Labor Day weekend by Angelo Catalano
Going into Savage Hill SR my confidence was a little low. I hadn't really had a decent finish in any of the tune-up races although I followed a very basic consistent training schedule. I wasn't sure I had proved to myself I was ready. But after I got to Lancaster with everyone there was no more time to look back, but time to look ahead and get it done.
Stage 1 was a new stage, a six turn crit with half of the course on bricks. I was about mid pack for the first part of the race, which bad since my chances of being behind a crash were pretty high. The crash inevitably happened, but in a very unlikely part of the course. As I made my way through I saw it involved Mullins and Shawn, and knowing the front split saw this too, feared the race was over for me being in the second group. Jimmy, George and I picked our way around the slow wheels. Some how we got back on and the race was together again. I was really happy, and now just wanted to finish safely with the group and get the same time. After an hour and 3 laps, stage 1 was over and I was feeling good about the race.
The Stage 2 TTT was again another modified course, but nothing I hadn't ridden before. We had only practiced the TTT twice, and today we had 1 substitute teammate and 1 less rider. Tactics were kinda out the window, but the plan was to keep Phil for 1 lap. Well unfortunately Phil was gapped off on the hill in the first lap. After we descended and didn't seem him, we decided to drive on without him. The whole TTT I was worried Jimmy was going to put Rob and I into crisis, but Jimmy held himself back. I was actually feeling great and Rob was good on the first part of lap 1, but needed to pull less on lap 2. Jimmy and I saw this and maintained a good enough speed to not lose lots of time and keep Rob out of real trouble. On the last 2 miles the 3 of us drove it hard. We finished last, but the key was the time spread, which was around 3-4minutes. Not that bad.
Stage 3, the dreaded Savage Chicken course, where I was dropped here last year on the first climb out of town, then again on Savage Hill only to abandon the race after 1 lap. I had a demon in the course and that friggin' goofy chicken song they played pre-race conjured up that bad dream. Warming up the legs felt really heavy, I was asking around and no one else felt that was. I got very nervous. Shawn saw this and told me to take off my HR strap, knowing I would be even more anxious seeing my HR shooting through the roof, it didn't matter what my HR was, I had to just do what ever I had to get over. I was actually held up slightly by the Lake Effect bike swap and had to carefully negotiate a guy who crashed into that. I knew everyone up front wanted to create a gap if possible at this point, so I put everything I had into the rest of Savage, I bombed down the decent which put the front group in site. I went up Chicken Coop with what ever it took and kept the pace going. I knew that if I caught them before I recovered I would be okay. I hooked up with Scot Thor from Stark Velo and we towed a few other back to the first group within 3 miles of town. I was so happy. I would just sit in as the racing wasn't going to happen again until Savage Hill. I again didn't make the selection, but could see them up the road. It took longer to chase as the pace was set a little higher now, but I kept chasing, again Thor and Hibel from Lake Effect among others formed a nice working group. I got back on after some courageous descending before Savage. Once I was back to the group, I made my presence known, Mullins passed the word, and also gave me a pep talk. I had made it to Savage with the lead group, but the course demons struck. I cramped in both quads the first time I stood on the steep. Done. I was forced to get off. After some choice words I drank a bottle and walked up. After I climbed back on I felt okay and Chicken Coop hurt, but didn't kill me. I wasn't chasing anything at this point, just trying to limit the gap. Rob was with a group and I latched on and road in with them. I saw that some guys were also interested in sprinting it out, I was mad about this, so Rob and I led a charge from behind and made sure we got the same time as them. I was still really pleased with the day, but I lost about 8 minutes to the lead group.
I don't have much to say about stage 4. I didn't make the selection up Firetower the first time. The gap was too large and what I couldn't do was drive it on the plateau or down the hill. I was miserably dropped and my moral never mad it over the hill. I don't know what was harder, working for what I had personally accomplished the day before or deciding to throw it away by abandoning.
The Savage Hill SR was a much better experience for me this year. I started out really strong, but just ran out of gas at the end. I had a lot of fun though, and it was great to watch the rest of the team have some personal success as well.