Sunday, March 05, 2006

OVR #1 Reilly Road Race

Today was the first of the Ohio Valley Racing Series. The race is in Reilly, OH and is a an about 8 mile course with one descent climb, a few rollers, two train tracks and some fast down hills.
My race day started yesterday, really. I put on my race wheels (Ksyriums) with my prefered race cassette, which is a 11-23. I haven't ridden these wheels since about October or so, but have overhauled them. The 11-23 cassette is Campy Record and has 4 titanium cogs of its 10. They're hella expensive too. My chain is prett new, it has less than 1,000 miles on it. That's the back story. So I wanted to ride on my race wheels rather than just showing up on race day having not ridden them. So I decided to ride my road bike to work. Man, the slightest bit of pressure on the pedals and the drive train just totally skipped. I was almost to freak out mode by the time I got to work. I know my chainrings aren't wore out enough to be causing this, but I don't know if it's in the hub (the pawls missing) or a wore cassettte. Ksyriums have to be lubed with mineral oil, which mine were, so I was sweating. I had to call Lindsay and have her bring my other wheels so i could swap to my other cassette and hope that fixed it. It did and I was totally relieved. So I have a cassette that wholesales for over $200 that is wore and I'm down to one cassette beweetn two wheels, but at least I had a definative answer to my problem. Wheww.
The Race
It was an okay day. The sun was out for the start, but was covered later. The temp was in the low 40's and dropped throughout. We started out slow, and continued pretty slow. There were a few total rookies who should have been racing Citizen class to get experience. One guy in particular was all over the place and making a lot of people mad. He was fast enough to keep up, but speed is only part of the eqaution. Experience in road racing goes a long way. ANYWAY, After the (I think) 3rd lap me, Josh Prater and another dude were at the front on the fast decent. This turned onto just me and the other dude on the flat, which turned into just me on the climb. When I noticed I had dropped the group, I stood up and hammered up the climb and opened up a big gap. I stayed off for an entire lap, with one lap left. My gap was big. I could go way faster alone than the group over the 2 railroad crossings, I could corner much faster, decend faster and really, climb faster too.
Dan and Josh thought I had it won, but then the cat 5's caught the cat 4's becasue they were doing one less lap. Some of the 4's snuck into the 5's to get an adavantage. When Dan and Josh noticed this they rode up to the 5's to tell the 4's tp drop back into their own race (and to not chip into my lead). Well, Dan and Josh moving up was percieved by the 4's as a chase, so they reacted and caught back to the 5's and reeled me in. I think I could have stayed off. My heart rate was pegged, but I can do that for the 25 or so minutes that the lap was. Oh well. I styed in the front of the group when caught and sprinted in the top 10 somewhere. I'm guessing 6th-7th. Results aren't up yet, but I'll post it when they are.
Overall, I'm happy with my ride. I rode great and felt great. Tired, a little worked, but feeling good.

3 comments:

Tim Green said...

Good job Adam, that sounds like a lot of fun. Wow, racing season already.

Thanks for your help and concern with my bike. Will talk to Jay soon and find out how this will play out.

adamrodkey said...

Yeah, Tim no prob. I feel bad. Not that it as anything to do w/ me, really, I just feel bad for you. Keep me posted.

Randy Lewandowski said...

Thanks for the reminder to always ride and check out the full race bike at least the day before the race.
Nice job with staying off the front for a whole lap. It's too bad about the 4's and 5's mixing into each other, I see this happening every year.

Jumpy