The Tour of Tucker County road race is listed by Velo News as one of the top ten hardest races in the country. It definitely lived up to it's legend. Over 34 miles, the course climbs about 5,000 vertical feet, and by the end I felt completely wasted.
A teammate and I rolled into the parking lot for registration about 2 hrs prior to the start of the race. After we picked up our packets, we pre-drove the course, and got back just in time to get dressed and fill our bottles. The hill leaving the registration area was deemed UNSAFE to ride down, so we had a neutral roll-out to a starting point. On the way down the hill, it was SO STEEP, that people's wheels were heating up enough to blow out their tires!! By the time we made it to the starting line, the Cat 4/5 wheel car was completely out of spare tubes and CO2 canisters!!
The race started pretty uneventfully, and we made our way towards the hills. Ryan (teammate) and I stayed somewhere around the front 1/3 of the field. About 3 miles in, we reached the first major hill. From bottom to top, the hill was about 7.5 miles long. I thought Ryan had popped about 1/4 of the way up the hill, so I decided to maintain my pace, and lead a small chase group up the hill. A few miles up the hill, Ryan came flying past me, pulling me and the rest of my group the rest of the way up!! Once atop the first mountain, Ryan and I worked together, pulling a group of 8 about 20 miles through the race. It was frustrating at times, that nobody else was willing to come up and share the workload....but such is racing, I suppose.
Everything went well for us through the rolling section of the course, including a kick-ass downhill that lasted for a mile or so (I love carving through high-speed turns!!). We stayed strong, and led all the way to the final, 4 mile climb to the finish. On that hill, we saw a max grade of 34%, and sustained nearly 20% for almost a mile. The hill was brutal. In fact, it was obscene. At one point, I actually saw 2.7mph on my speedometer. Needless to say, I was cooked at the top. Ryan finished just in front of me (I think he waited for me...), so we took 26th and 27th place.
I was a little disappointed in my performance. I had hoped to finish a little stronger than I did. I think I'm going to take a few weeks, and train aerobically. I may be overtraining during my rides a little bit. Maybe next time, I can find a race with a few less hills!
