2015 Front Range Cycling Classic - U.S. Air Force Academy Road Race

After a hard race on Saturday at Lousiville, I headed south to Colorado Springs for the US Air Force Academy Road Race.  I did this one last year, too, and it was one of my favorites.  This is a hard course, but really enjoyable.  There aren't a ton of road races out here, but this is one of my favorites.  Certainly the most scenic.

Since this is one of the early-season collegiate races, they focus mostly on the college categories, with a few USAC categories thrown in for good measure.  At these college races, they tend to combine a lot of groups so there are fewer overall categories, and this was no exception.  There were actually three categories I was eligible for: Men 3/4, Men 4/5, and Master Men.  As a Cat 4, I had the option of racing with Cat 3s or Cat 5s.  I looked at the results, and saw quite a few Cat 4s in the 3/4 race, but I'm not sure why.  Maybe they were just looking for an extra challenge.  And Masters Men would have had me racing against my age group, but those open Masters categories tend to be full of ex-pros and stuff, and can be pretty brutal.  So, I opted for the Cat 4/5 race.  Sure, I'd be racing against some younger guys, but at least they'd be closer to my level.

Once again, I got to the race plenty early, to give myself time to relax a bit, chat with other racers, and get ready to race.  First stop was registration to get my number.  Then back to the car to get the bike set up and get dressed.  Overall, an uneventful pre-race day.  With such a long race, I didn't think a huge warmup would be needed.  For something like a time trial or a crit, you need to be really warmed up when you get to the start line, but for a nearly 2-hour race like this, you have a little time to ease into it.

I knew they were going to have lead and follow vehicles for each race, so I grabbed my extra wheels and headed toward the start.  I bring extra wheels to every race, for a couple reasons.  First, if I get to the race and something happened, like a mystery busted spoke or a flat tire minutes before the start, I can just swap my other wheel and be ready to go.  Also, if you get a puncture during the race you can swap wheels, if there is a place to get them.  In a criterium, there is usually a wheel pit.  You leave the wheels at the tent before the race, and if you have a problem, you can limp your way to the pit and swap your wheel, then jump back into the race the next time the group comes around.  In a road race, they often have follow vehicles, usually a pick-up truck where racers can throw their wheels.  If you flat, you pull over, hopefully the follow vehicle is back there somewhere, and you throw on your other wheel and try to catch back up to the race.  In this case, they had follow vehicles, and as I was standing around waiting for one to drive up to the start line, my race was getting ready to start.  There were a number of groups starting at about 5 minutes apart, so a lead vehicle would drive down the road, then the racers, then the follow vehicle.  Then, a few minutes later, the next race would line up to start, with their vehicles.  As I waited for my race's follow vehicle, the earlier groups were taking off.  And no sign of my vehicle.  I asked, and one of the people working said it would be showing up soon.  But I was getting nervous, seeing the entire group of racers lined up and ready to go.  Eventually, I gave up waiting.  I dumped my bike, grabbed my wheels and ran back to my car.  I threw them in the back and ran back to my bike.  I got myself to the start line about 2 minutes before the whistle, and I was at the very back of the pack.  Definitely not where I wanted to be.  That's two days in a row now.  I need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

After that unfortunate start, though, everything kind of went as I expected.  As I said, this is a tough course, with a lot of climbing, and I'm not the best climber.  I'm fairly strong, but I'm also hauling around a lot of extra weight.  The course consists of a 13.5-mile lap, with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain per lap.  There are three smaller climbs on the first half of the lap, with a 3-mile long climb to the finish at the end of each lap.  In my race, we did three laps.  The total race ended up being about 40 miles, and 3,500 feet of climbing.

Although I started at the back, I moved my way up through the group throughout the first lap, ending up probably in the first third of the pack as we started the big climb.  From there, you found out who the good climbers were.  The fast climbers took off, while the rest of us watched.  We never saw that group again.  Throughout the next three miles of climbing, the rest of the pack mostly stayed together.  Although we were strung out a bit, it was mostly a big pack with a few riders popping off the back.  As we came to the finish line the first time, the course leveled out, and eventually turned back downhill.  During this downhill, our chase group consolidated again.  At that point, some people were trying to put on a hard chase to the leaders.  However, my team had a rider, Joshua Gottlob, up there in that group, and I didn't want to do any work that would allow us to catch them.  I didn't know how many were up in the lead group, but I assumed around 10.  That meant that any points and prizes available were up the road in that group.  Joshua is really strong, and I wasn't about to do any work that would allow us to catch his group and ruin his chances of a top-10 finish.

We were riding fast, but without an official nearby giving us info about the time gap to the break, we had no idea if we were catching them or not.  I couldn't see anything ahead, so I assumed there had a few minutes on us.  I had a feeling we wouldn't be catching them, no matter how hard we were riding.  If the lead group was about 10 guys, they would be moving pretty fast, too.

As we climbed the big hill the second time, it was a lot of the same.  We stayed together pretty well throughout, although we got strung out a bit.  Once again, we all came back together on the downhill portion of the last lap.  And once again, it was fast and furious along the flats toward the base of the final climb, with no leaders in sight.

As we started the final 3-mile climb to the finish, I was near the front of the group, and one rider sprinted off the front.  I decided to chase, put in a few hard pedal strokes, then changed my mind.  If he was strong enough to stay away, I didn't have the legs to keep up.  If he wasn't, he would be back in the group before long.  And that's exactly what happened.  A few guys from the CU cycling team moved up to the front and picked up the pace a little, and eventually that rider was pulled back into the pack.  The pace was quicker, but manageable.  I didn't look back, but I assume we were getting strung out once again.  The CU guys were pushing pretty hard.  I managed to stay on their wheel, and eventually another teammate, Mark Bakewell, joined me.  For a while, it seemed like there were a few other guys with us, but eventually it was just me, Mark and the CU dudes.  Mark sprinted to the front of the group, hung there for a little bit, but eventually lost his legs and came back.  But the five of us seemed to be doing a decent job of putting some distance to the other riders.  I was still on the back of the last CU guy, with Mark a little behind me.  But with probably about 500m to go, the first CU guy took off, and the others followed.  I didn't have any legs left, and watched them ride away.  I took a quick look over my shoulder and saw one or two guys back there, but most of the group was still back a ways.  I pushed a little harder, and then the finish line came into view.

Looking at the finish line, I thought I might just be able to roll up there without being challenged.  But in a few seconds, I heard another rider sprinting up behind me.  I assumed it was Mark, and was a little annoyed that he was trying to outsprint me to the line after all that climbing.  But as he went past, I realized it was someone else, followed in a couple seconds by another guy.  Crap.  I didn't really have much left, but got out of the saddle and pushed as hard as I could, overtaking one of those guys just before the line.  I looked back, and Mark was just a couple seconds behind me.

Rolling through the finish, I saw Joshua ahead and rode over to see how he did.  Turns out that lead group had nine riders, and he finished 7th.  Nice!  Looking at the final results, it looks like that group splintered at the end, with the nice of them crossing the line spread out over two minutes.  From there, it was about 3 minutes until the CU guys crossed the line, with me about 10 seconds after that, in 14th place.  I was pretty happy with that result, considering I finished in 29th place in this race last year.

I wish I had some pictures or something to show, but the photogs don't really come out for these long races.  Unlike a crit where the racers tend to show up every few minutes, road races tend to be way more spread out, without a lot of opportunities for exciting photos.  And especially with the race being farther away from the metro Denver area, I'll bet they didn't want to make the long trip for the limited photo opportunities.  Too bad, because like I said, it's a beautiful course.  So, you get a lot of writing, and no fun pictures.  Sorry.

Race:  USAFA Road Race
Category: SM 4/5
Result: 14/74