Tour of Page County 2013

A big weekend for Jake and the HPC juniors at Tour of Page County -- and also for former Coppi juniors.

Background
Quick background (remember, this is written for grandparents and other family members elsewhere).  Page County is out in the mountains, with the central town being Luray, Virginia (home of Luray Caverns).  It's very pretty, and you'll remember we've raced the Luray Cyclocross race the last 2 years in a row.  The Tour of Page County ("ToPC") is put on by Promoter, Chris Gould, and is a big event in the Mid-Atlantic racing scene.  Early season plans for Jake to go race the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico fell by the way-side and so that opened up the ToPC.  But, yikes, this year, the Cat 3 men would be run together with the Cat 2 men (no junior field).  So, that would make this a real challenge.

ToPC has 3 "stages" and they run as a stage race, which is to say, there is a "general classification" that is won by the person with the lowest total time for the 3 events (and there are some time bonuses involved).  Jake was joined by Ben Dinapoli and they would do a 70 mile road race on Saturday, then Sunday morning a 8 mile individual time trial ("TT") and in the afternoon a 45 minute criterium.  Here is the "technical guide" if you're really that interested. http://www.pagevalleycycling.com/uploads/ToPC_Technical_Guide_2013.pdf
Luke and Andy would be in the Cat 4 race.  Both have been riding well, with Luke in particular exhibiting some sprinter chops (his father, the Colorado climber gets twitchy when I say Luke is a budding crit-banger).

Logistics
Luray is a solid hour and 45 minute drive from Arlington, and because of the early morning TT on Sunday, we would need to stay out there Saturday night at least.  I have to extend great thanks to Ben and his parents, Tim & Jessica, who offered to let me and Jake stay with them.  They live in Harrisonburg, which is about 35-40 minutes away from Luray.  They were great hosts.  Because they would be going even earlier in the mornings, Andy and Luke stayed at a hotel in Luray.  (Shane is doing Tour of the Gila this week so he was off to New Mexico).

Saturday Road Race
Saturday morning (after my usual Friday night stress-induced freak-out about whether we were packed), we crammed 3 bikes, 7 wheels, trainer, 3 duffel bags, tool roll, pump, and a cooler into the CR-V.  It was a beautiful day for the road race.  Jake & Ben would race at 11AM, but when we got there we learned that Luke had scored a 3rd in the Cat 4 road race, which was awesome.  Jake & Ben took off with 50-ish Cat 2s and 25-ish Cat 3s.

The strategy here would be to hang on and let the Cat 2 teams fight the other Cat 2 teams.  I really was nervous about this.  So, I went for a ride around the 11 mile course in the opposite direction (my only ride of the weekend).  Really beautiful scenery, and I took some video of the pack as they came by:

someone has built their own bmx pump track

 

 

 Here the bunch comes by on their second lap

Jake and Ben safely in the bunch.  And again, they come by at the end of their 2nd of 6 laps (the YouTube title is wrong)

Jake, Ben, check (although farther back than I would like)
So, I rode up to the feed zone and joined Tim, who had brought my cooler in his van (thanks).  Now, last week at All American RR, Jake and I had failed a feed zone hand-off for the first time ever.  We both said afterward "how did that happen."  This time, Jake was really tucked in, but I saw him at the last minute and we executed a very deft hand off in the crowd, phew.  So that was their 3rd lap.  I hopped on my bike and rode a bit more, but was back in time for their 4th time around.  This time I saw Ben, but.....no Jake.  Crap.  This is the moment I fear.  Minutes passed and he didn't come trailing through with the dropped riders (oh, yes, they were going hard).  I started to worry about a crash.  So much that I jumped on my bike and did a very hard 8 minute effort to the final corner to ask head official, Mimi Newcastle, if there was any word on the officials radio about a crash.  Nope. Good. I must have just not seen him.  I ride hard back to the feed zone just in time for their 5th time through.  This would be their last chance to take a bottle.  Jake was tucked in the group and didn't need anything.  Ben was also right there.

But a group of 15-ish was up the road a bit, maybe 30 seconds.  hmmm.  Tim and I headed back to the school for the finish.  I rode in just ahead of the finish of the Masters race (does that count?)

Ugh, I look terrible -- photo by Brook Edinger

So, Jake says that he and Ben took some pulls at the front on the final lap which eventually got the Cat 2 Bike Doctor team working to close the gap.  They caught the lead 15 really close to the finish, maybe inside the last mile or so.  Jake was forward in the group, but the 15 guys who were just caught sat up a bit, and they all got swarmed as riders from the back surged forward for the finish.  A group of 3 came in right on the heels of the Pro/Cat 1 race, and then down the road was the swarm of the 2/3 finish.  Here's the video:

Ben was well positioned and got 12th.  Jake was stuck in a bunch as you can see, and was 28th, not horrible, but he was frustrated by his positioning.  He said he passed a lot of guys in the end working his way forward after the swarm.

After the race, we drove the TT route to get a sense of it (down for 4 miles, then climb back for 4 miles).  We had a wonderful dinner with the Dinapolis, then talked about books and colleges and the legal industry.  Very nice.

Sunday Time Trial
Jake's TT time was 8:38, but the weather on Sunday was cloudy and rain was coming.  Jake hasn't practiced on his TT bike, so this would be practice.  In a bit of excitement, we bought some used Zipp 303s from Pete Lindeman, and I thought they had a 12x25 cassette, and Jake's TT bike rear deraileur was blocked out of the last 2 cogs to pass junior roll out (on his bike 52x14); after warming up, and probably 10 minutes before his start, Jake looked back and said "is that an 11?" I quickly counted, crap crap crap.  Now, we could have just adjusted the derailleur to block out a 3rd cog, but instead I quickly pulled the 12x25 cassette off my wheels and switched it onto the Zipps.  I ran to wash my hands and Jake rolled up the hill to start.  I ran up there just in time to take a photo and start the timer on my watch.

Mimi and Doug Graham play official with Tim Rugg

I should find out where the photographer's photos are

Jake did a 21:50, which was "ok".

Photo by Jon Winter -- need to work on that position

 He said he was too conservative going out and had a lot left for the climbs back, but that's part of learning.  Did I mention the steep climb to the finish.  The boys were very hampered by the junior gearing compared to the other Cat 3s and Cat 2s who could go much faster down the hills going out (so, for example, Tanner Brown was a few seconds faster than Jake and Sam Winter was a few slower; poor Ben was even slower without a TT bike, but they were all way down in the overall, like over 2 minutes slower than the leaders)

Luke in the Cat 4s had another great ride, at 21:43 (I think) which was 2nd in the Cat 4s and put him in 2nd place in the Cat 4 GC going into the crit in the afternoon.
The TT was done at 9am and the Crit wasn't until 3:45, so Jake and I drove back to Ben's house and had lunch and relaxed.

In a great moment, laying there on the floor with nothing to do, Jake declared that "if this is what it's like at the Tour [de France], I'm going to have to seriously re-think going Pro."   I laughed and told him I'd let all those pro agents know he was no longer interested.

Oh, and the rain had started.

Sunday Criterium
The downtown Luray criterium has 8 corners and is pretty much never flat. It climbs up and down main street every lap, so lots of fast downhills into 90 degree turns.  In the Cat 4 race, Luke had been in the front group, but crashed twice when his wheels slipped out.  He fell back to the 2nd group with Andy.  Andy finished 12th and Luke 13th, beating some seriously strong guys.  Dan texted me that "turn number 1 is eating racers."  Oh, yay.  Here is a photo of Luke by Jon Winter

It was still raining a bit when we got there to warm up.  We took some advice from Dan and parked on the street at the bottom of the course (in front of the Mimsly Inn).  I put embrocation on Jake's legs for warmth and the water repellent and for the "pro" sheen, then set him on the trainer to warm up.

The Cat 1 race was going on while Jake warmed up.  They were sliding out left and right.  Former Coppi junior Kevin Gotlieb (now with the Kelly Elite team) was in the front and just missed the win, but took the Cat 1 GC.  Congrats to him. He deserves a lot of national attention.

Jake got a good spot on the front of the crit.  This thing would go nuts from the gun and if you weren't in front, you were doomed.

Yes more filled in behind them; Jake Sitler to the left; Ben over on the right

 The rain had stopped, but still, very nervous times.  My heart was beating as I tried to calmly chat with Joe Dombroski (back from the first half of his rookie season at the Pro Tour level with Team Sky).  Here are some videos from the first few laps.  Jake was in there, not great position, but not horrible.  Nonetheless, I felt compelled to yell at him to move up (first time this year I think)

Seriously, I can't tell you how nerve wracking this is as a parent. And guys slide out after half a lap.

End of first lap

Jake was hanging in there, but people were getting shelled already.  This is just several minutes into the race

At some point, I saw Ben; he had crashed and was at the pit for his free lap.  But he was very freaked out about his tires having no grip.  I tried to help calm him and push him back into the field, but he struggled.  Once your trust in your tires is gone, you're doomed.

At one point about 12 minutes into the race, coming up the big hill, Jake was cracking.  I thought "shit."  According to him, his tires did a power slide in turn 7 and he basically grazed a hay bale.  He didn't go down but was gapped.  He says when I saw him on the hill he had put in a big effort to get back to the front.  The race was splitting at that instant though.  Now, I'm really proud of him because I'm telling you I thought he was done.  But he regathered himself and got into what became the second group on the course.  Understand that the front group at that point was about 20 guys.  Jake's group had about 8.  They clearly weren't working well together, otherwise they may have caught back up.

 

Behind them everyone else was gone, lapped and pulled off the course.  Jake looked better and better.  Tanner cracked out of the front group a few minutes later and fell back to Jake's group (which also contained Sam Winter, who is 17 I think)

Photo by Jon Winter

Jake leads them up Main Street

 

 Rather than risk having the lead group catch them, the officials pulled Jake's group off the course as Jake lead them up the hill with 1 lap to go.  Jake was 22nd (they were all given the same time for GC).  So, Jake was the 5th Cat 3 and 22nd over all in the crit.

Jake Sitler did enough to take the GC (so now he's officially a Cat 2).  Jake ended up 25th on the GC but 5th Cat 3 (they don't officially break them out but you can count based on registration numbers).  Overall, it was a positive weekend.  Jake learned some things in each race.  Hopefully took some confidence from holding his own with many Cat 2s.  Luke finished 8th in the Cat 4 GC and Andy 15th. Unfortunately we didn't see them much because their races were on a much different schedule.

At the end of May, Jake and I will take Ben up to Killington Stage Race in Vermont, so this was a bit of a dry run for that.