Scott's Right Of Way

Junior Road Nationals -- Final Entry -- The Crit and Wrap Up

June 26, 2011

We're home now after a long drive on Saturday.

Friday was the criterium.  It was a 1.2 Km rectangular course around a couple of blocks in downtown Augusta.  Again there were 76 13-14 year old boys.  We knew this would be hard and we knew that Jake had no experience in a crit like this.

While we waited for the elevator, Axel Merxck came down the hall.  He was very nice and we got a picture with him.

Jake got a good warm up outside a little bakery

While Jake warmed up, I got some photos of Thomas Donigan of Pax Velo in the 10-12 race.
He did well.

Even though he went to the staging pen 30 minutes before the race start, Jake was still several rows back.

Jake was also stuck to the left and a bunch of boys on the right pushed open the barriers to open the gate more so kids who were on the barrier got a better starting spot. Watch:

 

Jake was stuck maybe 4 or 5 rows back.  The front guys sprinted from the gun and the gaps were opened before the first turn.

 

The field shattered into groups on the first lap as the Cat 3s drove the pace.

 

Basically after one lap there was a front group of 20.  A second group of 15-20, then a series of smaller groups.  Jake ended up in the third group with ..... Tanner Browne and Stuart Witkoski.  They just end up together even at nationals. They were working (although they needed to be doing a rotating paceline instead of long pulls).  

Ultimately, Jake's group was the last group pulled that the officials didn't score.  They were pulled after about 1/2 the race.  The 2nd group was pulled a few laps later, but scored.  Basically Jake et al would have been 38-41.  The winner was a cat 3 and so was #2.  The winner had a teammate (from the huge Boise Young Rider Development Squad "Byrds") lead him out.

Jake was pretty unhappy about the performance.  But it was a tough race.  I told him that on some level in a field that big, if you're stuck in the 4th row, you have to depend on the guys in front of you not to open gaps, but that didn't happen (later in the 15-16 and 17-18 crits the guys in the back weren't immediately screwed because the field didn't shatter).  Jake also needs to learn some lessons about being aggressive in big crits (like at the start).

We hung around and watched some other races.  We rooted for Isaac Kaplan of Rock Creek Velo and Justin Mauch of HPC in the 17-18 race. (a photo of Isaac hanging tough)

We got some video of the elite race absolutely diving through the second corner (practically scary to stand there)

 

We also hung out a little with Andy Guptil who rides for Jamis/Sutter Home pro team and works with the Charlottesville Bike Camp that Jake is going to in July. 

We got a photo with Warrenton boy Joe Dombroski who now rides for the Trek U23 development team. 

(Bill Shieken should pay me commissions for all these In the Crosshairs photos).

Final thoughts

I know Jake isn't completely happy with his first Nationals experience.  You don't go to a race without some belief that you can win or be competitive.  Otherwise you wouldn't be trying.  But I and many others have tried to tell him that he did well.  It was an important and eye opening experience.  He has only had a road bike since February and hasn't been training for years (when he would race cross the last few falls he never trained, just rode races on the weekends). Compared to the very highest level of national competition, he finished in the middle of the pack and did very well among other Cat 5s.  Now, he's pestering me to put him in Cat 5 races and ultimately to upgrade to Cat 4.  So, his desire wasn't crushed by the experience. 

Now, we need to finish a few road races and take a little rest before ramping up for cyclocross.

Thanks again to those who helped with Jake's Nationals Campaign: Geoff Hughes, Contes of Arlington, Ken & Jean Woodrow, Max Shute, David Wofel, Brad Evans, and all of Squadra Coppi.

 

Junior Road Nationals - Day 2 - The Race of Truth

June 23, 2011

So today was the Time Trial.  The "race of truth."  Just you against the clock.  For the 13-14 year old boys, it would be 10km long, so something like 15 minutes of all out effort.  Jake had never done a time trial and didn't have a time trial specific bike.  So why not do your first at Nationals.  We got some "clip on" aero bars to attach to his regular road bike and borrowed some carbon road wheels from Contes. We also got him a TT helmet from Contes.  But well over half the field would be on full-blown time trial bikes, many many with carbon rear disk wheels.

Jake's group would be the last of the day so his starting time wasn't until 5:06:30pm.  So, we had a lot of time to kill. Jake watched a lot of cartoons while I did some work.

There was some serious rain at lunch, but it was supposed to clear up.  However, when we went up to Lake Strom Thurmond at 3pm to get set up, it was raining.  Thank goodness I borrowed the tent from Ken and Jean Woodrow.  We ("I") set up the tent and got Jake's bike in the trainer for warm up.

Tanner Browne and his dad met us and set up Tanner's trainer under the tent as well.  Jake got a good warm up (with some nagging from me).    

Jake made his way to the "shoot" with plenty of time.  There they do the "roll out" where they make sure his gearing is legal under the junior rules.  The boys would be going off at 30 second intervals.  The boy that won the road race yesterday was starting 30 seconds behind Jake.  We talked about how he might catch Jake and if he did he should try to use him as a rabbit.

Jake was nervous but focused. (Note the circa 2001 Coppi skin suit from David Woffel). He got into the start house and ready.

 

Then he's gone, and I have to wait.  Sure enough the boy who won the RR yesterday came in before Jake, but I knew that Jake would be soon after.  Sorry for the silly mumbling of encouragement.

 

The announcer said "Jake Thompson from Squadra Coppi.  I've always liked that team name."  He said Jake's time was 15min and 26 seconds.  I knew the boy who came in before was in the 14:30 range, but we didn't know how others would do.  So, Jake spun around to clear his legs while I packed up the car.  Tanner went later and so did Stuart W and Andy Flemming (from Northern Virginia also).  Here's Jake talking with Stuart (who did well in the RR but crashed in the sprint at the end). 

A couple of observations.  Some of these kids are freaks.  This is the kid who won yesterday, are these the thighs of a 14 year old?   The winner did a 13:30 time, which equates to 27mph average.  Jake did 24mph, which is pretty damn good.

From talking to other people we found out that Jake had beaten Tanner, Andy, and Stuart, so that was a bit of redemption from yesterday, where Stuart and Andy finished better than Jake.  Tanner had a good ride as well, just 12 seconds slower than Jake.  These are all boys that are strong and would win their local races in most places.  But there are boys here who are on sponsored elite development teams at the age of 14.  That's just totally different.

We didn't see the final results until after dinner.  Jake did 15:26, Tanner 15:38.  Jake was 35th out of 71 and Tanner 37th.  I think Jake felt better about this effort.  It confirmed that he is pretty good and has some raw strength.

Tommorrow morning is the final race, the criterium, which has a lot of people pretty nervous.  We'll see how it goes.  From the start we assumed it would be Jake's weakest event, so no expectations. 

Junior Nationals - Entry 1 - Travel, Recon, Nerves, and the Dive Into the Deep End

June 22, 2011

Today was the first race of the 2011 US Junior Road Nationals.  Jake is racing all three events in the 13-14 age group, the Road Race, Time Trial, and Criterium.  Today was the road race, but back to that in a minute.

This all started back in March after the Black Hill Circuit Race, where Jake dueled for the win with Stuart Witkoski and everyone said that Jake would be competitive at Nationals.  Ha Ha I said, but the seed was sowed.  Jake wanted to go, and after I said "we'll see" and "maybe" many times, I finally said "ok."  Going to Augusta Georgia for 5 days during the work week would be an undertaking.  But a great experience for Jake. 

Jake has trained hard, doing increasingly well against adults on group rides and at 2 Greenbelt races.  I had wild dreams of him winning, but I knew that there must be some super kid from somewhere and that realistically I just wanted him to have a respectible race and get the experience.  Then it turned out that 76 boys registered for the 13-14 races, and I realized that there would be lots of chaos and no small amount of luck.  I also realized that Jake had never ridden in a race with that size pack, so no matter how strong he was, he lacked experience keeping position in and reading a big, swarming pack of aggressive riders.

So, we had planned to drive down on Tuesday before the Road Race on Wednesday.  Then on Sunday I freaked out and realized that I didn't want him in the car for 9 hours just before the race.  So, on Father's Day I made last minute new hotel reservations for Monday night. 

We packed up the CRV with enough wheels and stuff for a small team.  Special thanks here to people who contributed to this effort.  Geoff Hughes loaned us some aero carbon wheels, and then Contes loaned us a second pair (Zipp 404s).  Ken and Jean Woodrow loaned us their tent for shade.  And Brad Evans was going to loan his Time Trial helmet (but I bought one on sale at Contes on Sunday). 

The drive was uneventful, thank goodness, and we got to the official Race Hotel around 8:30 Monday night.

Tuesday we met some people around the hotel after breakfast, like the USA Cycling Development Team mechanics and the HTC women's team (this is also the "elite" road championships, not just juniors)

Then we drove to Fort Gordon to pre-ride the road race course.  Thank god we did.  The directions were a mess and it took a long time to get to the course, which was deep within this huge Army base.  It was brutally hot (100) and would be for the race.  However, the course was not nearly as hilly as the profile had made us think.  Jake was super nervous already, and his heart rate was through the roof even during relatively easy efforts. The course had one significant hill, but even that was only 1 minute in the big chain ring.  The rest was rollers at most.  There was a sharp, 150 degree turn that had a very bad road surface and sand.  Jake was worried about that corner (foreshadowing music here).

Later we drove to the time trial course, which was rolling but pretty straight forward.

Tuesday night we got registered, meeting more people.      An interesting story later about all the boys who were having to get their time trial bikes altered (with hack saws) to meet UCI regulations.

Jake was nervous.  He could barely eat his dinner Tuesday night and sleep was fitful.

THE BIG DAY

So, we got up early this morning.  Jake shoved down some eggs and cereal, and lots of water.  We drove to the course with plenty of time.  He and I rode the local roads for about 30 minutes with some efforts for him to warm up his legs.  Then when it was time I had him go to "staging" early to get in the front of the 76 strong mass.  His cyclocross scrum skills worked and he was on the front row.

 
You can see him under the banner on the front row above.

At this point, I was about to puke from nerves myself. I would make my way to the feed zone with a cooler and a bottle of cold water. But I got video of the start.

 

At the end of the first lap, a big group came hammering past.  I was running video and looking for Jake at the same time.  Listen to the end of the clip.

 

I had no idea what had happened but Jake wasn't in the front group.  He then appeared about 15 seconds later in a small chase group of about 4.  I yelled for them to work together. 

 

Ugh.  Another 15 minutes of waiting and not knowing.  I knew Jake would be disappointed and unhappy.  Again the front group and this time a longer wait.  I asked the officials about crashes.  Jake came through finally and I gave him a bottle of water.  He yelled that he was cramping, but I could see he hadn't drank even one of his 2 bottles.  I yelled for him to finish.

He did finish. 

There were many small groups.  The front group was only about 20 kids at the finish (one of them Stuart, so, in theory Jake could have been there). 

So, what happened?  On the first lap, Jake got swarmed after the start and was fighting to move back up in the pack.  As expected, he had no experience to deal with the pack dynamics of 75 swarming people.  Then, at the 150 degree turn, two boys crashed right in front of him.  Jake had to vere into the dirt/sand/grass to avoid crashing, and by the time he got back under control and on the road, he was off the back.  He said he sprinted to chase but got a cramp in his thigh trying to chase. (this was way too early for a cramp, so I'm still confused; a "charlie horse" I guess; or he was going much harder than he realized).  He tried to ride with the 4 boys in the chase group but they dropped him on the hill. 

He finished 47th, which is disappointing for him but fine. 

Later in the afternoon we got some real perspective on the competition that he was facing. Almost the entire top 20 was Cat 4 and at least one Cat 3. Results. The boy that won has done 33 races already this year alone.  The boy in 4th has done 13 national championship races, starting when he was 11.  The boy who was 5th is a Cat 3 and has been doing road nationals every year since 2009, and has done over 50 road races.  He lives in California and has done 20+ races this year, starting in January.  Jake, in comparison had done 8 races before today.  Among other Cat 5s, he was 15th. 

This isn't an excuse, this is just perspective.  These are boys who have been to many big races and have a lot of experience.  But even then, if a crash happened in front of them, they would would have been screwed as well.

There are big, sponsored teams of juniors here with really nice bikes, trailers, and support (more than just dad).  There were kids with fancy "ice vests" to keep them cool during warm up, and I'm sure during the time trial we will see some full blown fancy time trial bikes.  Not their road bike, which is a hand-me-down that dad didn't like 5 years ago, with clip on aero bars and borrowed wheels. So, I'm proud of Jake no matter how he does. 

We'll see how he does in the time trial tomorrow.  It will only be 10km (6.2 miles), so about 16 minutes of all out pain.  He starts at 5:06:30.