End of Road Season - Page Valley Road Race & a Brief Retrospective

Road season is over for us.  Saturday was the Page Valley Road Race held in the Shenandoah valley in Stanley Virgina. The Cat 3 MABRA championship.   I would be there purely in a soigneur capacity.  It was a 11 mile loop with 2 *Serious* climbs each lap.  The Cat 3 race was at 11am and it was sunny and hot.  This would be a race of attrition.  The HPC Cat 3 boys (Jake, Matt Clements, Jacob Miller, Andy Mount & Avery Wilson) would try to help Jacob Miller finish well enough to get his Cat 2 upgrade points.

Hanging with Gino pre-race

finding some shade before the race

Staging

Liam and I drove to the feed zone, which was on the finishing climb.  It was steep.  The first time through, Jake looked ok, climbing mid-pack.  He didn't take a bottle, not even a neutral water bottle to dump on his head.  Jacob was near the back and someone thought his hand was bleeding.  We didn't know why.

The second time he was in the top third, but looked to be focused and bearing down.  The third time, Jake took a bottle from me and another from Liam.  He seemed to be fine.  But shortly after going over the top of the finishing climb he started feeling nauseous and lost touch with the pack.  Now, many others had already done the same, and by the time the "group" came back around they were much depleted.  Jacob and Avery were the only HPC boys still in the pack.  Andy & Matt rolled through together off the back, and Jake came along next.  He pulled over into the feed zone and was clearly overheated and dehydrated.  I pointed out that he was dry.  He had stopped sweating.  So we got some water bottles in him and some cold water on him and put him under the shade.  I haven't seen results but the vast majority did not finish.  Avery made a nice move to bridge across to a 4 man break away with one or 2 other guys.  He finished 7th.  As the video shows, simply finishing took a major effort.

 Remember, he is minutes ahead of the pack, so imagine how they looked.

Jacob came through a few minutes later in the remaining "pack" of 10 or 15 guys.

It wasn't the way Jake wanted to finish the road season, I'm sure.  But hopefully he'll learn from it and show more respect for high heat days.

So, here we are.  I remember when Jake and I lined up for the 4/5 race at the Snow Cone training series in February.  I was worried about Jake crashing and getting dropped and who knows what else.  He did well, finishing 7th and racing smart.

Snow Cone Training Race

I remember him leading out Matt Clements to the win at Black Hills, sacrificing his own result.  In February and March, we thought we weren't going to chase upgrade points.  But then the results and the great rides started to happen.  Jeff Cup 15-18.  Then the solid ride at Battenkill just days after my dad died with Jake in the room with him.

photo by Bill Browne

 Then 6th in Walker Park Cat 4 crit and hey maybe there is something there.  Then taking a Preme and going off the front of the Bunny Hop crit. Then the 9th at Poolesville Road Race.  At some point Jake said "I'm going to upgrade in time for Nationals."  And I sort of said "yeah, ok."  Not believing.  Then he makes the break away and gets 2nd at Stony Point.  The rest is too much to list.

The Cat 3 upgrade chase was exhausting.  But incredible.  Then Jake does the hard Crystal City crit as his first Cat 3 race and stays right in there.  Nationals was tough and I think there was a post-upgrade, post-final exams let down a little, added to some bad luck.

15th in the Cat 3 Giro di Coppi road race was an important result to show that he belonged in the Cat 3s.  Then at Miller School he is first to finish after the small front group of 17-18 year olds (and that dang Sam James, who won Page Valley RR by the way).

Jake at Miller School by Doug Graham

By any measure it was an incredible season.  Jake didn't win any races, but he started out as a 14 year old Cat 4 and finished it as a 14 year old Cat 3 who had stepped up to duke it out with and beat grown men, and being right there with boys who are 3-4 years older.  

As of right now, he's the 10th Ranked 15 year old in road races in the country according to USA Cycling.  He's already set high goals for himself for next year.  I won't even begin to doubt him now.

Jake's not the only junior racer in Team Thompson & Sons.  Liam was riding his bike up and down the finishing climb at Page Valley with ease.  I think he's building up for a nice cyclocross season, and it's great to have him hanging with the boys at the races on the weekend.

I won't even attempt to calculate the number of miles or hours we drove.  Too many.  I can pack the car with incredible speed and efficiency now.

Thanks to Bicycle Outfitters and Trek for supporting Jake and the HPC/List team.  Thanks to the other parents of the HPC boys.  Thanks to Doug Graham for fine photos and special words.  Thanks to Sue & Pierre for their coaching and direction.

And thanks to Loren for tolerating this and occasionally sitting in a ditch on the side of the road in the middle of the country.

Stay tuned for cyclocross season, very very soon.  Squadra Coppi presents the Tacchino Cyclocross on September 9th to kick off the 2012 Super 8.  National champion Jeremy Powers will be there.  Will you?