A Capital Idea
Coffee and Croissants are the most important thing about bike racing. Also of note; this is the only photo I have from the whole weekend.
Cameron Clark had a test at OSU Friday afternoon, so we were late leaving Portland. Then we drove past Olympia by mistake. By the time we actually got to the eponymous Capital, the Chipotle was closed and we had to swing by Olive Garden to get a late dinner. Oliver Garden is an overpriced, mediocre restaurant, but they give you very generous portions of salad. Around midnight, we finally got to our host house. Keegan had arranged the hosting and had only talked to the family’s 15 year-old son, so we were pretty stoked when they were actually willing to let us stay there.
The next morning, I ate a lot of applesauce because it’s the best food to eat before a TT. Which, aforementioned TT, I crushed. Which, aforementioned crushing, equated to a greater-than 20-second improvement over my time from the previous year, but still placed me somewhere in the middle of the cat-3 field GC wise. But I was stoked to see some personal gains. Keegan did pretty good too. Cameron’s body has about the same CDA a New England Catamaran, but that fact considered he didn’t do too bad either.
Between the morning TT and the afternoon crit I ate a number of eggs, w/ toast and pretty much never stopped brewing cups of coffee. Which was fine, because I’d bought a 1 lb. bag of Starbucks pre-ground, medium roasted, house blend just for this event. Have you ever done a Crit race that goes through a construction site? That’s what the Capital Crit course is like. Half of every lap is a technical descent and the greatest challenge of the race is not getting your wheels lodged in the fissures that bisect this road. The crit course goes around the State Capital and Legislature buildings, making the poor road maintenance an especially poor reflection on Washington State’s urban renewal.
I got dropped from my crit race, so I had plenty of time to consider this. Keegan got dropped from his race, although I don’t know what he was thinking about. Cameron did not get dropped, so I imagine he was thinking about his race.
When we got back to our host family’s house (the paterfamilias of which, it turns out, was also a cyclist and was very accommodating towards us) they had a pasta dinner prepared. The pasta was from a company that sponsored a team that was racing that weekend and this would be a great place to “plug” said pasta company, esp. considering they provided us w/ a free pasta dinner. But I can’t remember the name of the company. They ran out of pasta anyway. I had to make more toast.
Sunday’s Road Race was the real reason I’d come to Olympia and it did not disappoint. At 90 miles it’s pretty long for a Cat 3 race, but the first 60 were more or less a parade. On our return of the out-and-back leg of the course, the field finally started getting feisty. Nothing managed to stick though and I pretty much kept my nose out of the wind except for pushing the pace a bit on some of the rollers. Having raced this course last year, I was pretty certain it was going to end in a field sprint – which it did. Normally I’m not an excellent sprinter, but 89 miles tends to level the playing field. All things considered, I was feeling positively chipper. The course opened up to both lanes at 200-meters and I surfed wheels along the left hand side of the road to score an 11th place finish. This was one place better than I’d placed last year and I was racing a category higher (last year I was a 4) and in a race twice as long (the 4’s race was only 47 miles). So, I was satisfied.
Cameron got in a late break and sprinted to 4th. This is especially impressive considering Cam’s aerodysmorphia. Keegan sat in the chase group and sprinted to 13th. After the race, we had to drive back to Olympia (which was 20 miles in the wrong direction), because Cameron forgot his pump and I forgot my pillow at the host house. The good news is we finally got to eat at Chipotle.