Chad Wiswald Race Report T-Town

T-Town according to Chad

To start the day off, I didn't get to warm up and my cadence was not working so once again my heart rate was 160 while I was talking to Brooks. I started in the back of the pack, not like the first race where I started at the front. We had a neutral start that was nice. After the first 5 miles, my heart finally settled in at 154 and we were going 28 mph in a big peleton. I would ride then break, ride then break a lot of 90% to 0%. My goal was to stay behind Chris but I was too far back. Finally, at the first climb, the group started to split up but I did not climb this hill in my big ring. At the top of the hill we had dropped them and it was just 15 of us flying down to complete our first lap. We had to do 3 laps of 10 miles each. I was doing good and I was behind Chris finally and starting to settle in. When we got to the hill once again, my chain skipped about 6 times and I had to put it back in a harder gear and during this time, three guys passed me. So I was running last in that 1st group. It wasn't that my gear slipped, these guys were just faster than me. The last guy was 15 feet in front of me and my heart rate was 191 and I just couldn't dig in to spint and catch him. But I told myself twice to get him but I just gave up. So at that point they just pulled away like I was standing still. At this point we were 1:11:28 seconds in the race so I finished the last two miles by myself for lap # 2. I was so tired that I ddn't know my name. I just kept riding all by myself and I didn't even know where I was. I had to ask one lady if I was still in the race or was it over. She told me eight laps to go (she was kidding)! I thought I was going to die! So finally I got my thoughts together and just rode like we do at home. At 1:19:57 I heard people behind me and I looked back and there was a huge group flying by me like I was sitting still. I could not believe that 10 people or so passed me. I was upset and said to myself that you have come this far and you are gonna get last! What a waste. So I sprinted to get in the group and caught them and pulled in behind 2nd and they broke off to the left and flagged me around to lead. I was like no, but hell no! So I broke left and got in the back and looked up and we were about to go up the huge hill where I got dropped. So we climbed and three fell off and I was tired but by this time I remembered at the top of the hill it is all down hill from there so I hung on. I made it and we started flying to the finish. I got some energy back up and I couldn't pass until this big sweeping right turn. I crossed the lane line for a couple seconds to get behind 4th guy but couldn't pass anymore. We were all too close and that's when it got crazy. 5 guys going 35 sprinting in one lane width. Wow! I would love to see that on camera. 2 inches between us! WOW!!!!!!! I got 20th.

Now that I know what to do and if I wouldn't have been so nervous and have bike problems it would not have made any difference on how I rode or my placement because there are some good riders I am just glad I survived. It does give me a new understanding and drive. Road racing is extreme. When you guys refer to me as the animal I know now what kind of animal you are referring to me as. (Guinea pig)

Finished race in 1:24:05

1754 feet of climbing

Max hill 4.1% grade

Avg Speed 21.9

Avg hrt 176 max hrt 191 power avg 253 max power 995

Chad

Brooks Gant Race Report - T Town

Tour de Tuscaloosa

Gotta give it up for Chad W., he did awesome this weekend up in Tuscaloosa. 11th place finish in the Crit and 20th in his first road race! Congratulations Chad on some great racing! And Chad summed it up perfectly in his report, road racing is extreme! When the winner of the Cat 5 averages 24 mph for the race, it's just crazy how fast these guys are. And this is only cat 5!!!! As far as my race, I think I will keep my day job!!!! :)

Our family ended up making this race a short camping trip. We left Montgomery Saturday around noon with the camper in tow and headed up to the home of the greatest foot ball team to ever assemble on a playing field, that's right, Tuscaloosa! Caught up with Chad and his family as we were entering the campground. They hung out with us as we got everything set up. The kids had a blast playing on the playgrounds before the storms blew in. Our family hunkered down and hoped our little heaven on earth (aka. Jayco pop-up) would not end up becoming a Unidentified Flying Object on the military's radar! I didn't think it was ever going to stop. It finally settled down around 9 pm.

We all still had a blast even with it raining and everybody was ready to go come Sunday morning! The wife took the kids to get herself caffeine seeing that our kids were bouncing off the walls at 6:30am! I got all my gear ready and road my bike down to the start line. Our race went off at 8:35. We had a rolling start out to the main road. Compared to last year, the first few miles were a lot easier and a lot more in control. There was a lot of "right turn" and "SLOWING" being yelled out in the field. Everybody was working together to keep it safe. I stayed with Chad during the first lap and we were situated about mid pack. About 5 mies in you could sense the pace picking up and the surges begin to happen. We were climbing hills at 19+ and cruising at 24-26. About 3 miles from the finish is a 90 degree right hand turn that is at the bottom of a hill. After the turn is about a 1.5 mile relatively flat road back to the park entrance. I knew once we made this tun, the group would be strung out and it takes everything you have to get back i the group. Well, we were all in a bunch coming into the turn and I played it conservative and ended up slowing down too much and having to max my heart rate out to get back in the group. The problem now was there was no recovery. We were doing over 30 mph to the turn in the park. Problem number 2 - a short, very climb steep right after the turn. Here I was starting to get passed. Problem number 3 - a very long, steep climb about a 1/2 mile further down. At this point I was off the back and watched as Chad went off to fight his own war. I was feeling the hurt but pushing as hard as I could to fight to stay in the second group. This group started to split up and I had to find a wheel or I was going to be in no man's land. I ended up hooking up with Steven from Chain Reaction and I was able to recover for a minute before coming through the start/finish for our second lap. Here we picked up a guy from Bob's Bikes and another guy. But Steven pulled ahead of us on the next climb. We kept him in sight the whole second lap and were pulling him back. I was riding strong but little did I know, I was using up precious fuel. I was putting in strong pulls of 23-24 mph and we caught a couple of others.

So our group grew from 2 to about 8 and we were motoring! One thing that was really making me mad during the second lap was one of the guys was pulling out of line when it came to be his turn to pull. He did it every other time his turn came up. He would just pull out and go to the back. Especially if a hill was coming up. I was thinking he was hurting but looking back, he was just saving himself. We finally made the right-hand turn to head back to the park entrance and we hit the after burners! There were about 3-4 riders that included Steven down the road and we were killing it!!! I looked down and we were going 32-33 mph but our pace was starting to slow as nobody wanted to pull anymore. Everybody was feeling the pain. I knew I wasn't going to be able to hang with this group on the following climbs so when it was my turn to pull, I cranked it back up and bridged us up to the group ahead and pulled the group of about 10 guys to the park entrance. At this point, my problem from the first lap was about to be my problem with this lap... we turned into the park and got hit immediately with those 2 climbs. I watched as about 10 spots rode off in the distance. I was cooked. I was done. I was hurting. My heart rate was out the roof. But I told myself that the 2nd lap was some of the best racing I had done and that I needed to settle in and ride the last lap as a personal time trial and not lose any more spots (that was if there were any more spots to lose at that point!).

The only racers I saw the third lap was a the leader of the junior race who flew by me on one of the hills and the Pro Women who motored by me on the last big climb. It was amazing amazing to watch the power those women had pushing up that climb! In the end I ended up with 40th place out of about 50 riders. Like I said, I will be keeping my day job. :) It seems like every race I do, no matter how I place, is always more fun than the previous. And this race did not disappoint. It was a blast! I learned a lot more about road racing (this was only my second road race) this weekend as well and hopefully I can improve.

Race time: 1:32

Avg Speed: 20 mph

Avg Heart Rate: 175

Max Heart Rate: 195 (I have never seen my heart rate this high before!)

Distance: 30 miles

Blake Gill Race Report - GSC# 1 Macon GA

I did the GSC #1 mountain bike race, Macon GA, this morning (left here at 4 am) and managed to finish 5th in sport senior men 19-29 (in 47 degree rain for half the race!). I had major mechanical issues for about a fourth of the race so once I get those under control I should be able to reach top 3.

Blake Gill