of me.

“This crap is going to hurt in three, two, one… BANG!!!”

Amazing how everything seems to slow down when your mind realizes that you’re about to get smashed into asphalt. I did my best Superman impersonation as I went flying through the air over the bars. My bike basically did a perfect track stance as I nailed the sprawled bike in front of me. During the slo mo phase, I knew to pull back my hands and roll onto my back. The left knee took some damage as I rolled to a halt. Okay, loyal readers, what’s the first thing that goes through the mind of any racers post crash?

Is it “Am I okay”? Wrong!!!
Is it “Did I tear any clothing”? Hell no!!!
Is it “Where’s that SOB that wrecked me out”? Hey, this wasn’t the Dana Point crit…
Is it “Is my bike okay?” Bingo. And thankfully, the bike was unscatched.

I immediately jumped back on the bike and rolled into the pit for my second free lap of the race. Listen, it has been many years since I’ve taken a free lap, so I figured that I was due a double dipping during Whitnall. Once again, the first two laps sucked after the adrenaline wore off while we waited for the field to come back around. A break had formed right at the time of my crash (in fact, that break likely led that guy’s questionable decision to swing left right into the wheel of the rider in front of me), so the main field was content to feign interest in chasing the break while dreaming of dry clothes and heated car interiors. With a banged up knee, I was definitely okay finishing in the pack and considering that a moral victory.

Did I have the legs for a solid result had I not crashed and flatted? Sure.
Was it cool to finish in the field after flatting and crashing? Definitely.
Was I struggling just to finish in the field last year? Unfortunately yes.
Am I happy with Whitnall 2010? Absolutely!!!

It’s all good…