CRCA Individual Club Championships
Goal: Get a Good Guy (my team) win
Result: My teammate William Hacker - 1st place
Report:
In my life I have turned to bicycle racing during hard, stressful, or unhappy times as an escape. When I achieved good results it made me feel better. That also meant that when I earned a bad result I felt worse. I have learned that bicycle racing is not a sustainable fix or a good way to deal with emotions. I am trying my best but I am no sage! The week before today’s race I fell back into this pattern. My brain was capable of thinking things like “if I only just became club champion then maybe I would feel better, maybe I would gain friends, maybe that person would notice me, maybe I would be more successful, maybe I would have a better reputation.”
On race day I woke up forty five minutes before my alarm ready to go. I decided to use the time to journal and make one more effort to get my mindset right. I thought of Epictetus’ Dichotomy of Control and the four cardinal virtues in Stoicism. I wrote this at 4:15 am.
8-14-22
Desire out of my control: Win the race this morning
Wisdom: You also need luck. Sometimes you have to let a teammate win. (I meant let a teammate have a chance to win)
Justice: Imagine how lucky, strong, and smart the person has to be to beat you? Would that person not be deserving?
Courage: Can you let go of everything you fear to lose? (Yoda) Is it even yours?
Temperance: One more win will do it for you? The rock thrown in the air. (The rock is a paraphrase of a Marcus Aurelius quote)
Desire in my control: Make the Fred’s wish they stayed in bed.
I left to ride to the start around 5:15 am and I felt like my mindset was right back where it needed to be. I went from a goal that was out of my control and back to one that was within my control. I was ready to win, lose, or fall on my sword.
We started the race with the strongest team. Just like past races my teammates and I knew that the harder we made the race the better it was for us. We all got to work right away and made it hard. There were constant attacks and splits and rarely any down time. Halfway through the race the group was very tired. It was clear as day that my teammate Cormac had the Dave Jordan team sitting on his wheel and Foundation had a rider on my wheel who would not pull through when we would attack and cause a breakaway. As I’ve mentioned in previous race reports this defensive riding style from other teams is always very good for us. My teammate William attacked at this point around halfway through the race. He was joined by another rider and they stayed away to the finish. We were so confident in William in that scenario and for good reason. He won the race and became club champion. Nice job William!
If I was still stuck in my poor mindset I could have been bummed out about the race disappearing up the road. When the breakaway got close (at one point they were only six seconds away!) I could have been selfish and bridged up to it and potentially/inadvertently pulled the group up to William. I could have lost focus and decided my day was done. But thankfully I got my head on straight. When William was up the road I knew I had a role to play and that was to slow the peloton down.
Blocking
I would define blocking as doing anything that you can to slow the chasing peloton down. The peloton at one point got within six seconds of catching William. I knew if I could slow the group down even just a few seconds it can be the difference between him staying away or getting caught. I deployed four tactics.
At one point there was a lone Sunrise rider at the front of the race setting a hard pace at the front. I rode up next to him and started talking to him.
“Hey do you have a sprinter?” I asked.
“No,” he replied.
“What are you doing up here then!?”
“I just got back from Australia and I need to get some training in.”
“Oh nice what were you doing there?” I asked.
“Drinking beers lol.”
He thought I was being nice (I was nice too though) but I got him to slow down just by talking to him ha!
Another tactic I tried was to ride up next to the rider at the front of the peloton setting the tempo. I would ride just ahead of them. Sometimes they would say to themselves, “Well if he’s pulling I'll slow down and get behind him.” But then I would slow down too. Neither one of these first two tactics was physically getting in their way but it would get the rider to slow down.
A third tactic I used was on the descent before Harlem Hill. Today (like this whole year) there was construction which narrowed the descent. We were basically almost single file down it. When we were about to reach the downhill I sprinted to the front and made sure to be first place. When we reached the hill I went very slow down it. I was probably going 22 mph. William said he was hitting 35 mph! Not only was he gaining time on the downhill itself this also helped him on Harlem Hill because we hit the bottom of the uphill with way less speed. This tactic alone must’ve given the breakaway a bunch of seconds. It also was a blessing in disguise because there was an ambulance at the bottom of the hill. Good thing we were going slow!
The last tactic I employed was getting on the front before/on Harlem Hill and riding really slow but acting like I was about to attack. I attacked the hill the first four times up it so people were on high alert. I shifted into a big gear. I got into the drops. I tensed up. I took audibly loud breaths. I looked like I was about to wind it up. But I never did. We went so slow up the hill and nobody attacked because they thought I was about to so they just sat there on my wheel.
My teammate William was flying today! I don’t think he needed this help. But he is my teammate and just because he is up the road doesn’t mean I can’t help him.
Once again in the end William won the race. It was my job to lead my other teammate out for the sprint. Unfortunately he cramped up at the end. I rolled across the line third in the field sprint for fifth place.
What did you do well?
My journaling really saved me. It prepared me to lose so I didn’t give into the temptation to bridge up to William in the breakaway when it was only six seconds away. It helped me have the focus and awareness to block. Just because I’m not going to win doesn’t mean my job is over.
What did you not do well?
A Foundation rider was my shadow today (the same one that I beat for the Boyd Cup and who sat on my wheel all last season). When I would turn around today he would smile at me. At one point he spun his finger next to his head at me like people do when they are saying something/someone is crazy. I don’t know why he did that. But he was right I am crazy. He tried to get in my head. For the briefest of moments I did feel frustration. I didn’t show it but I know it was there. The funny thing was that he shouldn’t have been smiling because my teammate was up the road with a 99% chance of winning. So that dissipated quickly. But I need to be unbreachable.
What will you do differently in the future to be better than today?
If I didn’t randomly wake up early maybe I wouldn’t have journaled this morning. If I didn’t journal who knows what mistakes I would’ve made. I could’ve sabotaged my teammate William. I had time this week to work through it ahead of time. I will try to be more prepared for race day.
