Morgantown Road Race

Jake and his HPC teammates were in West Virginia for spring break all week. They were riding huge miles and climbing big mountains. Not a recipe for success at Saturday's climbing race in Morgantown W.Va., but part of a bigger training plan.

I was to drive up to get Jake and what the hell do the race myself. Friday night we had Seder at the Goodwins' which was nice, then I got up at 6am Saturday morning for the drive. Jordan Cross rode with me up to the race, which was nice because it made the drive go quicker.

Jake was clearly very tired and had developed a little congestion/cold. A good result would not be likely for him. Pat Luckow and Rob Eom were there for the 4/5 and I brought a jersey for new Coppi Mike Rousso to borrow.

Jake, Andy Fleming and James P went off with the Cat 4/5 field. I was in the 40+, which they ran with the 50+ and 60+. we went off 5 minutes later.

The masters race was hard. It was populated with Cat 1s and former MTB pro/living legend and West Va resident Gunnar Shogren. I was just hoping to stay as long as possible.
The race profile showed 4 significant climbs, but it doesn’t really show how rolling the course is. It would have helped to have known the course better to have some idea how long any given climb was going to last and when the next was coming.

The first 20 miles of rollers had some attacks in the combined 40/50/60+ group. At one point I was next to Gunnar and asked him when the first big climb was going to start; it started soon thereafter.

So we hit the first big climb, which I didn't know was coming. I dug deep but lost the front group on the first climb.

photo by Fred Jordan
But I fell in with a very big second group and we were working hard. On the second and third climbs I thought I felt ok and was climbing as well as anyone in the group I thought.

photo by Pam Mauch from the feed zone climb:
Thanks to Pam and Larry, and George P for the bottle feed.

We were slowly losing people. But on the long descent off the 3rd my legs were hurting. When we got to the last climb, I didn’t know it was the last climb. It was steep and I cracked a bit. Let a gap open. If I’d known, maybe I would have dug hard, I don’t know. So Long descent to flat run in along a river. One guy from the group 200 meters ahead of me doing the same speed as me. Then I see a sign that says “1 mile to go” I literally said “that can’t be right” then 2 guys catch me from behind (but both 50+ so not in my race). Then there’s a sign for 200 meters (again “really?”) So out sprinted them for kicks.

Turns out I was 22nd in the 40+. I think If I’d stayed with that group on last climb I could have been as high as 17-18.

Hard race. Not quite what I was expecting somehow (I was expecting more skyline type climbs and ridges) but it was really unrelenting. Should have put my garmin on miles so I could tell where we were (and maybe some lighter wheels would have helped).

Jake struggled apparently. Lost the first group on the first climb but chased to within 30 seconds. Photo by Fred Jordan

Jake's teammate James P did well and was 4th in the 4/5. But Jake was pretty destroyed, not surprising after a huge week of training.