So, what happened?  It was a hard race, but it certainly wasn’t beyond my current abilities.  The NP for the 40′ I was in was nearly right at my ftp.  It did have over 20 bursts of at least 15" over 150% of ftp as opposed to the Amphibious Assault which had only 5, but had a similar NP.  But I believe the reason I dnf’d was not mainly physical.  Yes, I probably wasn’t going to be tearing up the course on this particular day, but I should have finished the race and been sprinting for a top 10.  No the reason, I believe, is psychological.  I was never into the race mentally, and the rain and the string of crashes early in the race certainly didn’t help.

One way to deal with with a bad race is to examine the experience for lessons (and not get sulky and snippy as I initially did, just ask my wife).  In this case the lesson is fairly simple — I clearly wasn’t on a good day, either physically or psychologically, so I needed to look for other ways to succeed.  One answer that became obvious as soon as my brain came out of oxygen debt was the corners — after the field thinned down and the rain lessened, I found I could corner as fast if not faster than the other guys in my group, and even I as would get gapped off on the finishing straight I could make the space up in the corners.  Of course, doing so also meant having my rear wheel slide quite a bit, but I held it up every time.  If I had been able to look beyond the fear the slides engendered and the pain of the efforts, I would have seen that I could hang in, and because the field was so much reduced, I would have had a good shot at a top 10, 15 at worst.  I suppose I need to "reframe" the situation, seeing what was worrying me — the  wet corners — as an opportunity and redefine success on that day not as a top 5 finish, but as simply completing a very tough race on a technical, tough course.

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6/13 Amphibious Assault Crit

The Amphibious Assault Crit is a unique venue — we literally race around around parked hovercraft used by the Navy to, well, assault things amphibiously (see video here ).  And because it’s on the landing apron, the course is pancake flat and relatively smooth — a crit racer’s dream.  The course is extremely wide and not all that technical, although the organizers did throw in a nice chicane on the backside just to keep things interesting.  The final corner was a good 500 meters from the line.  My race went accordingly to plan — I marked Dominic Meier who has been just tearing up the VCA Cat 4 Bar.  I lost a sprint for an early prime by less than a wheel (to Dominic of course) and then we settled in.  The course nearly guaranteed a field sprint, despite the heavy rain falling at the race start.  On the last lap, I was 3rd wheel, but as the rider leading out tired coming out of the last corner, we got swarmed, and in that instance I hesitated and my shot at the podium was over.  I still managed to worm my way out and unleash a decent sprint, passing several guys, but only managed 8th.

6/20 Virginia State Crit

Fast forward a week and the same last lap scenario replays itself.  The lead up to that moment, however, was quite different.  I arrived a bit later than I prefer and had to fix a loose cleat, so my warm up was cursory at best.  No hard efforts, no measuring out of the sprint and only 1 lap of the course.  Given the extreme heat, I didn’t think the lack of a warm up would be that big of a deal.  I would just sit in the first few laps and use that as a warm up.  Well, I sat in and sat in and sat in all the way to the back of the pack and when a break went, I missed it.  I still wasn’t feeling sharp and continued to do no work.  It was a gamble that the other guys would bring the break back, but it was a gamble that should have paid off.  By two-thirds through the race, I was back in the main pack, maintaining decent position, but still feeling awful.  (This was the first time this season I contemplated a voluntary DNF.)  Coming out of the final 180 turn, may be 400 meters from the line, there was a near crash just to my left.  Normally, after my initial instant of panic, I would have gone hard to take advantage of the reduced field, but not today.  I stood up to jump and nothing happened.  Those few seconds are something of a blur, but what is clear is that at that point I gave up and didn’t even attempt a sprint.  I rolled in at the very back of the pack for 26th place.

What do these results share, despite being nearly 20 places apart?  That instant on the last lap that I hesitate and get swarmed.  I suspect that if there were an organized leadout and the pack stayed single file until the sprint started, I might do better, but that is rare in amateur races and probably non-existent in Cat 4.  So it’s back to working on my own limiter, which, it is increasingly clear, is mostly mental.

The race started out well — I jumped across to what I thought was a dangerous break (with 2 NCVC guys in it.  NCVC had something like 1/4 the 80 person field), and I was up the road when the crash happened.  I was surprised at the effort it took to get across.  I guess these MABRA races are harder.  We were caught and I was recovering deep in the field when the surprise bell lap happened and was nowhere in position to sprint, so I rolled in.

But it gets better.  When Jake had been taken care of, there was an announcement that we’d restart and that the person who won the sprint  in the previous “race” was awarded only a prime.  We were given 10 laps and sent on our way.  Again, what I thought would be a dangerous break went and I killed it jumping across.  But although we kept a gap for a few laps, there was no real cooperation and once again we were caught.  My biggest mistake was letting myself drift too far back while recovering and not checking the lap card when we went back into the field.  The result was that the bell came as a surprise to me (again), and I was woefully out of position.  I managed to move up a bit, but could only manage 19th out of 80ish.

But I wasn’t too upset — all my thoughts were with young Jake. Here’s hoping he recovers quickly.

The one positive is that my form is coming around; now all I have to do is put the tactical pieces together.