Yesterday, I raced in the UCI 1.12 Denain, France event. The race was one 8 km loop then switched over to a 10.5 km loop that we had to do thirteen times. It was very similar to a kermesse style race. The goal of the race was to catch an early break right from the gun. Bernard gave us a few numbers and teams to watch for. He also told us that the race would be fast and that a break would occur right from the start.
After signing in with the team and warming up, I found my way to the start area directly behind the lead car. I wanted to make sure that I was ready for any attempt at a break early on in the race. I positioned myself at the very front next to some of my teammates and the USA national team. Before we were sent off, some sponsors and other people I don’t know had some photos taken in front of the field. After all the pre-race photos and chit chat, the race was started. As Bernard had told us, a break occurred starting with one guy then me on his wheel and then a group of other riders that latched on. We formed a break of about 20 guys and began pacelining very smoothly. As the riders were moving forward, I noticed my teammate, Evan, who had also joined the break. We worked well until the lead cars slowed down in front of us which resulted in some confusion and the peloton catching us. After being caught, I tried staying up front and catching other counter attacks that occurred. I was able to catch a couple breaks but never got more than 10 seconds up the road. Nothing seemed to stick and I used quite a bit of energy trying to stick with breaks. Eventually, I found myself trying to recover in the middle to end of the pack and would move up a couple times throughout the first 50 km of the race. I tried one more time for a break, after moving up, sticking to a “flagged number” rider but it went nowhere. I found myself pulling at the front, with another teammate, trying to bridge a gap to a small break that was 15 seconds up the road. I used enough effort to make up a few seconds on the break that was eventually caught. My hope was to catch the break and have one of my teammates make a counter attack with a group as it was caught. After the hard effort, I found my legs had blown and I was shot straight to the back and eventually trying to stay with the peloton by riding in the caravan and drafting off cars. I still couldn’t even do that and was blown right off the back. I rode a couple laps after to cool down and try to spin out the legs.
The race was fairly fast, averaging about 45 km/h in the first half of the race. It appeared as if the pace didn’t slow down much after I was dropped at about 60 km. Now I just have to get ready for some more races this week.
