Tour of the Valley

The Tour of the Valley is now complete. I had a great time spending some quality racing time with my buds Isaiah, M@ Records, Josh Halvax and Chester (Andys). Great test of fitness and good tuneup for crit champs coming up next Sunday.

I left Athens Thursday evening after work. We met up at a hotel in Kent, which was about 30 minutes from the first stage. The first stage was a 5.6 mile time trial in the morning. We rolled out in the morning and arrived at Mastropietro Winery around 7:30. We all got registered and signed in for the stage. I started at 9:11 so I had plenty of time to get ready.

The TT was fairly flat. I figured I could hold 300w for the course which I estimated would take no more than 15 minutes. However that did not go to plan. I simply could not put out the power and only managed to put out 255w. Poo since I did not even put out my threshold and I was pegged at 180bpm. My time was 13 minutes and something and was good enough for 3rd or 4th to last.

Stage 2:

Stage 2 was a nice crit in Canfield. Pretty straight forward crit with a 180 right before the start finish. You basically had to be 2nd or 3rd wheel coming out of the 180 in order to win. My crit was 60 minutes and the first 30, I had no legs. I was in the danger zone of tail gunning and people were opening gaps as they were coming off. I had to close those gaps and was then gassed and couldn't move up. Half way through I got a second wind and was able to move up near the middle and later finished mid pack.

Stage 3:

An epic road race consisting of 33 miles of nasty rollers and two big hills. I think this course should be next year's state road race. Andys rated this course second hardest next to the Lake Hope course. Anyway, I tried to stay active and sat up front in the begining of the race. I ended up taking some turns up front which wasn't my plan and hurt me later on. On the first big climb a rider two up dropped his chain. This in turn caused the rider in front of me to crash. I pretty much came to a complete stop. I went from the front and then out the back. I had to dig real deep to catch back on. A few miles later we hit the next big climb. Not as steep as the first one but a lot longer at 3K. I was near the front so I figured I'll just keep my own tempo and drift back. Pretty soon many passed me and when I looked back, there was only a handful of people behind me. At the top a few of us formed a group and tried to chase back on. The main group was in sight across the rollers but soon disappeared. I was completely gassed at this point and got dropped out of my chase group. I decided to call it a day and save it for sunday. Another group caught up to me and we worked together to just get back to the finish.

Stage 4:

A nice flat crit, love these. My goal of the day was to stay up front and finish out strong. The course was in downtown Youngstown. The course was really nice but the pavement was horrible. Many pot holes around man hole covers and many places had ripples in the pavement. The course really beat you up. For the first 3/4 of the race, I did my job and stayed up at the front of the race. It was a lot easier than tail gunning like a normally do. However later on, my left hop started to act up and it soon became painful to pedal hard. I started to drift back into the pack. 2 to go I made my move and regained most of the positions I had lost and then finally on the last lap I was able to finish in the top 20. Coming into the last turn, a guy that was in the break had crashed and many people had to slow down to avoid the guy laid out in the middle of the road. I definintely lost a few positions because of that.

Overall, I felt good and it was good to know I have the fitness to be competitive. An easy week of training and I should be ready to tear it up at State Crit champs on Sunday.

Miles: 532

YTD: 4799