Deer Trail Race Report

On Saturday I headed out for the Deer Trail Road Race. My team Swift Cycling promotes this race. Our field was full at 90, with a total of 571 riders registered for all categories. The 8:45 start time was a little rough considering it is an hour drive from Denver. Chaz, Ty, Jeremy, Dave, Andrei, Shuka, Tim, and I made the start for our 61 mile Journey. Just as we rolled out, it started raining. Normally I wouldn't mind the rain so much, but it was only 40 degrees out. As I was warming up before the start, it was sleeting. We would eventually get rained on 3 different times, making for a cold/wet first 40 miles. The course was changed a bit do to poor roads on one section so we did a double out and back to Agate and the one out and back down the big roller section. Course Profile. To Agate we had a nice 20+mph tailwind, which became a headwind on the way back. Right before the 2nd turnaround to head back to Agate, there was a small attack and I had bad positioning at the back after being caught behind a crash, so the chase was on. I basically jumped from groups of 5 all the way up until I caught the main pack of 30. This took about 8 miles and I had to close about 5 or 6 gaps in the process. At this point I felt good, but was having to spend to much energy to get back on. After the 3rd turnaround the Main pack was now 60 strong for the ride back to DT in the headwind. Right after the turnaround there was break of 4 that went clear. By the time I could move up enough to see, they had 2+ minutes on us and they were far enough away, I couldn't see what teams were represented. At this time the pace was slowing at we were only making 14mph into the headwind, and no one was organizing a chase. Knowing that if they had more that 3 minutes by the time we hit the rollers, it would be hard to bring them back, Andrei, Jeremy, and I went to the front to get the chase started. Andrei and Jeremy alternated taking pulls and I came through once. We eventually got a couple other teams to start helping and when we make the right hand turn through town, the gap was down to 1 min. Soon as we hit the first roller through the feedzone the pace exploded and the 25 mph crosswind slightly from our tail, started breaking the field up instantly. I was feeling alright at this point, not great, but wasn't having any problems matching the accelerations up the climbs. Right before the last turnaround, we caught 3 of the guys left from the break, leaving one guy solo. After the turnaround, there was an attack on the first hill back and this narrowed the group down to 20. We now had a right to left cross/heading at 25mph. We then caught the last solo rider about 4 miles from the finish. I was sitting sheltered next to the yellow line until 3rd from last hill when there was an attack and I had to move right to pass a few guys who had thrown out the anchor. While I was able to move around, the guy behind me closed the gap on my inside and I was stuck in the wind with no place to hide, with 4 other guys tailing me. This was the mistake that was the end for me. I held on for the next climb, but starting the 2nd to last one, I got dropped with 4 other guys. We worked together to try to get back on, but no luck. They were having a hard time keeping pace, so I gave it an effort on the last climb dropped them and Soloed the last 2 miles finishing in 13th place 1:16 off the winner and 16 seconds ahead of the the group chasing me, with a total time of 2:52:01. I was the first across the line who didn't finish with the main pack. Full results here. Can't say that I wasn't disappointed not making the main group, but I'm taking it in stride. I know I was strong enough, but made a mistake, got caught in the wind, and paid the price. This race was definitely hard, and the weather was the biggest factor, for example, last year I took 6th place with a time of 2:27:56.