Salida Road Race

On Friday, Em and I drove southwest of Denver to Salida for their annual Omnium cycling weekend. Because the race takes place in the middle of Ironman Wisconsin training, I decided to race in the 72-mile road race on Saturday, but not the TT on Friday or the Crit on Sunday.

Salida is a three hour drive from Boulder and sits in the valley with twelve 14,000-foot peaks surrounding the town. With the race start at 8am on Saturday, Em and I decided to drive down on Friday night. It was a last minute decision as a 3:30AM departure on Saturday AM didn't sound too appealing so all hotels in Salida were booked out. We ended up staying 12-miles up Monarch Pass at the Monarch Mtn Lodge with a bunch of other racers too. This was also a pet friendly hotel so Thor and Izzy made the car drive too.



With all the mountains surrounding town, I don't think it was very difficult for the race organizers to find a course route with lots of climbing! For the Cat 3 men, the race consisted of a long, six mile neutral rollout from downtown Salida and then six loops of a challenging 12-mile circuit. The circuit consisted of a very steep, but short uphill climb, a series of low grade climbs, steep and technical descents, a stretch of flat road and a false flat uphill. It was an excellent mix and altogether added up to over 10,000-feet of climbing and was very tough.



There were the usual suspects on the starting line, a list of proven climbers and strong riders including; Nate Llerandi (Feedback), Todd Robertson (Skins), Ben Buxton (Feedback), Jason Alexander (Vitamin), Jayson Middlemiss (Mafia) and a few younger guys. It was going to be a hard race but not one where a selection was made as soon as I thought. The first two laps of the course caused a selection on the steep climbs but the group continued to come back together on the flatter section. A rider from the Primal/HART team went solo from the group on the third lap and stayed away for the nearly two laps as the main group was disorganized and didn't work very well together. Unfortunately, it was right at this point Nate flatted and couldn't quite chase back on to the group.



The fifth lap caused a selection in the group and whittled the group down to ten riders. It remained intact until the final run up the steep climb. One rider broke clear on the climb and left the rest of the selection behind while he soloed alone to the win. I led the remaining five riders up the gradual incline for the next mile. The group was happy to sit on my wheel and eventhough I tried to swing off to coax other riders into taking a turn at pulling, the group was happy to soft pedal if it meant not going to the front. This is where I fail as a bike rider and cannot stand these tactics at the end of races. Instead of coming to a standstill, I tried three or four more times to put in a higher effort in order to further break the group apart. In the final 200 meters Jason and Jayson burst out of pack and sprinted for 2nd and 3rd and then 100 meters later Todd and another Primal/HART rider outsprinted me for 4th and 5th places. I ended up 6th.



I will try a few more road races including Niwot Crit, Koppenberg Circuit and Steamboat Springs Stage Race in the lead up to IM Wisconsin in an effort to earn enough points to upgrade to Cat 2 and also to get some good cycling miles and efforts in my legs for the 112-mile Madison course.

Special thanks to Em for driving the whole way to Monarch Friday night while I tried to provide the entertainment. She also drove over half of the way home. I think it was the most she has ever driven with me also in the car!

Safe Riding,
LF