FROM JOHN HARTPENCE
With the USA Triathlon National Sprint Championships looming just a week away, Sam and I decided to get one final tune-up at the Warsaw (IN) Criterium. The forecast leading up to the day was pretty sketchy, with t-storms predicted, but I rolled the dice on pre-registration, and seemed to be rewarded as over an inch of rain hit Warsaw before 2pm, and Sam’s smart-phone showed no rain/storms on the radar for a couple hundred miles. We left Defiance under sunny skies.
Uneventful drive, until we started noticing some nasty looking clouds about 25 miles out from Warsaw. Rain came soon after, and the radar blew up with storm clouds, but it looked like it my blow through by race time, and give us a couple hours of clear skies. Precipitation was steady, but we rolled up the race and course set up looked good and registration tent was getting the final touches, so made a quick detour to the porta-poti.
A few seconds later the “air-raid” siren went off, and a quick check of the watch showed 4:27pm. I met up with Sam a minute later, and he confirmed my worry, “a tornado was spotted by the elementary school”. The registration coordinator went into freak-out mode and we threw-in a hand to break down their set up. We rewarded ourselves with a solid dose of caffeine at the Courthouse Coffee Shop (and temporary registration area).
The rain let up, and downtown Warsaw remained intact, so I headed to the car to change to my “rain” tires, and Sam got registered (apparently he was not as confident as I was about the weather!). I got geared up and Sam returned with news that our race would go off 30 mins late, and I started my warm-up. The boring, 4-corner course was wet, but at least it wasn’t raining as I got going. Twelve minutes in, I passed the start line and they were calling racers to the line for the Cat 4/5 race (now moved 20 mins ahead!).
I gathered my spare wheels (and Sam) and headed back to the start line. They must not have felt like they had not adjusted start time enough, so they decided to cut our race time to 25 mins, which seemed reasonable, as rain started to fall again. The race referee instructed us that the course was very wet (really?!) and to “be conservative” though the corners, which seemed absurd, since the .4mile rectangle meant we’d spend over half the race going in/ coming out of corners.
The whistle sent us off a little after 6pm, and twenty-six riders took off, and the group did a good job of feeling out the corners over the first few laps. My fear (of other riders) slowly shifted to just anxiousness, and a pack of 14-16 formed, as the rain began to become heavy and very dark clouds rolled over downtown. By 6:15pm, it was dark enough that the street lights came on, and I think Sam was regretting wearing his sunglasses, as torrential downpours swamped the race and gaps split the main group into 2+3+7, with me in the middle and Sam in the 3rd group.
Two stayed off the front, while the other two groups re-formed with 5 laps to go, and figured it would be a sprint for the 3rd place prize money. Sanity ruled and the group stayed together heading into the last lap and I was feeling confident about attacking early, out of the second turn. That plan went south, real fast, as a down rider had righted himself, and seemed to be telling his crash story to a volunteer, right in the middle of the cross-walk of the second turn. This put a serious kink in my attack, as I was moving up the outside into position, and had to hit the brakes and swing ride, moving backwards about three bike lengths.
I hit it hard and was carrying big momentum as I caught back up to Sam, and moved just off the lead as we entered the last turn. The pack leader also decided to hit it hard, literally, as he went down coming into the final straight, taking down the second guy in line, and I watched them slide, as I was steadily forced to the curb. It seemed like it was in slow-motion, as I bounced along the curb, fighting to stay upright, and fearing how a crash could ruin my trip to Nationals.
A broken-water bottle cage, scuffed up rear derailleur and a misaligned right shifter was the worst of it, as I did a slo-mo wash-out, and tried to grab a small tree, to minimize my discomfort. Sam used his moto-cross skillz to avoid the crash to the inside, and sprinted to a 4th place finish, his highest ever in a mass-start cycling race! I gathered my self up, re-set my chain and still managed 10th.
Nacho’s, chicken fingers and an Auburn Lager at Mad Anthony’s Brew Pub took the sting off the last race of my summer criterium/ microbrewery tour. We were rewarded for our perseverance, by having to drive 1h45m back to Defiance through the same storm that swamped us throughout the race.
As we closed in on home base, the radio wailed to the sound of the Emergency Broadcasting System, with flood warnings for NE IN and NW Ohio, with “Localized rainfalls of 5-6 inches… including Warsaw”. The actual rainfall for 8/2 in Warsaw was
4.47 inches, with an impressive 1.42 inches falling during the hour of our race.
Next stop is round two of my summer triathlon/ microbrewery tour, at USAT Nationals. Ian, Bob S, Sam and I will all be representing Team Defiance at the Big Dance.
