SoigneurDad Rides Again -- No, Really

April 5, 2015 -- Sunday, watching de Ronde Van Vlaanderen (aka Tour of Flanders).

Yesterday Jake & I raced at the Morgantown RR (technically in Pennsylvania most of the time, but we'll call it West - by god - Virginia).  But back to that in a moment.

Updates -- The great college search and application process (Version 1.0) has finally concluded.  One of the top 5 jobs as a parent is get them into college (others: keep them alive; teach them to use the toilet; ?)  Jake had been looking at Univ of Colorado Boulder, UVa, and Furman University*.  He got accepted to CU Boulder early, in December, but then got a better chance to look into Furman when we visited in February and immediately loved it and wanted to attend.  Most incredibly, Furman has a varsity cycling team, and they offered Jake a scholarship (yes, bike racing scholarship, incredible to think of).**  So, a great opportunity for him to get a high quality education and also race with a strong and growing team (and I love the Coach, Rusty Miller).  But Jake had to be accepted through the regular process, and it's a very selective school, so not easy to get into.  They wouldn't announce their decisions until April 1st.  So, we waited...anxiously.  Last Friday evening Jake got the email -- he was accepted.  He was very happy -- so much he almost showed it.

That's my sweatshirt from 1984

In the Arlington front, Liam had applied to Thomas Jefferson High School, which is a VERY competitive school focused on math and science.  It is literally the number one public high school in the country.  It's technically Fairfax County but they make a very small number of spots available to Arlington residents (we heard 9 or so this year).  There are multiple rounds of testing, and Liam had made it to the final group, but we heard last week that he had not been in that chosen small group.  Ultimately, it's fine.  He had started to think that perhaps he didn't want to go anyway.  But super proud of him making it to that final selection.  So now he'll just get straight A's through Yorktown and we'll be on to College Section 2.0.

On his 14th Birthday

With Jake a big boy now, this spring I'm doing some road racing.  I'll do Tour of Battenkill in late April, and so wanted to get in some races before that, and also toward being in shape for Cyclocross nationals next January.  Two weeks ago we did Black Hills which went poorly for me (Jake had a flat tire), so we won't talk about that.

Jeff Cup
Last Sunday, we did the Jeff Cup just outside of Charlottesville, so just 20 minutes from our Crozet Team House.  Jake did the 3/4 and I did the 45+ (which unfortunately they ran with the 35+).  So me, life-long cat 4 on the road, was with 36 year old life long Cat 1s and 2s.  I would hold on.  I felt ok on a lot of the climbs and held on to the group for about 45 miles before cracking.  Rode the final 10 mile lap alone.  Generally, I was happy with how I felt and getting back into the rhythm of the pack.  I was 30th in the 45+ (but 3rd Cat 4 of that group).  Jake had some stomach issues after attacking off the front two different times in the first two laps, so had to pull out (I had some stomach upset a few days later so maybe something went around our house).

First time off the front

Jake & Tanner at the top of the big hill

Morgantown RR
Jake was eager to target the Morgantown Road Race.  It's a very hard race, with a bunch of grinding West Virginia climbs.  You'll recall he/we last did it in 2012 (here).  It's a good course for Jake.  Only the strong and good climbers make it to the end.  I signed up for the 40+.

It's 4 hours from Crozet, so we drove to Wisp Resort in Maryland Friday night to shorten the trip Saturday morning.  A cold front came through overnight and it was only 31 degrees when we left.  There was sleet as we drove over the mountains to Morgantown (it's up in the corner where W.Va and Pa meet).  The course was different than 2012.  This year there were 7 (depending on what you count) climbs.  Looks like this:

Climby

So they sent 40+/50+/60+ men and women Cat 123 all at once.  We started off briskly and I was sitting in  trying to do no work and just follow.  There were some hard efforts responding to attacks but also some easy times.  We were going  fairly hard from the get go.  We hammered hard up that first climb, and people were constantly getting dropped.  I genuinely don't remember exactly when I was disconnected from the front group.  It was about mile 25 in, I think it was on that very big climb, I think it was on the kicker at the top, not sure.  I got gapped in part because I was having to fight up after people opened gaps on a descent just before the climb.  I hooked up with about 10 other people, including the leaders of the Women 123, one guy was 60+ the rest 40+ I think. 

One guy, who was bigger, was killing it on the long flats and into the wind but at some point I realized that me and one other guy were climbing much faster than the rest, but there were 20 miles left.  I kept it in mind.

I was suffering no doubt.  On what I thought was the last climb, 43 miles in, I pressed from the bottom and sure enough I got a gap and only the one guy could come with me.  We had a gap, but couldn't hold it on the downhill.  I couldn't help much on the downhill..  On the next climb about half way up again I stood up and accelerated then drove away.  The one guy came up to me.  We had a decent gap this time and 5 miles to go, all basically gradually downhill.  We hammered on the downhill but I was struggling.  The group was far enough back to be out of sight at times. I was pulling through but my legs were near cramping and locking up. I couldn't help enough but I felt bad so I kept pulling through.  with 2 miles to go he gapped me.  I tried to hold them off alone for a while, but w/ 2km to go the group caught me and made me sit on the front.  I soft pedaled.  Then at 1km to go I drove it hard to lead out the 2 women.  Then I slid in behind them.  The sprint was uphill I went all out, legs trying to cramp.  One 40+ guy had come around but I held off the others.  So I was 11^th among 40+.  The guy I had been with was 9th, so I would have been 10^th.  Pretty good for a lifelong Cat 4.

In the meantime, up ahead, Jake had a great race.  He followed a more conservative strategy and hung with the ever dwindling lead group, ultimately down to about 8.  He sprinted for 4th out of that little group.

He was riding for his Cat 3 team, PTS (with the cow hat)

 It was a beautiful evening to drive back through the mountains and valleys of West Virginia.  Good times to come in the final season of SoigneurDad.

*Ok, so there is a family history with Furman.  I went there my freshman year of college in 1984.  Back then it was controlled by the Southern Baptist Convention.  I wasn't so happy with the very conservative/religious student body (although I did run track in the spring, which helped), and ultimately transferred to U.F.   We found out this fall that Furman had split with the Baptists and that the student body had diversified.  After our visit, Jake and I were comfortable that he would fit in (yes, I asked several students very pointed questions about this topic).  So, things change, new opportunities open. Special thanks to Peter Hufnagel of Miller School who helped with this.

** The governing body here is USA Cycling, not NCAA.  USA Cycling considers a program "varsity" if it meets certain criteria (I think there are 4).  One of them is giving scholarships.  There are I think just a few less than 20 varsity programs in the country, although it is a growing thing.