A Tour of Granite Country

Richmond, Albany, and Avon Minnesota
Tour of Granite Country Saturday July 18, 2009
by: Quinn Williams

This year I decided to add something new to my racing schedule, and settled on a road race.  It’s been my habit to stick to dualthons, time trials, cyclocross and mountain bike races during my racing season, and I thought it was time to shake things up a little

I chose the Tour of Granite Country Race that took place in Richmond, Albany, and Avon Minnesota, close to home. The race was a two-day three-stage Omnium Points Race, consisting of a 56 miles of road, an 8 mile time trial, and a 60 minute circuit race. Sounded like a fun weekend, so I eagerly signed up!

One minor issue to work out before the race: I don’t own a road bike and I don’t have pots of money. But I do a cyclocross bike, a time trial bike, and one new Supernova bike frame, so decided on an easy fix — I’d just convert my cyclocross bike into a road bike by swapping out the tires.  Here’s my story, and I’m sticking with it:

Saturday

Perfect weather for a 56-mile race — cool with minimal wind. As I pulled into the parking lot, I was surprised to see the amount of racers who showed up. It’s late in the season and it seemed odd to have such a large turnout, but I was happy to be there. I got my gear in order, set up my CycleOps trainer, and started to warm up.

I was feeling really good. I had rested my legs for the past few days and I was feeling strong, fresh, and eager to get started. The racers started to line up at about 10 am, so I made my way into the pack and established a strong position.

The horn rang out and away we went! We started out at a nice easy pace around 20 to 22 mph, but I knew that would change once the attacks started. I was still near the front of the pack at Mile 5, and remember thinking “Hey, this isn’t so bad. I can keep this pace up the entire race!”

I was still hanging tough in the pack at Mile 10 as we began to climb a rather long hill. I was glade that I had my cyclocross bike. The crank on my cyclocross is much smaller than a road bike crank, so it made going up the hill a bit easier at a higher rpm.  During the climb I gained a few positions, but that changed very quickly once we crested the hill.

As we hit the top of the hill and started our descent, I soon realized why it was important to use a road bike for a road race … I was feeling like I’d foolishly shown up with a knife for a gunfight.  My smaller crank in front made it impossible to keep up with everyone else during the descent. With a large number of racers behind me, I looked down at my bike computer that read 40 mph.  The combination of the hill and the descent forced the pack was to split up into many smaller groups.  I knew if I wanted a fast bike time I needed to be the with the lead group so that I could draft off the other racers, but as I approached the bottom of the hill I soon realized that was just not going to happen. I was now riding alone. Another group hung in about a block behind me, so my choices were obvious: Either ride harder and hope the larger group ahead of me would break up, or find a new group to draft off of, or slow down and draft off the riders behind me. My choice, right or wrong, was to speed ahead.

Near Mile 20 I caught up with a group of 6 riders. I jumped on the wheel of one of the riders and began to draft and managed some recovery time. Around Mile 22 we ran into another group who had recently crashed, and as I passed them I saw one racer lying on the ground bleeding and receiving medical attention. (Followed shortly thereafter by the sight of the ambulance racing him to a local hospital.) We later learned he had broken his collarbone and a few ribs, which also managed to puncture his lungs just before the concussion set in.) 

My plan was to hang with this group and launch an attack at Mile 55.  As time went on we all began to share the responsibility of taking the lead so we could draft off one another.  I was still feeling pretty good, even though I overheard some of the other racers talking about their aches and pains. 

We soon rolled by the 55 Mile marker and I decided to launch my attack near the very end. At this point I figured I could out-sprint the other racers in my pack. With only 5 blocks to go, I took off and brought up my speed to about 23 mph and headed for the finish line. In line with Murphy’s Law that anything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong, almost immediately both my legs began to seize up in massive cramps. I could barely move the pedals! As I slowed up to a crawl, several of the racers in the pack passed me up.

I came across the Finish line in 2 hours and 55 minutes, with an average speed of 19. 42 mph. I was hoping for a faster time but I was glad I could still walk. And, I still had another day of racing ahead of me.

Sunday

At Sunday morning’s time trial I was happy to at least have the correct bike for the race. I chose my Salsa El Go Go time trial bike and I was hoping for a Personal Record.

The time trial was only 8 miles so I was hoping for a very fast time. I know that during a time trial you are racing the clock and are not allowed to draft. We were lined up and released one by one in 30-second intervals. The beginning of the course was flat and fast, and I was reaching speeds of 28 to 30 mph during this stretch. But soon came the hills and wind that very quickly slowed me down.  During the last few miles I passed a few racers, which was encouraging, and I ended with a time of 21:30 with an average speed of 22.69 mph.

A few hours later began the start of the 60-minute circuit race. The course was a 5.65-mile loop, and after the first lap the judges would determine how many laps the race would run, based on the performance of the last place person in the group. 

Once again we all lined up to get a good position, and at the sound of the horn we all rolled out. The pace was much faster than the road race and attacks were made soon after the first lap. At this point I stopped remembering much about the race, being overly concerned with a possible crash or envisioning myself flying off the road! At times we were taking the corners very fast, and I do remember seeing a few handlebars making contact. Overall, I really like the circuit race. It’s sort of like a cyclocross race, minus the mud, grass, sand, and hurdles.

The race ended up being 16.68 miles, and I had an average speed of 22.2 mph.

Results? At the end of the 3 stage races I ended up in 24th place.  I was hoping for a top 10 finish, but all things considered, I am happy with the end result. Would I do it again? Yup.

Quinn Williams