Stage 5: Mankato Road Race

Historically this stage has made the entire race. The winds are usually howling and with a number of turns the winds will typically echelon the field and then split it apart. However, today was hot, clear and calm. The course is roughly 84 miles with four laps of a two mile circuit to end the day. The circuit featured a real brute of a climb: over 200 vertical feet on a cruel grade somewhere around or above 15%. Four times up that doesn’t sound that bad, but doing it all out after 80-some miles was going to be torture.

I was asleep most of the two hour transfer to the course and had a hard time getting fired up for the race. A few shots of espresso and the demands of pre-race preparation brought me around. I was voicing my apprehension to Matt, who’s organizing the Pro Ride, and he gave me some pretty good words of advice. He reminded me that I’m out there on their dime at one of the most prestigious races on the NRC calendar racing against and amazing field, and that if I can’t just race my ass off and enjoy the experience then I shouldn’t be here anyway. Whew. Good point, Matt! That put my head right and I set off in much better spirits.

There was a flurry of attacks in the first few miles of the race and eventually a break of maybe 15 got away. I was torn between trying to get in an early move and conserving for the finish, but with my eye still on the GC and thinking of those finishing circuits I decided to sit back. And sit back we did! In what seemed like the blink of an eye the break was up to 7 minutes as the field lollygagged and riders marked their territory along Minnesota’s country roads.

Things never really picked up that much, but somehow we had the gap down to a few minutes as we were nearing the circuits. There was a nasty crash on some bad pavement as we descended into town, but my teammates and I all stayed safe and we hammered into the final four laps of the day. I fought for some pretty good position and was in the top 30 as we hit the climb absolutely flying. Well, the field was flying and I was out of the saddle flogging myself and still losing a bit of ground. There was a crash on the turn into the base of the climb that strung out and broke up the field and some people never recovered.

One down. I tried to recover and move up as much as I could on the all out descent and the few fast corners through town and before I wanted to be I was back on the climb again. I tried to stay seated and breathe deeply, but its hard to keep it together when the pack is exploding itself on a climb like that. But somehow I made it. 2 down, 2 to go. I was pushing it through town, but couldn’t make up as many spots as I wanted and when we hit the climb the third time I wasn’t as far forward as I needed to be. A gap started forming a few riders in front of me two thirds of the way up, but I was behind Nick Frey in the Best Amateur Jersey and he had two teammates with him so I figured I’d be safe. My teammate Chris Winn dug deep and pulled himself across the gap, and he ended up being the last guy to get across.

Nick never did get back across and although we could almost reach out and touch the front group after chasing on the descent and through town we couldn’t get back up and I finished near the front of the second group.

Its always tough to watch the race roll away from you. Moments of indecision like that on the hill can haunt you. Still, I always feel like I’m defying the odds when I can drag my nearly 200lbs of man-meat up a climb like that. Its tough to smash yourself into pieces for nothing more than a pack finish, but I just keep trying to remind myself that it’s a darn strong field and I’m lucky just to be here racing.

One more day to see some fireworks. Tomorrow is supposed to be hell on wheels so wish me luck!