Tour of Lawrence

Hey! This is my first road race report!! Heck yah..

First off let me say, that was pretty flippen fun. Well, only doing two laps (5’s) did not really put the hurting on you for long enough to be miserable. 

I really did not know what to expect coming into the race other than it was something new and I was excited about it. I had the 1^st day of school nervousness on the start line. I haven’t had that kind of feeling for quite some time. You always have a little apprehension before races but not the kind that you can feel in your legs. I really don’t know how else to describe it.

I looked around on the start and noticed this aint a Cat 3 (beginner) MTB race! There were a bunch of guys there; big…small… hairy legs… shaved legs….23lb motobecanes…. 16lb Tarmacs with carbon Roval wheelsets.. Quite the eclectic group..

Once we started I motored on up to the front. I did not know how this was going to play out, but I did now I did not want to go down, that’s for sure. I have seen the bike handling skills of some of these guys in cross season and I don’t want to be behind them on any corner. Through the entire race I don’t think I was any further than 5-6 back.

First lap of the circuit was pretty uneventful, pretty much a warm-up lap. The profile on their website is pretty deceiving, from the looks of it, there were three climbs in the circuit, but the first two “hills” came and went all while I was looking around every corner for the hills. There was a good climb right before the start finish, but that is the only one I would consider a climb.

Here they come!

Second lap the pace did not pick up very much and I kept waiting for the action to begin. Turn after turn, same pace, and same story. We hit one section that on the profile was the middle “climb”, but I would say more of a gradual slope. I could tell everyone was content in just staying together as a group and see who could climb up to the finish first. So I thought that prospect sounded rather boring and wanted to spice things up so I attacked and created a decent gap.  This is about the time my MTB legs failed me a little.  They are great for short intervals, the attack went beautifully but once the engine is up, keeping it there for the amount of time necessary to make it stick was a different story.

Delaying the inevitable.. At least there were only a select few left!!

I did a great job of breaking the field up, looked back and there were only 3ish left chasing me. Gave it all I could trying to hit the final climb first and see how it goes from there. At the end of the straightaway following the downhill I looked back to find they have found their way back to me about 20 yards back. I then sat up to conserve what energy I had for the climb to the finish. Hit the hill 2^nd back for most of it. Guy put in a dig from behind, I tried to hold his wheel, but when the climb pitched up at the end I just could not keep up. From there I hammered the best I could to the finish for 2^nd. DAMN! THAT WAS FLIPPEN AWESOME FUN!! My MTB brethren are going to be so disappointed in me for enjoying this so much..

After the race Darrell and I went up to watch the Cat 4s race. Hung out with the KCBC dudes and watched from the top of the climb. I am wanting to cat up as soon as I can and wanted to see how the boys were going. Uhhhh, fast.. I am game for it, but there were some folks who looked miserable out there doming up that climb on laps 4 and 5. I can’t even imagine the Pro 1/2’s doing it 14 times.  Honestly that would be tiring even at cursing speed, let along race pace.

All in all, I am doing more of these things for sure!


Other report over at TWIN SIX if your interested.

RESULTS HERE

Rogers Picks for the weekend HERE