Keelan Christensen:
The Enumclaw Stage Race consisted of a time trial Saturday morning, a criterium Saturday evening, and a road race Sunday morning. I had the convenient opportunity of staying at a friend’s house that was located a block away from the time trial, and directly on the road race course. Overall, I placed 15th in the time trial, 10th in the criterium, and 4th in the road race out of a total of 30 category 5 men.
The time trial course was relatively flat on a scenic windy road about 10 kilometers long. I believe it was due my warm-up lacking intensity that lead to my muscles cramping up and tightening up right out of the starting gate. I tried to pedal through it, but you can never pedal as hard if you’re hurting like I did. Still, without an aero bike, aero helmet and good warm-up, I managed to hold a 15th place. I learned that for a short race like that to incorporate a couple of snaps into my warm-up to prevent cramps.
About 4 hours after the time trial was the criterium. This was the race I was most nervous about because I’ve never tried to corner in a group of 30+ men. The Enumclaw Criterium course was an awesome figure eight loop with eight corners per lap. Throughout the race, I managed to stick with the main pack and not get dropped, and I felt really strong on the corners. With all that confidence, I thought I maybe had the opportunity to podium in this criterium. With three laps to go, I sprinted out to the front of the pack on a straight away and slid into third place. However, at the same time, the first and second place men broke away and I was left in third place leading the pack and doing all the work. I held this place until the final sprint to the finish line. By that time, I was exhausted from pulling the pack, so I lost the sprint and crossed tenth. Still, this was my favorite race I have ever done in my career, and now I know what I have to do to maybe podium or even win a criterium.
As for the road race, I had to do two steep climbs up mud mountain road and also two very fast descents for a total of 30 miles. The first lap wasn’t even a race, the pace was easy and nobody got dropped. I felt like I was expending too much energy trying to stay in the front of the pack, so I slid back to the very end and drafted comfortably. Then the second climb approached and the pace began to pick up. I made my way to the front of the pack again and was among the leaders for the whole climb while many got dropped by the pack. I knew I wasn’t as fast on the descent to I pushed it even harder on the climb to get a comfortable gap. Then the descent came. Two guys were out in front, and then there was me followed by a pack of 6. Luckily, one big guy caught up to me. He let me draft on the whole descent, and then we both worked to try and catch the leaders. Then maybe four other guys caught up, so we all formed a pace line. Once we were back in the town, almost to the finish line, there was an unmarked intersection. Out of the six of us, only one guy went the correct way, the rest of us flew by the intersection and had to turn around and go back. So at that time, there were three ahead, and the five of us still fighting for fourth place. When the one kilometer to go sign was in sight, I was still feeling very strong, so I tried a break away. It worked! The rest of the pack could not keep up and I crossed the finish line in fourth place.
Because this was a stage race, total times were added, not points for placement. It was my time trial that gave me the most time back from the leader, so overall I placed 11th. This sort of marks the end for road racing this season, now I switch my goals to mountain and the Junior Development Camp in mid June.
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| Chris and Dave warming up under the Kona tent |
Chris Casey:
Dave Acheson:
This was my first time doing this race series. After heavy rain at the Wenatchee Omnium the weekend before, we were hopeful for good weather in Enumclaw. The rain mostly held off while we were riding, it was cloudy and cool the whole weekend. Dave A, Keelan C and myself represented the Methow at this well attended race. Dave and I racing Masters C against a strong field of about 50 or so riders.
The time trial was a flat windy one way course on freshly resurfaced roads- it could not have been much sweeter unless there was a tail wind the whole way.... Times were fast, but despite my 25mph average this was still only good for 26th place... on reflection my intervals session 2 days beforehand seemed like a poor choice!
The crit was again a fun windy course, with multiple turns (rather than the usual rectangle that we seem to see). The pace was high from the get go and the 30 minutes seemed to take a lifetime. My get up and go was otherwise employed and I was hanging on for dear life until the last lap when I suddenly had no more oomph to give and was shelled off the back of the front pack, finishing alone 33 seconds down on the lead rider. Good for 31st place, but at least I finished upright and not too far back!
The road race on Sunday was a flat start with a significant hill stuck in the middle! 800 odd feet of fairly steep climbing which served to destroy the pack within the first 500 yards. I clung on to the lead group until the last 200 yards before imploding and watching them gradually pull away. I was able to chase with one other rider for the rest of that lap, but it eventually became clear that we were not going to catch a group of 25 guys working well. The rest of the race was trying to limit time losses and stay ahead of the decimated peleton behind us, which we did. Good for 29th place and an overall position of 29 out of 47 who first started.
It was a disappointing performance for me, I figured I would be stronger, but I was likely not fully recovered from the Wenatchee race a week before and did not taper my training intensity as much as I should have during the week between- oh well, lesson learned.... maybe! Overall, it was a good weekend, good courses and a fun time watching my teammates do well and get pretty pumped about racing. In additon, nobody got hurt and it did not rain (much)... an added bonus!
Next up- Washington State Time Trial Championships in Tenino in 2 weeks... between then and now..... rest is on the agenda!
Well that's bike racing for ya!
Dave Acheson:
The reasons to race bikes are as varied as the people who race them. It’s easy to enjoy it when you get a high placing and your friends are telling you how well you did, but for me some of the most rewarding races are those where I’ve had nothing on paper to point to when all was said and done. This past weekend at the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race was such an occasion. The Enumclaw race is a stage race and unlike an omnium where points are awarded in each event based on finish places and totaled for the weekend, all that matters is the total elapsed time for the events for the rider. Ride a great time trial and don’t lose any time in the criterium or road race and you’ll have a high finish.
My time trials are usually solid and this year was no different with my ride giving me a 12th place finish in the Masters C/D field of 47 riders. As for the weekend’s other events, my previous attempts at this race have left me wanting in the “don’t lose any time in the criterium or road race” department which has led to bottom half of the field finishes for the weekend. Road racing is full of moments where you are challenged to push just a little harder or hurt a little more to stay in the race. Ease up in those critical moments and the suffering goes away, but so does the pack and any chance of finishing well.
For me, criteriums are full of those moments. The races are usually about 30 minutes long and the middle third is the hardest and where the most doubt creeps in. In the beginning, you’re fresh and have enough energy to hang tough. Somewhere in the middle though, the strength begins to fade, the finish is still a long way off, and it would just be easier to let off a little and let the pack drop you. You have to battle through these moments, possibly several each lap, and keep telling yourself it’s just a little bit more until the finish. Make it through that middle third of the race and the finish is close enough, you can take a little more hurt and get the job done. This year I successfully battled through and lost just 11 seconds to the leaders when a crash caused a split in the field early in the last lap.
The next battle was the road race. The race consists of three laps of a 14.5 mile circuit that features a long, steep climb up Mud Mountain Road. In previous attempts, I haven’t managed to top out on that climb with the field even once. I have managed to chase back on before being dropped for good, but all previous attempts have ended in big time losses. Each trip up the climb is a lot like that middle third of the criterium, lots of suffering and struggle while hanging on a few meters at a time trying not to worry about the miles to come. As the top of the first trip up the climb approached, I was fighting for all I was worth and although beginning to lose the battle, I crested the top within easy reach of the pack and caught back on within a quarter mile or so. This was a significant step in the right direction.
The second lap saw me lose contact about two thirds of the way up the climb and then join five other riders in a full throttle chase for the rest of the lap in an attempt to regain contact. We worked very well together and managed to rejoin the main field a mile or so before the final trip up the climb. The chase had left me drained and as soon as the final climb started, I lost contact when the front riders pushed the pace in their bids to set up victory. As the climb went on, the pack’s pace moderated and I actually began to close the gap a little. I was never able to rejoin, however, and was left to trail in a little over four minutes behind at the finish.
The results sheet shows that I finished 23rd for the weekend out of 47 starters in the Masters C/D field. The real story though, is that this was my best effort at this race and probably my best full weekend of racing in a couple years.
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