Sterling Road Race – Pro, I, II and clothing review

Welcome to another race report – the 80 mile Sterling road race!  This is a classic New England event.  The course is a 8 mile loop with a long flat section on a wide two lane road that lead into a longish climb that starts out with a short steep section, then a small downhill, then a moderate rise that turns into a false flat to the highest point on the course.  After that you make a right turn onto a slight downhill that gets steeper as you roll up and down twice and then make a right turn to another road that rolls up and down a few times before leading to a faster section where you make a fast left then a hard right back onto the long flat road.   The course is fairly easy as road race courses go.  The pavement is anywhere from very good to pretty broken up on the side of the road.

Weather was a factor this year: cool conditions, 56 degrees with anything from no rain to torrential downpours.   Since I raced in the afternoon it was wet then dry and the last few minutes were a heavy rain.  Realize that when conditions turn for the worse it will take more then a few of your competitors out of the race: either they don’t bother coming, they start the race but really lose motivation or quit early.  Needless to say I like it when the competition is reduced due to inclement weather – after all the years in Belgium and New England poor conditions are better for me.

The Castelli Sottile vest is clear so you can have your race number on your jersey and it will still be scene by race officials. Little things like this make the difference.

I have been asked a few times how to dress for this type of condition so here is what I wore.  Helmet with no hat as it was not raining enough and I would have been hot.  Craft pro cool sleeveless base layer which is good for intense racing and my team jersey.  A Castelli Sottile vest (it is clear so they can still see the numbers which is a rule if you didn’t know it – I did take this off in the race when I was getting warm and I threw it to someone in the feed zone).  Arm and knee warmers from Assos as they have a fleece lining and not the straight Lycra kind some people use.  CCB Team shorts and Assos Lycra shoe covers with Craft wool socks.  For my hands I had Santini neoprene gloves(which I took off because I was getting too warm).

Dressing properly isn’t the only factor for success, how about food?  For 80 miles of moderately hard racing I ate 3 gels(whose wrappers I kept in my pockets which is a rule if you didn’t know. Plus littering makes a race look bad.  Have you ever ridden a race course after the race?  Try it, it looks bad.) 1 banana(I admit I did throw out the peel, but it’s biodegradable) two bottles with Gatorade endurance (3 scoops per bottle) and half a bottle of water (I threw one bottle in the feed zone to someone I knew and got it after).  I had no feeds at this race which lasted about 3 hours and 10 minutes.   I did have to force myself to drink since it was cool and wet since regardless of temperature I still needed the water and food.  If you tend to cramp late in a race you really need to look into eating and drinking better.

We showed up with a good size team: Dylan McNicholas, Matty O’Keefe, Chandler Delinks, Sasha and me.  Sterling usually works out the same way each year: a early break takes the race.  There is always a possible late race move that works, but in general the move will be established before half way and it will stay away the whole time.  As such our basic plan was to get in the early move.  Easy right?   Chandler took the first group Sasha the next.  It came back together (team blunder on our part) but split again on the hill with another attack which we missed (mistake number two).  Sasha set steady fast tempo and brought the break back into bridgeable distance at the start of the climb.  A few riders jumped and Dylan went with them.  A rather large group then bridged up making for a large split up the road with only one rider from our team.  A little more pressure and that group split again joined by Dylan.  For the rest of the team we made efforts to get in any move that looked like it was going to be organized and tried to make it so we could have two or more riders in the break in case the front group were to slow down.  One key thing to remember is that having your rider in a break is great but at the same time if the break is  6 or 8 guys and your team mate has a problem you do not want to block yourself out of the race because of his problem.  We lucked out, though, with no problems for Dylan.

Mid race Sahsa bridged up to a group and was able to stay out.    In the mean time Matty decided to lighten his load and threw out his water bottle when he hit a crack, therefore he was destined to ride it conservatively in order to finish.  He did a long push on the main flat road while I took a nature break.  Next time up the climb the remaining horse power in the field took off on the climb with about 4  laps to go.   We had Sasha in the middle but this group went through them on the way to the break.  At this point the race turned into a recovery ride so in order to make it worth me going I rode hard for a minute and then attacked to get in a small chase group.  We spent the last three laps riding fast and finished about 3-4 minutes down on the break.

Up front a late bridge to the break was made by a few riders including former ccb’er Will Dugan, Jeremy Powers and a few others.  Dylan’s group had been checking their weaknesses so they slowed down enough that they were caught but since they had been riding easy while the chase group Dylan was still able to power away at the end and win the race.  I would like to embellish that more but, key fact, I wasn’t there.

Coaching must be working as my client Ale won the Cat 5 race.  Dave had a good race in the p-1-2 making the move, Nick did a lot of work in the race which will benefit him later.  My masters guys Scott,Mark and Kelly rode in terrible conditions, but I am happy they finished.