2006 Dead Dog Stage
Race
June 24/25, 2006
Complete results here - road race - crit - TT
Stage 1: Road Race
Stage 2: Criterium – Stage 3: Time Trial
The Dead Dog Stage Race takes place in 
Sheri, the boys, and I all drove up in the RV and stayed at the KOA campground. After setting up camp, Derek and I left the RV at 8:30 p.m. and biked over to the race headquarters to check-in. We didn’t get back until 9:15 and were starving, since we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I didn’t get to bed until late that night, but I didn’t race until 11 a.m.
The next morning I slept late and dropped off my spare wheels with Ed at the hotel where he was staying. This was conveniently only a half mile from the campground. Ed graciously let Sheri and the boys use his car during the race. I biked out to the start and warmed up a bit more with the team. We staged for the start and it was a neutral roll-out for the first mile until we got out onto the highway. Our course was a simple out-and-back.
I stayed well back for most of the way out and nothing much happened out to the turn-around. A few escape attempts were launched, but the pack reacted immediately and nothing got away. It would be that way all day. On the first hill the pace went really high, as expected and a few guys got popped off the back. I talked with some of these guys after the race. They were pretty cool about it. They ended up sprinting each other to the line for 39th place.
After 45 minutes or so with pack just rolling along casually,
the subject of a pee stop came up. I don’t know if Busacca initiated this
or not, but he always has to pee in a long road race and so do I. When the
group wouldn’t stop for a pee, Chris and I and one other rider headed to the
back of the group to pee while riding. I’m getting this down pretty well,
but I can’t pee while actually pedaling. I drifted way off the back as I had
a lot to pee. Chris would pee, pedal a few strokes, pee some more. I need
to get this technique worked out. By the time I stopped peeing, I was 200-300
meters off the back. I wasn’t that worried with the back moving pretty slow,
but also because I could see a Rocky Mounts rider looking back and keeping
a watch on me. I TTed it back towards the pack and saw Ed Messman drop off
the back and wait for me. When I got on his wheel, he towed me the rest of
the way to the bunch. Sweet. Thanks, Ed. It was about
the only team tactics of the day from any team.
After the turn-around the pace went up, as expected, but the group stayed together. We had dropped a few riders by this point, but I don’t know our size. I’d guess we still had 35 of the 39 starters and maybe more. I was keeping a watch on Chris, ready to support any attack. On the first big hill (“big” being relative here) on the way back, Bruce and Scott attack, hard. The group reacts, but can’t match the speed of these guys. Chris and I and the rest of the group rode wheels up the hill while three riders had a gap (one other rider joined Bruce and Scott). It all came back together shortly after the top of the hill, tough.
On the next hard hill, we let the other teams do the work for half of it and then Scott attacked solo. He got a good gap, but he’s no time trialist and he wasn’t going to solo 15 miles to the finish. He helped hurt the group, though. All these attacks and accelerations whittle down the number of people who will be able to sprint at the finish. It might not break up the group, but it does take riders out of contention at the finish. At least that’s my theory.
Chris and I and a Vitamin Cottage rider tried an attack and
strung things out nicely. We rotated throw a couple of times, but didn’t have a
break, so it was just us three working on the front, so we sat up. It was
frustrating, but that’s what the course dictated. After that I’d be riding
along at 115 bpm. That just seems so strange in the middle of a race, but it
happens in bike racing. There were two guys wearing
As we neared the finish and figured on a pack sprint, our plan was for Scott to lead me out and Bruce to be the sweeper – the guy who rides my wheel and makes sure I don’t have a good sprinter on my wheel. Of course the pace was very fast the last two miles. I was on Scott’s wheel and he took me to the front, but then we slipped back quite a ways and the finish was approaching. Scott was boxed in front of me, but Bruce was to my right, so I asked him to take me to the front. He did a great job of this, but it definitely hurt his finishing position. In retrospect I feel very bad about this, but more about that later.
We passed 1000 meters to go and were really flying now. Around 400 meters to go, I found Gene’s wheel near the front of the
group, and he launched out hard. I couldn’t hold his wheel, but found
another. I was still seated because of the distance to go, but working as
hard as I could. I could see Gene going strong to the line and he was in front
of everyone with Mike Bowers (Sear) chasing hard. I can usually go with these
guys, but today I just didn’t have another gear. I stood up and made my final
push, passing Tim Cody (Sear) near the line. I noticed my family cheering
me on about 50 meters before the line, but couldn’t produce anything better
than 6th place. Gene got nipped at the line by Mike Bowers, but
held on for 2nd. Ed Messman was on my wheel at the end and finished
9th. Chris Busacca finished 10th. He always tries to
so hard to break up the race and get away from the pack. He’s fast, but a
pack finish isn’t his specialty. Still we had four riders in the top ten.
And four riders ahead of the 2nd placed Sear rider, though that
doesn’t matter much since most of the lead pack got credited with the same
time. Scott finished around 18th.
Now, back to Bruce. Bruce is a very good time trial rider, and should finish very high in the G.C. for this race, but I put him at a disadvantage. The work he did for me at the very end of the race caused him to get gapped, slightly at the finish. He finished 22nd and only a couple seconds behind 21st, who was credited with the same time as the leader. But since the officials ruled that a gap was opened on Bruce, he got a separate finishing time, which was 20 seconds behind the leader. This hurts our team effort. If I had done my job and finished ahead of Bowers, it might have been worth it, but I failed there and now Bruce, and our team, is at a disadvantage. My excuse is just not thinking about all three places for the overall G.C. at the end of this single stage. My bad, Bruce.
So the situation going into the 2nd stage is that Bowers (Sear) leads the race. Gene is in 2nd place, 10 seconds back, due to time bonuses. Third place is 10 seconds further back and then 18 riders are tied for 4th before we get to Bruce, who is 50 seconds down from the leader. Bruce can TT faster than Bowers, but the race is 11 miles and maybe not long enough to make up 50 seconds. Plus Bowers is a good crit rider. We need to keep him out of the top three spots. The other dangerous Sear rider is Tim Cody. He has the same time as most of the field, 30 seconds off Bowers, but he is an exceptional time trialist. Right now Sears could put two riders very high in the final G.C. But Gene is a very good time trialist, as well. In general, he’s stronger than Bowers and he’s a better crit rider than Cody. Gene needs to be in the top 3 in the crit to take any time from Cody, since the same 30, 20, 10 second time bonuses apply in the crit. Cody won’t be in the top three in the crit, but he will finish with the pack, so the only way to gain time on him is to finish the crit in the top 3.
We covered the 48-mile course in 2h02 minutes for an average speed of over 24 mph. The course had a total of 1415 feet of climbing, which is pretty flat over such a distance. Our course was supposed to have a 9-mile climb and over 3000 feet of climbing.
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Stage 2: Criterium
Our 30-minute Criterium started at the very early hour of 7
a.m. The course was in downtown 
There was a strong wind the night before and driving rain around 8:30 p.m. I got to bed at 10 p.m. because I was waking up at 5:30. Even this probably wasn’t early enough for a proper preparation to go super hard for 30 minutes, but I couldn’t wake up early enough to eat right anyway. The pros never have to race this early. At the Tour de France the stages never start before noon. I ate a light breakfast and had some coffee. I left the RV around 6:25 a.m. with my spare wheels in hand and rode over to the start. I warmed up by looping the course. I wore knee warmers, armies, and a light team jacket, but stripped off all of these before the race.
Sheri rode over to cheer us on and take a few photos. I gave all my extra clothes to her. I staged near the front, but the street was so wide that nearly the entire field could fit across it, though we didn’t stage like that. I was disappointed to hear that Bruce had to return home last night. Apparently he had some serious hail and water damage at his house. Bruce is a very strong time trialist and would have placed high in the G.C. Our best shot now was Gene, Chris, and I for high G.C. points.
The gun sounded and things went fast from the get go. I suspect some riders were dropped on the first lap. I was probably halfway back in the group, but I don’t like being there and moved up to the top ten by the second lap. I’d spend the rest of the race in the top ten and most of that time in the top five. There were 5-3-1 second primes at the halfway point and at the 5-laps-to-go point. I specifically ignored these primes, making no acceleration at all. It would have been nice to get the time bonuses but I suspect the effort would have cost me too much in the end.
Busacca tried to get things going a few times. He’s the only guy more vocal than Bowers. Actually, Bowers does most of this talking before the race starts. Busacca does his talking during the race. How this guy finds the breath to talk so much is beyond me. After the second prime, a group of 5 riders was off the front. They were the ones that went for the prime. Busacca says, “Chase that down, boys. There goes the race if you don’t.”
Scott attacked a couple of times and shook things up. Scott is an extremely good all-round rider. He’s probably the best climber in the state in our category. The previous weekend he won an Expert class mountain bike hill climb by the ridiculous margin of 3 minutes. He would have been 3rd in the pro category. It’s just silly that he races Cat. 4 on the roads. He’s a small guy, but has a vicious sprint and is a tremendous time trialist, despite getting schooled at the Cherry Creek TT series, as we’d see later in the day. You wouldn’t know any of this from talking to him, though, and he’s an exceptional teammate, always volunteering to work for someone else, usually me. Considering that I’m not half the rider he is, that sounds a bit silly. The one thing I can maybe do better than him is to sprint. And if that is true, it’s only because I outweigh him by 35 pounds.
I might not have the top-end speed and power to really be a successful crit rider, even at the Cat. 4 level, but this year I have learned how to race them effectively. I stay near the front the entire race, but I never go to the very front. Staying at the front allows me to take the corners without any braking and without any sprinting out of the corners. I ride wheels the whole time and conserve my energy. If a break goes away, I wait for someone to chase and jump on his wheel. I’ll work if I get in a break and I did take a turn at the front in an earlier breakaway attempt with Busacca, but it wasn’t happening.
In a 30-minute crit the pace tends to be extreme the entire time. Our group got strung out early and Ed was far enough back that a gapped opened up between him and the lead group. He didn’t personally get gapped but someone in front of him did. Now it is a much bigger gap to jump across and you might not notice it for a moment or two, in which the gap only grows. At the speeds we were going, you need to close this gap down right away. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and Ed was dropped. He didn’t get lapped, but it was close. He was just ahead of the leaders as we finished. Many riders did get lapped and they proved to be a major hazard in the race, causing riders to alter their lines. In the final sprint there we passed a number of them and it was confusing enough for Sheri that she thought Ed got 2nd in the race! In a normal crit, these riders would be pulled from the race, but since this was a stage race and you had to finish the current stage in order to do the subsequent stage, they let all the riders stay in the race. Some of them were smart enough to pull off to the side when we came by, but this was definitely the exception.
On the second to last lap, Chris pulls up next to me and asks, “Where’s Gene?” We wanted to get him a good line to the finish because of his sprint and his placement on the G.C. Of course, I didn’t know since I hadn’t seen anyone who wasn’t in the top 5 all race. Gene would tell me later that he got on my wheel with three laps to go, but apparently he got moved off it. I told him to find my wheel two laps from the finish and I guaranteed him a clear shot at the victory. But he wasn’t there.
With just over a lap to go an unattached rider attacked hard.
The peloton didn’t react and he got a good gap. Busacca urged riders to chase
it down and then he followed that up with action. He took the lead and led
through the first two corners of the last lap. I was on his wheel, but not
coming around. Then a big Colnago rider went to the front and took up the
chase. He went hard and strung the peloton out nicely. He led us through the
chicane and then the final two corners with me on his wheel and a strong Vitamin
Cottage rider on my wheel.
As we came around the final corner with probably 700 meters to go, the Colnago guy started sprinting. I was still on his wheel working as hard as I could to stay there. We were closing fast on the escapee. He wasn’t going to make it. It was a bold move and I admired it, but even more I wanted a good finishing place. We blew by this guy and closed on four or five lapped riders. Vitamin Cottage made his move on the far left. It was a great acceleration and I couldn’t match it. I stayed on Colnago and then made my move with 100 meters to go, but I just missed getting him at the line. I even did a bike throw. Later, he wasn’t sure if I got him or not, but I knew. Still, I finished 3rd, my second best crit finish ever. I gained a 10 second time bonus as well. Unfortunately, I found out that morning that I forgot to sign in for the first stage the day before and was fined $10 and 10 seconds, so my bonus just got me even with the rest of the field.
By the time we finished, the field of 33 starters was trimmed down to just 17 getting the finishing time, with Chris Busacca taking 12th. Scott finished 11th and Chris was surprised that he passed him. I knew Scott had a strong sprint and nothing that guy surprises me. Ed had to finish a couple of minutes down, since he was down nearly a full lap. Gene had some trouble finding a line and then got squeezed by another rider against a much slower lapped rider. He still finished 7th. I can’t help thinking that if Gene was on my wheel, he would have come around both me and the Colagno rider for his second consecutive 2nd place finish. Oh well.
Stage 3: Time Trial
Our TT start time was determined by our road race finishing
time. Hence, I would start 6th to last with Gene 2nd to
last and Bowers last. The course started 11 miles outside of
This TT required one foot on the ground at the start, which usually has me at a disadvantage since I’m retarded about clipping into my pedals, but today it went pretty smooth. The TT course starts off downhill so it makes it easy to get into a nice rhythm. The course undulates a bit and I think I even got into my small chain ring at one point on the way out. At the turn-around, I could tell I was maybe 20 seconds down on Keith, meaning he made the turn 50 seconds ahead of me. After the turn, I could see that my 30-second chaser, who was maybe 30 seconds behind me, was getting passed by another rider, which means he had made up 30 seconds on me already.
I struggled a bit on this ride. I couldn’t get my heart rate much above 160 bpm despite trying to suffer. I think I was more leg limited here. Maybe the crit that morning had taken more out of my legs than I thought. My hopes were very high entering this TT, but I basically got schooled. Most of the top riders had fancy wheels, but this guy behind me and Keith did not. On the way back I saw Scott either getting passed or passing someone. It turns out he was getting passed, but by a guy who would finish in the top 3. Scott passed him back on the way in and finished the TT in 4th place with a great time of 25:15. I could tell he was flying along. He’d end up with the best G.C. placement on our team at 5th overall.
On the big climb near the end, I switched to my small chain
ring and spun as fast as I could. I knew the rider behind me had to be closing
in and I hoped to hold him off. No such luck. He passed me on the flat section
before the final climb to the finish. I worked hard to try and stay close,
but he finished about 5 seconds in front of me, or 65 seconds faster. I finished
with a time of 26:20 for the 11-mile, 400-foot of climbing course. This was
only good enough for 11th place and took me out of the top ten
for G.C. I lost time
to Keith, but not much, about 10 seconds. I went back to the finish to watch
the rest of the team come in. Ed and Chris finished strong with times just
over 27 minutes. The last three finishers were the Vitamin Cottage rider who
was leading the race by 16 seconds, but Mike Bowers was only 15 seconds behind
him and had started a minute later. Gene got passed by Bowers and finished
20 seconds after him in 26:22. With his time bonus of 20-seconds, Gene finished
9th in the G.C. I ended
up 11th. But Sear finished 1st, 4th, and
6th. We got smoked at this race and we expected to smoke them.
Our lack of TT strength hurt us. Thank goodness for Scott!
Sear’s top rider rode a 24 minute TT and ended up winning the race. That’s a smoking time. With the flat road race and the crit, it basically came down to a TT for G.C. Time bonuses mattered greatly, but if you weren’t in the top 3 in the previous stages, then the time trial was the whole race. For me, this race ended up being about the stages and not the G.C. My third place finish in the crit, made the race for me. I scored some points for the team, as well, placing 3rd on the team in the G.C.
| Rider | Road Race Place | Crit Place | TT Place | G.C. Place |
| Scott B. | 10 | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| Gene P. | 2 | 7 | 12 | 9 |
| Bill W. | 6 | 3 | 11 | 11 |
| Chris B. | 11 | 12 | 16 | 14 |
| Ed M. | 10 | 26 | 22 | 21 |
| Bruce P. | 26 | DNS | DNS | DNS |
