PolishPostal Race Race Report - Reily Ohio (CAT 5)

This is my 2nd race of the season and 3rd overall. The CAT 5 race consisted of 4 laps of an 8 mile course (+ 2.5 miles the distance form the start to where we would finish).

I was in Tampa FL on business all week and arrived into Dayton Airport at 11:30 pm Saturday night. I spent the night in Brookville, which is about an hour from the race. I rolled into Reily around 10am. I drove the course. It had good pavement with only 1 real “climb”. The only downsides to the course were 2 sets of pretty rough Rail Road track crossing and 2 90° turns.

After parking and registering I suited up. It was about 42° and overcast. I brought my rollers but decided to do my warm up on the road. I ended up doing about 4 miles for my warmup. I started out slow for about a mile then up'd it a bit taking my HR above LT. I have a good warm up routine that I got from the internet but for some reason I can’t bring myself to get on my rollers before the start and run through it.

This race was well run. The best of the 3 races that I have entered to date. The only snag was the start time, they were about 10 minutes late in starting everyone. The start was typical of a circuit race, staggered start beginning with 1/2, 3, 4, 5, women, and then juniors. So we finally roll off with a 3 minute gap to the 4’s ahead of us. The finish is about ¼ of a lap into the course (2.5 miles from the start). Our first lap was extremely slow. One rider was allowed to roll off the front. He got about a 200 ft gap and another rider bridged up to him with no reaction from the group. I was positioned poorly on the right side of the road about 5 rows back. The group ran 3 wide for the first couple laps which didn’t allow for any response to moves off the front except for those on the front.

Lap 2 was much of the same slow pace. The two that went off the front were now out of sight and it seemed like there was no interest in the group to chase. I worked on my positioningin the group, trying to get to the left side of the 3 wide peleton. I don’t know if we dropped anyone by this point or not.

Lap 3 still much of the same pace with no chasing in sight. About ½ way into this lap we get passed by a group of 4 1/2’s. Here is exactly what we need to liven our group up. A handful of 5’s decide to chase the 1/2’s. I move to the left and proceed to chase. I’m finally able to close the gap to the 5’s that escaped. I’m not sure if anyone else is behind me. We proceed in chase of the 1/2’s. Before the climb on this lap we for some reason decide to pass the 1/2’s. So on the climb I’m trying to stay to one side or the other because I know those guys are going to come flying back by us. Well, some of the other guys in our group must not have thought that or cared because they are taking up the whole road. Well here they come, I’m riding on the centerline. They go by me but are now blocked. One of them gets pissed, tells the the 5's that are blocking the road to get the ‘f’ out of the road and literally pushed a guy on his hip out of the way. And away they go. Some where in the area we catch and blow by the original 2 5’s that went off the front. So much for there breakaway. I bet that they were pretty bummed at that point.

Lap 4 (Bell Lap except they forget to ring the bell and actually they were still holding up the 2 laps to go sign). The lead group is still setting a pretty good pace. I’m not sure how many are in the lead group at this point. About ¼ of a lap into lap 4 I notice the 4’s just ahead. Oh great, we catch the 4’s and this is going to get really messy trying to keep track of who is with us. Well with about ½ lap to go we catch and pass the 4’s. This must have lit a fire under them because about 2 minutes later attacks left and right from the 4’s are coming flying by me.

Side note/Rant... I’m not sure if this is typical for amateur races but every race that I’ve done so far you get one number that you are to pin on your left side. Obviously this is done so they official can see it more easily at the finish. That is well and good but if your riding on the right side of the road and someone pass you on the left that whole number on the left idea seems pretty dumb because you can’t see crap. The CAT 5’s were 200 series numbers but with them being on the left side it made it tough to try to keep track of everyone. Ok… enough of my rant on that topic. But I think they should issue you 2 numbers one for the left and one for the right. Then I would be happy.

Back to the race…. This part starts getting a bit fuzzy to me because I got gapped here somewhere. I think it is while the 4’s were attaching I kind of froze waiting for an opening and by the time I found one my group was gone. I hung with the 4 for a bit. I believe that a few 5’s made it up to me. We came up on the climb for the last time. I set a pretty good pace and think that I dropped all the 5’s that were with me. I bridged up to a few more 4’s and figured that I better go now or there is no chance of catching the leaders. So I go around the 4’s and they did give me some encouraging shouts which was helpful. I put my head down because I could now see the lead group of 5’s. I caught and passed one more 5 but just ran out of time to have any chance of catching the lead group. I was only about a hundred yards behind them at the finish. Even if I would have been with them I don’t think I would have had enough to challenge the winner. He was pretty strong.

So according to the posted results I finished 8th. They said at the start that there were 35 or 37 in the CAT 5 field. So I think that I should be pleased with that. I learned a few things in this race to add to what I’ve learned in previous races. I need to work on my positioning to allow me to respond to any attacks, I need to be a little more aggressive and I need to work on the engine. My mileage has dropped off a bit in the past several weeks and I think that I could tell during this race.

Hopefully I’ll have better results to report after this Sunday’s race in Morrow OH. If anyone else was in the CAT 5 race please add to or correct any of my report. For some reason a lot of this race seems fuzzy to me.