Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

[DavidB]

Enumclaw, Washington is a cool place. We just got back from the stage race there, and it was certainly a learning experience. It was my first big race, and consisted of a prologue 10km time trial, a 30 minute crit and a ~70km road race. We headed down on friday morning, set up camp and went for an easy ride along the time trial course.

Time Trial:
A flat course with one out of the saddle roller, it was a fast race. Napkin math says that I averaged just under 40 km/h over the course. The hill was the worst part, because you had to hammer the whole way, and accelerate over the top, or you would lose a pile of speed. I finished in 15:54, with the leader 1:49 ahead of me. I'm really happy with that result, because I felt like I prepared well, went into it warm, and did about as fast a race as I could have.

Crit:
I think this was my best race. Cat 4 was a whole lot more competitive than I had expected, and so I rolled up to the start line with a bit of swagger, and a vague plan of a brave solo flier about halfway through the race. Those ideas dissipated quickly. I managed to get into the front row at the start, and got around the first corner in the top 10, and then everybody blew past me. I spent the first ten minutes or so clinging to the back of the field, then got dropped as they sprinted for a big bottle o' beer.

I got probably 20 seconds off the pace, and spent another 15 minutes slowly working up through the stragglers, picking up a wheel , and then passing them, and made it back onto the pack again just as they showed 5 laps to go. The pack immediately accelerated again, and I just clung to the back, and I got dropped by about 2 seconds at the final sprint, I was really happy, and as Lister said, I probably tried to cling back on longer than any sane person would have.

Road Race
Oh man. On Saturday, the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Sunday, not so much. The heavens opened just as we were packing up our campsite, and so we were racing in the rain without rain-gear. Off the start, I was really happy with my positioning, up in the front 15 but out of the wind. Once we hit the mountain, it was a whole new story. It was a ~3km long climb, never extraordinarily steep, but very long. I got dropped about half-way up the hill on the first lap of the course, and Paired with two other guys to try and catch the pack on the nearly 4km descent, but it was not meant to be. Because of restricted junior gearing, the Two adults were able to easily pull away from me on the downhill, and I spent most of the descent cold, alone and unhappy. At the bottom of the hill, The course turned left, and I turned right. About 3km down the wrong direction, I flatted, and spent a long time waiting for the neutral car that would never come. I ended up walking about 4k back to the start line and took a Dnf.

Massive thank-you's go out to Lister for coaching and keeping us sane, Jim, Catherine and Bob for driving and feeding, Jeff Ain, the provincial team coach for advice and helpful jeering on the climb.

Another big thank-you to everybody in tripleshot for supporting us, from training with us to donating gear to sage words of wisdom.

David

Ammendium; Also, I now have black, blue and white argyle sunglasses. I win.

[Lister Farrar]

Good report David!

Here's mine:

Enumclaw report

The Mutual of Enumclaw stage race is one of the oldest races in the northwest, and is on the list of must-do races recommended by the provincial coach Jeff Ain. It’s a 3 stage traditional time format stage race, with TT, criterium, road race.

And a huge list of categories: from Pro 1,2, through separate cat 3, 4, 5 men, cat 12,3 women, cat 4 women, and masters 35+, 40+ and 50+, u15, and u13. All bunches were manageable sizes; big enough for fun, not so big to be unwieldy.

10 Tripleshotters rode, 7 juniors, 1 u23, and 2 masters 50+. The juniors were Brenna Pauly, David Brown, Chris Macleod, Una Farrar, Sophie Donachie-Parks, Duncan Grant, Taylor Ellison, and u23 Luke Koolman. Jim's and my category (50+) didn’t conflict with any of the juniors' races, so we rode too.

Evan Carey was also there with the provincial team, and ex-TSr Adam de Vos was there with Red Truck.

We camped next to the tt start in the Enumclaw expo grounds. Well kept place with nice washrooms and hot showers. And interesting Americana too, like field lacrosse games in the posh stadium, 4h club teens washing their cows, and a gun show. Enumclaw is 40 miles south of Seattle, set in dairy country, with a stunning view of Mt Ranier standing over the courses. Small town with only two hotels.

Results included:
• Luke Koolman (u23, cat 3 men) finishing 7th in the road race, and 14th overall. And a great influence on the younger riders who noted how meticulous he was in his preparation.
• Taylor Ellison (cat 4 men) finished 15th in the road race (out of 53 starters Sat) after jumping (yes, bunny hopping! (Ex-downhiller)) a rider who crashed leading into the wet last corner. He was contending for the pack sprint win, and though he cleared the fallen rider and landed it, his feet came out of the pedals and he lost 13 places before he could get them back in. Taylor ended up 16th overall. In the rr he also had to close a gap from the third group to the main bunch chasing the solo break. Awesome.
• Brenna (jnr, cat 4 women) was 11th in the TT, second best junior and BC rider, but fighting a bad cold that would eventually take her out of the rr. Her crit was also impressive, riding at the front all race, and 9th in the finish out of 28 riders. Nice voice for ColdFX commercials though.
• Chris Macleod (cadet, cat 5 men) started modestly in the TT with no aero bars (hadn't practiced with them). But hung with the main pack for the criterium, and then showed some natural climbing talent, finishing 18th in the road race, in the front half of the very split-up field, and 18th overall. His ride was even more impressive considering he has been going through a 4 inch growth spurt this spring, and a related Achilles problem that has severely curbed training.
• The ride of the day Saturday was David Brown in the cat 4 criterium. The pack was big, and fast, and David was getting rubber banded at the back. A lot. Then a split happened in front of him, and he was in a group of 10 or so, off the back by 50 metres. But he didn’t give up and managed to chase and close the gap, and finish in the same time as the winner. Gutsy, gritty ride.
• Duncan Grant has had great legs in training, but it wasn’t clicking up to expectations at the race. But he’s a great teammate, always ready, manages his bike well, a great asset to the team, and fun to have around. It will come. Mostly he needs to be more assertive in big bunches (got caught behind splits in the crit and rr), so will be doing more A rides.
• Una and Sophie, both 13, were in their first races, and were second and third in each stage, in a field of 4. But they rode in combined packs of 20 in the crit and RR and acquitted themselves well. Both have just started training this spring with Central Middle School team, and were up against riders who cross country ski all winter, and ride very serious bikes, and arrive in team vans. Best of all, they were into it, and all ears when the older riders spoke at team meetings.

http://gcracingllc.com/2012-mutual-of-e ... tage-race/

Thank yous:
• Aero bars: John Dower, Al Wilhelm, Barton B
• Driving and vehicles, camping equipment, meals: Bob Ellison, Catherine Grant (hotel room on the course which riders used to shower without going back to the campground)), Jim Pauly, + yours truly
• Licenses for last minute decisions to enter: Tara at Cycling BC

[barton bourassa]

Congratulations everyone! Great reports, great read. Thank you!

Barton.

[luke.koolman]

After a great weekend of racing I am happy with my results, and this event has given me a good confidence boost going into provincials weekend. I would also like to put out a huge thank you to everyone involved with this weekend and long before, back in the cold winter months where the real training was done. I am very impressed with all the tripleshoters that raced this weekend and could not imagine a better group of people.

Thanks again,
Luke