"Race" report

joseph.santaniello@gmail.com

Hi All,

Today was a sportive type event. 167km loop with 3 hills of note,
otherwise rolling. The first big hill happens after about 15km, and is
quite steep. The second at 25km, and is not as steep, but is about 3km
long. The last is about 10km from the finish and starts out very
steep, but evens out for the last 1.5km or so. The rest of the course
is rolling with the first half being on large more gradually graded
roads, the latter half on mostly smaller more twisty and up-and-down
country roads.

Normally this event is run as a mass start event with about 800
starters. It's a mad dash for the first hill, where it is descisive to
be with the lead group for anyone who wants to place well. This year
they added smaller group starts for teams interested in doing it like
a team time trial. That's what I did. The mass-start version started
1.5 hours after my group, so I got to watch the finish. Mads Kaggestad
who was pro with Credit Agricole from 2003-2007 won the mass start
event in 4:14. I get killed on the steep hill in the mass start, so I
opted for the team ride as we planned to ride at a very controlled
pace on the hills.

Or team has a core of about 20 guys, and about 5 others who are not
local, but ride with us in events. For this event, there were about 8
more people who were guests in a way, or otherwise were on the team
for the first time (they come from other clubs and some were very
strong). So we had about 32 but it was a bit chaotic as not all had
trained together before. And as always happens when you get a bunch of
people together dumb things get said. 5 minutes before our start, some
folks were suggesting elaborate plans for some implementation of
something or other. Happily, the captains ignored what may have even
been sound advice, and proceeded as planned.

In Norwegian, the terms we use are "roller" and "sack" for the two
parts of a group like this. The roller is the rotating echelon in the
front, the sack is the tail section where folks are resting. We ride
in 2 rows at all times. The roads are open to traffic, so we have to
keep to our side of the road.

We started with 16 in the roller, and 16 in the sack. I was supposed
to start in the sack, but after only about 3km, I moved up to the
roller. Our motorcycle escort did a good job of clearing the road. and
we had good speed right out of the box.

It was a nippy 9C when we started, but the forecast was for around
16C, so I opted for long sleve jersey and shorts. Most everyone else
had long legs, and quite a few had jackets. They were sorry about
that afte rit got warm 1 hour into the ride!

The winds were out of the north so we had a headwind for the first
40km. The steep climb is well shielded, so I didn't notice it there.
We took it as such a controlled pace that I don't think I've ever
ridden that slowly up that hill! I was standing for the most part in
my 21 or 23.

At the top, it was rolling along a plateau, then the second climb.
This went pretty good too, and at the split time station at the top,
we had a 35km/h average. I munched a honey sandwich at we crested the
top. Then it was time to descend down the other side. I'm supposed to
pull in situations like that because I am heavy, and I am regarded as
having a safe smooth style, so people (the captain at least) are not
so nervous following me as they might be others. So we are supposed to
lock the roller, but the guy next to me was one of the guests and
didn't know that. So he kept trying to pass me to keep the roller
going. And when I slowed because of a potentially dangerous curve
ahead, that was not yet visible, he zoomed ahead. It worked out, but
it is irritating when plans like that get messed up.

At the bottom, we turned south on a main road that goes along a river
valley. It is rolling terrain, but slight altitude loss and tailwind.
It went very, very fast. I don't use a computer or HRM, so I asked at
a random spot a guy as I was passing him in the roller how fast we
were going. 49km/h. That wasn't even a particularly fast section. Some
of the smaller guys were really suffering. At those speeds, they had
trouble pulling around when they got to the front and it affected the
rythmn of the whole roller. But by and large it went well. As we
neared the half-way mark, more and more folks were opting for the
sack. There were maybe 10 of us in the roller. We approached a team
ahead to pass (we had already passed one team) and I was feeling good,
so I suggested to one of the co-captians that we single-file it and
I'd pull everyone past the group ahead. But before that could happen,
some of our guys started passing, 2 abreast with the roller locked. It
was some of the less strong guys, and they started to fade before we
had the whole group passed. Quite a bit of yelling! I zoomed up the
left side and helped pull us clear. Then we continued on our way. Then
in a contruction zone with concrete barricades all over the place, and
small temporary round-abouts, some guys who caught us from behind
passed us. Moronic place to pass. And then they slowed down! A couple
of our guys rode ahead and told them to get their asses in gear. If
they were going to pass us, they sure-as-shit had better stay in front
of us. More yelling. All at close to 50km/h. Quite fun actually! I
shoved down another honey sandwich (crusts cut off).

At the half-way point, where the road turns north again (into the
wind) we had planned a bottle stop so we stopped for about 30 seconds
to swap bottles. That let the guys who passed us get a lead they kept
to the finish. Now that we had a headwind, and the road became more
hilly, even fewer had any gas left to be in the roller. We were down
to 7. The captains kept trying to get more folks up front, but they
were just wasted. We tried going a bit slower so more could help out,
but it didn't work. As the road flattened out, more folks joined the
roller. At one point we turned onto a highway of sorts with the wind
from the side. That was rough. Then we rode through a big town (the
3rd and largest) and it was round-about city. The guards posted the
the intersections and the motorcycles did a great job getting us
quickly through a busy area. I thought it was going to be a disaster.
With about 20km to go, we rode along the coast with a stiff headwind.
That was really tough. I considered moving back to the sack, but
figured we were almost home, how much worse could it get?

At 10km to go, we turned inland in Åsgårdstand (Edvard Munch's The
Scream depicts the pier there), and went up a steep winding hill with
hundreds of spectators lining both sides. It is a wall with cafes so
quite a popular sport for watching. I was really hurting up that hill.
And once it flatted out to about 5% with a crosswind, and the speed
picked up I did a bit better. But now the strong folks were really
putting down the hammer, and I was back in the sack, as I had been
passed by folks on the steep hill. I figured, Hell, I didn't ride in
the roller for the last 150km to sit back here for the finish, and
maybe get ridden away from if some other sack guys in front can't keep
the pace! Back in the roller. About 4km from the finish, as I was just
in the lead spot through a round-about our motorcycle escort took the
wong exit! Luckily I knew where we were supposed to go, so I took the
correct one (with everyone following). Had it been one of the guests
in the lead that could have been a disaster. Rolling fast through 7
left the right 90 degree corners in town toward the finish, I relaxed
and just rolled in. We made it. 4:28 in moderately difficult wind
conditions. 167km (103.7mi) average speed 37.4km/h (23.2mph) with
quite a bit of climbing. I felt great and am quite pleased.

Joseph