Tour de Hills by Will Frank
04/05/10 16:03
Caleb, Ian, John and myself transferred over to Harrison, AR for a road race that goes by the name of Tour De Hills. I would prefer to call it an epic battle of ones self for this weekend. Not only would we battle 3 climbs over a mile long, but we would fight the wind, rain, and hail the entire time.
The morning started with a great debate among us whether the rain would hold off or not. After much debate we decided that we would play our cards in betting that the weather man would be wrong. As we transferred over to Harrison the skies got brighter and we thought that we were possibly in the clear. Ian, Caleb and I registered for the Cat 3/4 race; this would be Ian’s first race with some Cat 3’s involved. We had a total of 15 or so in our field so not a terrible turn out for the bad weather predictions. We thought that we had beat the storms and where looking forward to being able to work with each other over the race and hopefully come up with a win for BMC. We rolled up to the start line and deiced that we would combine the 1/2 field with the 3/4 field, this made for a total of 20 riders. As the race started the attacks from team Panther came hot and heavy, a few small moves went but nothing that ever lasted longer than a few miles. About 2 miles into the race it began to rain. It started with a small drizzle (Snoop Dogs favorite rain) and continued to rain for the next hour and a half. At mile 4 Caleb had a puncture in his rear tire, at the same time the rain and attacks came. Caleb chased hard, but could never get reconnected over the challenging course. Over the first climb team Panther set a high pace stringing out the entire peloton, but we all managed to stay together. As we approached the second climb team Panther was setting a high pace for a couple of their teammates to launch on the bottom of Mt. Sherman. As we approached the bottom of the climb the rain and wind went from controllable to torrential downpour and wind tunnel testing turbulence. Two teammates from Panther launched a move on Sherman with Ian quick on there heels. As they climbed harder and harder the pack separated more and more. I soon found myself sitting in a chase group in hot pursuit of a barely separated Ian from two Panther riders. Over the top of Sherman there two Panther riders had two minutes over the chase group of 10, containing Ian and myself. The rain finally stopped as we started our descent, but it proved to be challenging and wet. This would be a hairy descent in dry weather not counting the soaked roads and cold bodies. We reached speeds of 40 to 45 mph on the descent not gaining any terrain on the lead breakaway. As we cruised along to the last and final climb the sun finally appeared. The last climb was challenging and lasted at least four miles. The group was pretty fatigued so we all stayed together with Levi Baker setting a strong pace up the hill. As we reached the top of the climb it was all moderately down hill to small rollers going into the finish line, so we knew that the first two riders had won that day, but they where in the 1/2 field which meant that Ian or I could still win the 3/4 race. Ian and I took turns along with all of the others helping keep the pace to prevent any other riders from catching back on to our group. As we got with in 5 miles of the finish, I started conversing with Ian on how he and I where feeling and decided that we would try a few moves to get away towards the finish line. All of these moves proved to be unsuccessful so we sat in for the sprint. In the last mile the remainder of the 1/2’s where attacking each other to try and get away, but nobody proved to be any stronger than the other. With 1KM to go I was sitting 4th wheel in perfect position for the downhill sprint. With 500 meters to go I launched my sprint fed by gravity and held on for the field sprint victory which gave me the win in the Cat 3 field. This was my first win of the season and in due time since Nick Rogers informed me that if I didn’t win a race some time soon he would soon replace me with a rider that can provide some results for the team. Ian finished in the top 10 and Caleb finished in a chase group shortly after. When we returned to our vehicles to pack up it began to pour down rain and soon turned to hail for a short time. John ended up in the top 5 of his field and surpassed his longest ride that he has ever done by one hour. John also got stuck in the last rain storm and ended up getting hailed on at the finish line.
In retrospect the Tour De Hills was a very challenging course mentally and physically. This was a great opportunity for all of us to race with some higher competition and turned out to be a blast. Next on the list of races for BMC is Joe Martin Stage race in NW Arkansas. Be sure to come out and support us on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this opportunity a reality and thanks to the city of Harrison for providing this epic adventure.
The morning started with a great debate among us whether the rain would hold off or not. After much debate we decided that we would play our cards in betting that the weather man would be wrong. As we transferred over to Harrison the skies got brighter and we thought that we were possibly in the clear. Ian, Caleb and I registered for the Cat 3/4 race; this would be Ian’s first race with some Cat 3’s involved. We had a total of 15 or so in our field so not a terrible turn out for the bad weather predictions. We thought that we had beat the storms and where looking forward to being able to work with each other over the race and hopefully come up with a win for BMC. We rolled up to the start line and deiced that we would combine the 1/2 field with the 3/4 field, this made for a total of 20 riders. As the race started the attacks from team Panther came hot and heavy, a few small moves went but nothing that ever lasted longer than a few miles. About 2 miles into the race it began to rain. It started with a small drizzle (Snoop Dogs favorite rain) and continued to rain for the next hour and a half. At mile 4 Caleb had a puncture in his rear tire, at the same time the rain and attacks came. Caleb chased hard, but could never get reconnected over the challenging course. Over the first climb team Panther set a high pace stringing out the entire peloton, but we all managed to stay together. As we approached the second climb team Panther was setting a high pace for a couple of their teammates to launch on the bottom of Mt. Sherman. As we approached the bottom of the climb the rain and wind went from controllable to torrential downpour and wind tunnel testing turbulence. Two teammates from Panther launched a move on Sherman with Ian quick on there heels. As they climbed harder and harder the pack separated more and more. I soon found myself sitting in a chase group in hot pursuit of a barely separated Ian from two Panther riders. Over the top of Sherman there two Panther riders had two minutes over the chase group of 10, containing Ian and myself. The rain finally stopped as we started our descent, but it proved to be challenging and wet. This would be a hairy descent in dry weather not counting the soaked roads and cold bodies. We reached speeds of 40 to 45 mph on the descent not gaining any terrain on the lead breakaway. As we cruised along to the last and final climb the sun finally appeared. The last climb was challenging and lasted at least four miles. The group was pretty fatigued so we all stayed together with Levi Baker setting a strong pace up the hill. As we reached the top of the climb it was all moderately down hill to small rollers going into the finish line, so we knew that the first two riders had won that day, but they where in the 1/2 field which meant that Ian or I could still win the 3/4 race. Ian and I took turns along with all of the others helping keep the pace to prevent any other riders from catching back on to our group. As we got with in 5 miles of the finish, I started conversing with Ian on how he and I where feeling and decided that we would try a few moves to get away towards the finish line. All of these moves proved to be unsuccessful so we sat in for the sprint. In the last mile the remainder of the 1/2’s where attacking each other to try and get away, but nobody proved to be any stronger than the other. With 1KM to go I was sitting 4th wheel in perfect position for the downhill sprint. With 500 meters to go I launched my sprint fed by gravity and held on for the field sprint victory which gave me the win in the Cat 3 field. This was my first win of the season and in due time since Nick Rogers informed me that if I didn’t win a race some time soon he would soon replace me with a rider that can provide some results for the team. Ian finished in the top 10 and Caleb finished in a chase group shortly after. When we returned to our vehicles to pack up it began to pour down rain and soon turned to hail for a short time. John ended up in the top 5 of his field and surpassed his longest ride that he has ever done by one hour. John also got stuck in the last rain storm and ended up getting hailed on at the finish line.
In retrospect the Tour De Hills was a very challenging course mentally and physically. This was a great opportunity for all of us to race with some higher competition and turned out to be a blast. Next on the list of races for BMC is Joe Martin Stage race in NW Arkansas. Be sure to come out and support us on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this opportunity a reality and thanks to the city of Harrison for providing this epic adventure.
0 Comments
asdfasdf