Smells like......
.....Victory.
Name: Steven Mielich
Event: Snelling Road Race
RaceDate: 25-Feb-06
Category: 35+ 4/5
Field: 50
Distance: 48 miles (+3 mile promenade)
Conditions: warm, dry, sunny
Teamates: none
Place: 1st
Watch the wind, be patient and stay seated were Bruce Hendler's(AthletiCamps) words and we spoke on the phone on Friday evening as he was coaching me for Snelling. I was really relaxed as I was 20th on the wait list for two fields of 50 so I thought that I had little-to-no chance of getting in. That extra uncertainty kept me up all night and I was stressed the following morning as I drove to Snelling.
They made us wait until 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to give away slots and I got in with little time to pin my number on and get to the line. Unfortunately I did not get in the same field as Chris Soukup and Tim Lewis so I had to race with no teammates. My plan was to look for other strong riders to follow and hope for a bunch sprint.
Snelling is a 12 mile course with several sharp turns and several short modest pitches. There is one section that is very rough and it's a short uphill finish very much like the last section of our Tuesday night crit hill. The first two laps I felt bad, my pulse was 171+ almost the whole time, I felt panicked and I spent too much time out-of-the-saddle. What was wrong?
I checked my cadence and I was spinning the entire time at 105+. With the Tour of Amgen in town, I had skipped most of my drills this week and it only took that for me to be back to my old ways of gassing myself spinning way too small of a gear. I gathered my senses, forgave myself for making the mistakes and committed to racing the rest of the race smarter. I forced myself to chose bigger gears and found the climbs easier and I was easily able to advance on the climbs. Great!
The last lap was very fast and on the very rough section I could see the 1K sign up-the-road. I worked my way to the front and took fifth wheel. I waited for the thundering herd but there was none. I made sure to swing wide in the turn and took second wheel for the sprint to the line. I yelled at my now lead-out guy GO! GO! GO! and he did just that. I came around him with about 200m and took the win. What a thrill!
-Steven
Yoda man.....Yoda.
Name: Steven Mielich
Event: Snelling Road Race
RaceDate: 25-Feb-06
Category: 35+ 4/5
Field: 50
Distance: 48 miles (+3 mile promenade)
Conditions: warm, dry, sunny
Teamates: none
Place: 1st
Watch the wind, be patient and stay seated were Bruce Hendler's(AthletiCamps) words and we spoke on the phone on Friday evening as he was coaching me for Snelling. I was really relaxed as I was 20th on the wait list for two fields of 50 so I thought that I had little-to-no chance of getting in. That extra uncertainty kept me up all night and I was stressed the following morning as I drove to Snelling.
They made us wait until 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to give away slots and I got in with little time to pin my number on and get to the line. Unfortunately I did not get in the same field as Chris Soukup and Tim Lewis so I had to race with no teammates. My plan was to look for other strong riders to follow and hope for a bunch sprint.
Snelling is a 12 mile course with several sharp turns and several short modest pitches. There is one section that is very rough and it's a short uphill finish very much like the last section of our Tuesday night crit hill. The first two laps I felt bad, my pulse was 171+ almost the whole time, I felt panicked and I spent too much time out-of-the-saddle. What was wrong?
I checked my cadence and I was spinning the entire time at 105+. With the Tour of Amgen in town, I had skipped most of my drills this week and it only took that for me to be back to my old ways of gassing myself spinning way too small of a gear. I gathered my senses, forgave myself for making the mistakes and committed to racing the rest of the race smarter. I forced myself to chose bigger gears and found the climbs easier and I was easily able to advance on the climbs. Great!
The last lap was very fast and on the very rough section I could see the 1K sign up-the-road. I worked my way to the front and took fifth wheel. I waited for the thundering herd but there was none. I made sure to swing wide in the turn and took second wheel for the sprint to the line. I yelled at my now lead-out guy GO! GO! GO! and he did just that. I came around him with about 200m and took the win. What a thrill!
-Steven
Yoda man.....Yoda.
posted by Chico Cyclist at 10:04 PM
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