Brown County Road Race

Jake and I drove down to the Bloomington, IN area for a taste of some early season Midwest road race action this past weekend. Here is his race report:

Brown County Road Race

Ted and I made the drive south to Nashville Indiana for the Brown County Road Race. The course was a closed 6 miles loop inside of the state park. It starts with a screaming descent, followed by two climbs, about 200 ft each, and false flats back to the finish.

Only 11 of us showed up at the line for the Cat 3 race. I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride the course, so when it was off, it was all new territory. The descent caught me off guard and I had trouble finding a good line. Basically, you are going 50+mph, then you need to stick a steep right followed by a sharp left, then its smooth sailing. I actually got dropped but managed to bridge back up as I can now see the descent lines clearly from the others in front of me.

After the first climb, it is only six of us remaining. To be honest, I feel terrible. I had food poisoning less than a week before and I am not 100 percent back on form yet. Coming into the next lap and series of climbs, I’m worried I might actually be the next to drop off the peloton. I managed to pace myself really well and stay at the front on the climbs feeling much better.

Finishing the climbs on lap three, I get to the front and keep the pace up, hoping to shell anybody on the fence. The 15y/o junior (Andrew dillman, redzone cycling) takes my cue throws down a punishing attack. I am the only one who goes with him. Eventually the race gets back together, but other 4 guys are clearly fatigued from the attacks.

On lap four, we finally shell one of the riders making it 5 of us. On lap 5 he manages to claw his way back up to us at the foot of the climbs. Unfortunately for him, he lasts about 5 seconds before we drop him again, as well as several others.

For the remainder of the race it is just three of us, 15y/o, some 130lb guy and me. I keep the pace hot on the last climb hoping to sail away, but it’s not enough to break anything up. Instead I just get stuck on the front. I’m on the front for almost two miles. I flick my elbows begging for somebody to pull through. I start riding erratically, slowing then accelerating to no avail. Then 15 y/o attacks hard and makes a huge gap. We chase and it comes back together with about 300m to go. 15y/o makes the jump, I grab his wheel, but ultimately run out of real estate. He wins by less than a wheel length. My calves cramp like crazy and I feel like I never really got the full power into my sprint. Oh well, it was a great race, clean course and a few points toward upgrading.

-jake