Hotter 'N Hell race weekend

After many years of riding and racing bikes, one event I've never done was the infamous Hotter 'N Hell 100. That is until this year. The Hotter 'nHell 100 (HHH) is the biggest bike rally around this region with this year being the 30th anniversary. There are also several USA Cycling sanctioned events all weekend as well. Our race (pro 1-2) was actually shortened to 90 miles. Maybe due to the excessive heat this year?  I'm not sure, but in doing 100+ miles every Saturday morning in July and part of August, a quick 90 didn't seem like it would be a big deal. Another thing I always wanted to do was the Friday night criterium. It's a pro 1-2 race only and I had heard talk for many years about how big the crowds watching the race and so on.

Brandon and I took off work early on Friday so I could do the big crit. On our drive down to Wichita Falls, we started to get a little sleepy, so we stopped at a Luv's and chugged a couple of caffeinated energy drinks. It definitely helped, but it really started kicking in just as we arrived at the convention center where the race venue and expo-registration-packet pick up-and anything HHH was located. I thought I was going to freak out for a minute with my heavy caffeine buzz and the thousands of people packed into the convention center. The weather was hot. REALLY hot like in 107 or so when we arrived. I had about 45 minutes to get my number pinned and warm up. I drank a couple big bottles riding around, and put 2 frozen bottles on my bike just before we started.

Once we got going on the crit, in some ways it was exactly how I thought it would be, but in a few other ways, there were things I didn't expect. What I expected was the race to be fast, flat, and hot with a lot of spectators. What I didn't expect was how inconsistent the strength levels of the other riders seemed to be. I guess it could have been more of a heat issue than a fitness issue, but a lot of guys started popping after only about 20 minutes. My initial strategy was, since the streets were wide and pretty flat, and the fact that there were around 100 riders in the field, I would sit in and survive the heat and have something in the end as the race was 75 minutes long. The first 30%of the race seemed pretty easy. It was really fast, but sitting in and just riding along seemed pretty easy.

I really expected the race to stay together for the most part, but around half way through, it got really fast. Every time I glanced down at my speedometer, we were consistently doing between 27 and 31 MPH. The field got pretty strung out, and when I knew it was time to move up, it was a little too late. A gap opened up about 15 riders ahead of me, and that was pretty much all it took. I made it to 40 minutes and I was off the back. Just before I got dropped, I thought we must be really flying because it felt like I was still spinning a high cadence in my hardest gear, but my shifter was actually stuck in the 15. I didn't really notice it until I stopped going hard and my shifter wouldn't do anything. I pulled into the Sram pit and they were actually going to let me use one of the spare bikes and get a free lap, but I declined because I didn't think it would be right. I think I got dropped more from being out of position and fitness than mechanical problems.

Anyhow, Jose (the Sram mechanic) gave me a brand new shifter. We decided to call it a night and go hit up some Johnny Carino's. We've been lucky in that most towns have a Carino's as they sponsor our team and have really good food! One of our team mates Wayne lives in Wichita Falls and was nice enough to let us stay at his house. Getting a hotel in this town is pretty much impossible when the HHH circus comes to town.

The field for the road race on Saturday was bigger than Friday. We rolled out at 6:35 AM just as the sun was coming up. I sat in for the first 10 or 15 miles and tried to drift towards the front when I could, but I was still a little mad from Friday night's mistake in addition to I was getting a little board just sitting in. I also had a headache. It didn't really bother me when I had to focus on something or go moderately hard, but it was bad when I was just rolling along. I decided to go to the front and try to get into one of the moves that seemed to constantly be going off. Sure enough, there were constant waves of 4 to 8 riders at a time that would attack. For a while I was jumping on every other wave that took off.

It actually didn't seem much harder than sitting in and definitely took my mind off the headache. I got into 2 separate moves that were away for a little while. One I knew wasn't going to survive unless some key team guys bridged up and another that maybe could have made it...or probably not, but being in the mix is a lot more fun then just sitting in all day. Anyway, around 35 miles to go it started to get a lot hotter so I decided to be a little more conservative and stay towards the front, but conserve energy. There was a pretty good surge at the second feed zone and it seemed like after that, only 40-50% of the riders that started were left.

At 25 miles to go, disaster struck again as I got a flat tire. I looked back, but the wheel vehicle was nowhere in sight. I lost a lot of ground and after a few minutes I saw the Sram car. I pulled my wheel off and got a quick wheel change. I guess another guy flatted as well because he came by just as I was getting back on my bike.  The Sram guy did a good job motor pacing us back up, but as we got to about 100 yards, he suddenly took off to help someone else. I basically just rode the rest of the way in solo. I was pretty bummed because I was feeling pretty good and it would have been my fastest 90 miles for sure. We were averaging between 27 and 28 MPH up until the point where I got a flat.

There is a ton of races coming up. mainly crits and road races, then it's straight into CYCLOCROSS!