Redlands Bicycle Classic

Invitation

For the past three months I have raced on the Swami’s Development Team, which comprises a mixture of Cat 1 and 2 riders. While the bulk of team members are in their early or mid 20’s, we also have a few riders in their late 20’s and early 30’s. At the beginning of the season, a colleague of mine pushed my name in front of the team director and he brought me on board. After two good early season performances in Cat 2 stage races at Valley of the Sun and Callville Classic Bay, I earned enough upgrade points to get my Cat 1 license. Once I received that, my name was put on the team roster for the application for the first NRC race of the year at Redlands. Because only four Swami riders have their Cat 1, our director began looking to pick up at-large riders to join our squad for the racing weekend. He started with former US Postal Service rider Anton Villatoro, TrainingPeaks founder Dirk Friel and 1984 Olympic road race gold medalist Alexi Grewal. This mixture of young, inexperienced development riders and older, established veteran riders was enough to gain an invitation to the Redlands start line.

Stage 1 - 3.5-mile time-trial
Despite the short distance of the opening individual time trial, the course featured technical turns, a short and punchy climb, and a one-mile steep climb to the finish line. Each of the 25 teams had upwards of eight riders on the team and the time trial starting times for each individual were selected the previous day by the team directors. I was chosen as the final rider from our team and ended up being the fifth to last rider of the day.

Due to the handcycle and women races that started going off at 9am, I was unable to pre-ride the course and relied heavily on course video provided as well as feedback from my teammates who rode earlier in the afternoon. This was my first NRC race and the first time my time trial bike has needed to comply with UCI measurement standards. Luckily, I checked my bike with the officials a few hours before my start time and they told me the length of my aerobars needed to be reduced significantly and my saddle needed to be pushed back. A neutral mechanic was cool enough to shorten my bars and provide me with a raceable bike.

I have learned over many mistakes throughout the years that a good, long warm up is what I need before my time trial start. After running through 30-45 minutes of warm up at various intensities, I made final preparations putting on an aero helmet, skinsuit, even shoe covers, and topped off with a few rips of water before riding over to the start gate.

Once the officials in the start house gave me the final countdown and released my bike, I rolled down the ramp out of the start house and onto the 3.2-mile course. I felt strong and settled into a rhythm and concentrated only on pushing down hard on the pedals. The first mile was over flat roads that featured a short and punchy 200-meter hill. It was a big ring effort that left my heart racing! Over the next mile, which was a false uphill, I started overheating. The temperatures had risen throughout the afternoon and while I stayed well hydrated throughout the morning and early afternoon, the heat seemed to be taking it’s toll in combination with the very hard effort I was exerting. I maintained a high pace through the second mile and was catching the rider who had started 30 seconds in front of me. However, as the course crossed a bridge leading into the final mile climb to the finish, I was passed by the rider who had started 30 seconds behind me. All three of us hit the climb at the same time and I did my best to focus on my ride but it is impossible to not be bothered upon being passed in a time trial. The final uphill was painful in combination because no all out time-trial effort ever feels good but the heat caught up with me and I was imploding. Once across the line, I coasted to the side of the road and found a tree with some shade and sat laid down for a few minutes to regroup and collect my wits for the descent back to the team tent. Despite not getting a result I had hoped and trained for, I managed to cover the course as the fastest Swami racer and I beat a lot of guys who I race week after week against throughout So Cal, Arizona and some guys from back in Colorado. The lesson I took away that day was to respect the race course, even when faced with a short three-mile effort. It knocked me on my ass big time.

Stage 2 - 120-mile road race

Racers were fresh and chomping at the bit ready for action and a hot tempo began immediately out of the starting gates. Having excellent shape and fitness is great to have but I found out it is far more important to position properly within the group, find safe wheels to follow, and constantly be looking to move forward. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards in a race with so many motivated riders. Half of the circuit was flat and facing crosswinds and half featured some perky climbs. The pace itself was not a problem for me, and I was able to work into good position over the climbs in order to stay near the front and avoid having to accelerate, however I made an unwise choice and wore a set of shoes I had never trained or raced in before. Another hot day in Redlands combined with the physical exertion caused my feet to swell. I had experienced this feeling at Ironman Hawaii and Ironman Lanzarote before - both held in extremely hot conditions - but had never had to deal with hot spots during a bike race before. I managed to suppress the hot spots building on the underpart of my feet but in the flat lead up to the day’s final climb I punctured and was forced to wait for neutral support to get me a wheel change. Team director Pat and teammate Colby helped pace me as best they could through the flats but eventually a race official came by and told them to drive ahead with all the other team cars. I was by myself time-trialing over the remainder of the course. Thankfully there were only ten miles left and I caught riders who were dropped on the climb so I ended up in a groupetto with a dozen others. The final damage ended up being around six minutes lost to the stage winner on the day. Unfortunately, we lost three riders during the stage to untimely flats very early on. That would hurt us as the race weekend continued on.

Stage 3 - 90 minute downtown criterium

Fast and furious was the order of the day. I tend to be cautious in the lead up to crits and the tight cornering, accelerations and jostling for position within the peloton make these races unsettling. I feel as though I age twenty years from being so nervous in the lead up to these races. Once the gun goes off though, all you can do is focus on positioning and reacting to the race. With so many fast riders on a relatively flat but twisting course, it was near impossible to move up in the crowd. I found myself hovering in the middle of the group, and telling myself I had to make it to the ten laps to go mark 60 minutes in to the 90 minute race in order to get an official time and make the cut to the final day on the Sunset Loop. Well, I made it until two laps to go but flatted on the back stretch and being so close to the end, was not allowed a free lap for a neutral wheel change. Instead, they gave me the same time as the last rider on the stage. That ended up being okay with me as I was not going to contend for the final sprint and there was a crash in one of the last turns.

Stage 4 - 94-mile Sunset Loop circuit race

The GC battle for the overall race lead was one second between Francisco Mancebo, a former 5th place finisher at the Tour de France, and Ben Jacque-Manes, a seasoned racer for the domestic powerhouse Team Bissell. Both teams, Mancebo’s Real Cyclist and Jacque-Manes’ Bissell, were motivated for their team leaders and setting very hard tempo at the front of the race. After three opening circuits around the downtown crit circuit, the race shot out of town and followed a three-mile uphill road that lead to a tough, seven-mile predominately uphill circuit named Sunset Loop. The pace was hot and riders covered the whole road up the first climb and the real fireworks started towards the first KOM of the day. Race organizers were offering three bonus seconds for the first rider to the top of the KOM and with such a close race on GC, many thought this would be where the race was decided. Unfortunately, this also meant I was dropped from the lead group on the first of twelve Sunset circuits! After watching 20-30 riders go away, I lead the second main group up the climb and probably did too much work on the front. My stubborn mentality thought the lead group would let up once they reached the flat roads at the top of the circuit. It was not to be and I was dropped the second time up the climb. Oddly enough, I ended up in a small group with three other riders I race with regionally, each who I consider to be very good riders. So, I was not too disappointed with my efforts and focused on keeping a steady tempo going through the rest of the laps. Our group ended up making it through nine complete circuits and were pulled off course at the start of the tenth as the lead group was within a few minutes of catching us!

In order to be recognized in the official results four circuits must be completed so the silver-lining was I managed to officially finish my first attempt at Redlands Bicycle Classic.

The experience was 100% positive as it allowed me to see how talented and savvy pure bike racers are. I was also very lucky to be on the same team as a few veterans who have accomplished so much throughout their careers and learned alot from each of them. The coolest part though was having my brother Hans along as our team massage therapist and to have him see what top tier domestic bike racing is like. He was out there in the team car every day handing out bottles to us and offering pre and post race massages, giving us great access to professional recovery as well as allow us to feel like pro racers.

The time and effort to adequately prepare for a stage race like this was quite difficult and I was forced to start early season racing in early February. With Kaia only a few months old, it was quite a burden for Emily to sacrifice a few of her weekends and travel with me to races that are difficult, and usually boring, to watch. As it turns out, bike races are often held in very uninteresting places. Luckily, she understood how much effort I put into the training aspect and was willing to make the effort in traveling when I needed her to along with letting me be away a few weekends.