National Championships
By Dan Vinson

This year's National Championships were appropriately held at the Seven Springs resort in Champion, Pennsylvania. Week one consisted of Junior and Elite Championships, while the second week was reserved for the U23 and Masters competitions. I went out to do the Elite road race and all three Masters events (time trial, criterium, and road race). Before leaving on my trip, my form was pretty good and I was looking forward to the racing. Even more, I was looking forward to escaping the heat wave that we were experiencing here in California! I left a couple days before my first event - the Elite Road Race. The day I departed, I felt I was coming down with a cold (a seemingly more common occurrence with two little kids). But no time to think about that - it was time to race!

Elite National Championship Road Race (110 miles/176 kilometers & 12,000' climbing): The course, a 27.5 mile loop, is one of the most challenging courses I have ever done. We would do four laps in this event. Virtually the entire course was up or down - climbing or descending. The course started with a few small climbs that quickly took you to a long 5 mile descent. Then, there was a short steep climb of about 12%+, which slowly tapered off. Before you had any chance to recover, you hit a 4 mile climb at 4-7% gradient. Next, another long descent followed by a short steep climb that led you Laurel Hill Park. We winded through fast sweeping turns below the wooded park, including a couple steep "rollers", for about 4 miles. Then, we hit what I think was the hardest 3 mile section - 2 miles at about 8%+ with some parts even steeper, followed by 1/2 mile of respite and then another 1/2 mile of steep climbing. Then, another descent which levels out, followed by a steep final kilometer of climbing up to the finish line. Ouch! The day before the race I did one lap at "endurance" pace and it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes.

There were 125 riders from dozens of states vying for the stars and stripes jersey. The race started fast from the gun. I seemed to go anaerobic almost immediately, but we soon were at the long descent. We tore down it. I hit a speed of 65 miles per hour. Some guys were even faster! The pace continued. We hit the first long climb and although I was able to maintain my position, I didn't "feel the power". I definitely felt my chain, but we were climbing fast, so that could be expected. The field was already getting smaller. We ripped through the park, strung out all the way, to the second big climb. The pace was high and and riders were blowing like kernels of corn in a popcorn bag. I suffered a bit, but stayed in decent position towards the front. We went up the steep climbs to the finish where the field had already shred down to 60 riders - half of who started.

The second lap there were attacks and a small breakaway formed with David Clinger, among others. As there were several team who had multiple riders, the chase was on and the pace never relented. The climbs were painful and in addition to feeling my own chain, I felt I had one around my neck attached to a large anchor. I managed to ride toward the front on the climbs however, and even had better position than during the first lap. I took another feed and passed across the start/finish once again. The lead group had shrunk again - now down to about 45 riders.

Early the third lap additional attacks were made early on the climbs. Many riders were immediately in difficulty. A short while later, I was one of them. There were, at most, 40 riders left in the field when I lost contact. This is where things get fuzzy. A few riders who were off the front were caught and others began to pull away. The field broke up into a couple groups and slowly disintegrated. I ended up in a chase group and fought on for a while longer. We went tempo through the park to the final big climb. At that point, there was no gas left in the tank. Feeling terrible, I clawed my way up the final painful climb and up to the finish - my finish - after 3 laps. I abandoned as did several other riders who popped off shortly after me.

At the start of the final lap, there was a small break, followed by a group of 15 riders, followed by a group of 10 riders about 2 minutes back. That's all that were left in the race. A while later, Daniel Vaillancourt (Ccb/Volkswagon) was the sole survivor of the break. Matt Cooke (Lsv/Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Reid Mumford (Abd Cycling Team) bridged to them and they worked together. In the finale, Matt Cooke attacked to the line and took the victory. Reid Mumford and Daniel Vaillancourt came in close behind, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Only 27 riders finished the race - and pretty much everyone came in by themselves. To put it into perspective on how difficult the race was, the guy in 15th place finished over 14 minutes after the winner! A tough race!

Rest Days: The day after the race, my illness hit me full on and I felt really bad - congested, headache, and fever. I drove myself to the hospital and was given antibiotics and other medications for a sinus infection. For the next two days, I popped pills, watched television, and hoped I could recover somewhat for the Masters races. On the third day, I pre-rode the time trial course and was starting to feel better.

Masters National Time Trial Championships (30K): The out and back course was an excruciatingly tough 30 kilometers that resembled the road race course in that there were no flat sections. There were, however, several twists, turns, climbs and descents. I've never switched back and forth between the small and big chainrings so many times during a time trial. The climbs were between 200 meters and 1 kilometer in length - some as steep as 14% gradient. There were some real fast descents with semi-technical sweeping turns at the bottoms which made things exciting.

As I got ready the morning of the event, I looked outside to see it was pouring rain - definitely not ideal on this technical course. I barely made it out of the condo. Still not feeling great and not expecting to light up the road, I resigned myself to warming up during the time trial. However, when I got to the start, a friend had a trainer set up for me and so I hopped on - able to ride about 15 minutes before my start. I went to the start line as rain poured down onto me - a waterfall coming off the front of my aero helmet.

I started well within myself and slowly picked up the pace. I managed to pass a few riders on the way out and felt I was rolling pretty well - going hard on the climbs and pacing myself on the descents. My tires locked up on the wet roads at the turnaround but I managed to keep it upright. On the return, I dropped my chain a the base of one of the many climbs, but got it on fairly quickly. I put my head down and tried to keep the pace up. Losing my sense of what part of the course I was on, I nearly missed a right hand turn - overshooting it and going into the middle of the road around the course marshal rather than properly cutting the corner. I regained my speed and continued to Laurel Hill Park where it got technical. I took it easy on the wet roads, but then pushed it to the finish. I ended up 8th place - not a bad ride all things considered. The race was won by Joshua Frick (DC Velo/Martens Volvo Rockville).

Masters National Criterium Championships (60K): The flat race was held on a technical 1 kilometer course which we did 60 times. The course used half of a car racetrack and then swept into the infield, went through some technical turns, and then out the other side to the flat finish. The race started fast, but I felt relatively comfortable. The tough part of the race was the slowing and speeding up out of the turns when were weren't going so fast. I stayed on wheels until it got real fast and then got into a couple of moves. One of them looked promising, but we were soon chased down, and all back together. Despite the flatness of the course, there was quite a bit of attrition. As we approached the closing laps, there were only 35 riders left in the race.

There were several attacks during the final 10 laps of the race, but nobody was able to get away and stay away. With 4 laps to go, two riders got a gap on the field. Josh Webster (SC Velo) bridged to them. The other riders sat up but Webster kept going with 3 laps to go. At first everyone just looked at each other and his gap started to open up. It looked like Webster may have a chance. Then, suddenly, there was a full on chase. I tried to move up but got pinched in a corner and wasn't able to make it to the front. With a couple laps to go, I resigned myself to ride it in and save whatever I had for the road race. Webster was slowly brought back and was caught with just under a lap to go. More riders started to pop off the back and the sprint opened up. Shane Weaver (Hincapie Sports/ Bianchi) won the race in a sprint finish. I rolled in 22nd.

Masters National Road Race Championships (55 miles/88 kilometers & 6000' climbing): The course was the same used for the Elite Road Race - an incredibly challenging 44 kilometer/27.5 mile route with lots of climbing! Today, I felt pretty good, like I was substantially recovered from my illness that initially hit me almost a week and a half earlier. The legs felt good during the warm-up, despite the fact that the fog rolled in and it started raining. Thankfully, we were spared from the cold.

The race started quick and we rolled down the descent at over 60 mph in the fog and rain. I saw one rider get the high speed wobbles and I imagine he was soon out of the race. We hit the climbs and the race was on. A few riders were got a small advantage on the first main climb, but it was early on a tough course so I didn't worry about it. We flew up the first climb with many riders already shredded off the back. Half lap into the race, we had maybe 35 riders still in the front group. There were many accelerations as we approached the second big climb. Two riders attacked on the climb and started to roll away. I attacked and went across to them and suffered as we crested. I thought our gap might allow us to roll away, but unfortunately we were chased down as we approached the end of the first lap. The racing took its toll on the field though. After the first lap, there were only about 16 riders in the front group with a couple riders still off the front.

As we hit the descent on the second lap, I went to the back of our small group to recover and take a drink. The fog was thick and I could literally only see the couple bikes that were ahead of me. We went a little slower on the descent this time. As we lost elevation, the fog lifted and I could see up ahead of me. Where did everybody go? There were only about 8 of us with about 10 or so up the road. While we were in the fog, there was a split and I didn't (and couldn't) even see it! We hit the bottom and then a steep climb. I drilled it up and over the climb and slowly closed in. Another rider helped me in the chase and we dropped some of the riders who were with us. On the first long climb, a few of us were eventually able to make it to the group. However, during this time, there were more attacks and a few more riders were able to get off the front.

One of the teams had several riders and were really racing negatively - making it difficult for us solo guys to get anything going. They seemed to go with me every time I went and I couldn't get into a good move, although I felt good and was confident I could land myself a podium position. On the final long climb, it began to break up again and a few riders fell off the pace. Unfortunately, a few of the riders in difficulty were able to catch back on as we approached the finish. With 2 kilometers to go, I attacked with another rider and we opened up a gap. We were essentially racing for 5th since time had run out to pull back any more riders. We were caught with just under a kilometer to go. Soon thereafter, there were attacks off my wheel and I couldn't do much about it. I gave it one last push, but only managed to take 10th place on the day. Mike Olheiser (MMW/Carve) defended his title, taking the victory.

Although National Championships didn't go exactly as I had hoped, it turned out alright after all. At least I came back in one piece and with decent fitness. Until the next race. . .

Dan Vinson