the scene
this weekend’s race took place at the top of a hill outside elma, wa in the shadow of an abandoned, half-constructed nuclear facility. the satsop nuclear power plant was to be one of the united states’ most ambitious nuclear power projects until public support dried up amidst growing concern about the safety of nuclear reactors in the 1970’s. much of the exterior of the plant was built, but after failing to raise the bonds needed to complete the project, it was abandoned and later transformed into a business park and workforce training center. the project was sponsored by the washingtson public power supply system (wppss) which, amid the growing debacle, rebranded to energy northwest because people started calling it “whoops.”
and, as with many weekend office parks, it also happens to be great spot for a little bike racing. erik anderson and the team at 53eleven cooked up a fun loop—about .7mi around with a ~3% grade for about 300m up the start/finish side with a ~15mph cross-headwind and tailwind or descent on the backside. we would race for 80 minutes.
the men’s p12 raced late in the day, about 5:20pm, which gave everyone plenty of time to question their solstice weekend decisions while sitting in tacoma traffic. zach, ted, and i were signed up to race the crit while stephen, twardzik, and mark were on the other side of the cascades representing the dirty side of premier in the ellensburg gran fondo.
when we did finally arrive though, the stoke was high. it was a smaller pre-reg group because one of the bigger local teams was out in tennessee racing pro nationals, but we were all excited to get on the course and start having some fun. i lined up next to chad nichols, a local kitsap county guy i met on group rides last summer who founded the gene johnson cycling team. they brought about five guys to the race and chad told me their plan was to beat me, so i knew more or less how the race would go.
the start
it did not take long for my hypothesis to be confirmed. gene johnson would send a guy up the road forcing me or zach or ted to respond. there was no other major team presence; everyone else was riding solo. we traded off covering a couple attacks but realized we would have to switch things up fairly soon if we wanted to get off the back foot. our ability to respond to their numbers was further complicated by a mechanical issue ted discovered where he’d throw his chain each time he would really accelerate (due to chainring wear and a new chain). this meant zach and i would have to go on offense.
zach initiated a strong counter move coming through the top of start/finish into the tailwind sweeper section. that drew out a selection and i followed on the back. there were three gene johnson guys, two solo riders, zach and me. we rotated for a while and established a gap on the field.
about halfway through the race, we caught on the back of them. lapping the field with a bigger group is always a little tricky because the lapped riders can help their teammates to attack the break or leadout a sprint if it comes to that in the end. the thing to do if you lap the field with a larger group is to not get caught out of position and quickly move up into a spot where you can respond to moves of anyone in your breakaway group should they go. i got to catch some rest and then since i was feeling strong, figured—why not me?
the break from the break
i launched a counterattack near the top of start/finish into the tailwind section after an attack had gone from the bottom corner. i drew out chad, and—slowly responding behind him, jesse maris, a strong junior who won independence valley road race the week before. i looked back and no one else was chasing. gene johnson was content with chad in a move, and no other individual riders seemed keen to bridge.
we rotated—or, i should say, chad and i rotated doing threshold and vo2 efforts on the climb—for a few laps until we had a half-a-lap gap. jesse was not much of a draft anyway, and with his junior gears would get gapped through the faster sections of the course. after we had a steady 50 second gap on the field, chad and i were happy to let jesse sit on for most of each lap while he pulled through on the start/finish climb.
when the clock stopped counting time time and starting counting laps to go, i started thinking about how to win the race. i knew jesse could come with me on a move if i made one on the start/finish and that this would challenge chad. i also knew from experience sprinting against him in wednesday night group ride that chad could probably beat me in a heads up sprint on flat roads (he’s got some kilos on me). but in an uphill sprint i was not so sure how it would shake out. i had been able to close a good distance on him in a prime sprint earlier in the race, so thought my odds might be good.
the finish
i decided i would hold off on making any moves until 2 to go. i knew if i did anything too far before that and he got gapped he might call the boys up and they would work to bring him back to us.
i put in a move with 2 to go on the bump at the bottom of the course. i initially got about 10 meters away, but couldn’t hold on through start/finish and they both caught back up to me. i got stuck on the front and led out the rest of the last lap.
but i still felt i had the legs for a decent sprint, so let it fly coming out of the bottom corner. the last corner comes downhill off the bump and then swings up and left into the big arching cross-head of start finish. the wind was mercifully weaker at this point in the evening so i was not fighting it as much, and when i looked back after initiating my sprint i had a few bike lengths on chad.
i put my head down and kicked hard to the line but with about 20m to go he comes up beside, and then by me, beating me by a wheel length. jesse rolls in about 10m behind in 3rd and zach—having broken away from the group—comes in for fourth.
overall, the race was worth definitely worth the drive, just wish a few more guys would have turned up. i told the race director to consider enticing more folks with mixed field events so guys could do two races in a day (4/5, 3/4, 2/3) and discount on your second race of the day like we would have in norcal. he liked the idea. either way, excited to do it again in july.