Week 12: Nogales Bicycle Classic

Racing bicycles is a lot harder than normal people think.  One thing that makes bike racing different than other endurance sports is that in bike racing much of what happens is in reaction to other riders.  You cannot control or predict when you're going to have to do a maximum effort, or for how long.  Plus, you have no idea when you'll have to do a maximum effort again.  Put enough of those maximum efforts together in close enough succession and people break.  The strange thing is, often people break because of the unknown factor, not because they're unable.

Shane, Greg, Rich and myself at the start of the NBC.

That's why it is important to be the person dishing out those attacks, instead of responding to them.  If you can dictate how the race unfolds then it's so much easier emotionally and mentally.  You pick how hard to go, when and for how long.  You decide how to rest and when to go again.

This past week was the Nogales Bicycle Classic, my hometown "race."  It's not a sanction raced, it's classified as a Gran Fondo by the USAC.  But, in my opinion, a race is when you have two or more people riding together.

For NBC (Nogales Bicycle Classic) I had three teammates with me.  Since it was my hometown race and my anniversary, they picked me as the guy to work for.  It was my job to win, their job to set it up for me.  We had a few contingency plans for the race, but as the race unfolded, I ended up in a break away about 3 miles into the race.  Around mile 5 or 6 another rider caught me and we worked together until I started to hammer on him.  I dictated those attacks, the duration, location and frequency.  And I'm glad I did, it really sucks responding to those things!

Our plan was to break up the race on the first hill, about 3 miles in.  Shane, Rich and Greg set a furious pace up the hill and I was sitting in.  It was hard just following their wheels.  But, when I saw my friend Jacobo on the side of the road taking a video on his phone, I had to belt out, "ROCK AND ROLL!" as loud as I could.  Here's a video of that:

Steeper than it looks and I was actually hurting pretty good...but I had to belt out a little rock and roll! #aggressrides #fearthebeard #nogalesbicycleclassic

A post shared by Philip Brown (@gruveb) on Mar 25, 2017 at 5:24pm PDT

So I got away on the downhill part and my teammates blocked.  One guy got up the road and caught me.  We had a long way to go!

The thing is, I actually feel bad about how it all unfolded.  Because I had two teammates riding behind me, trying to bridge up, I didn't need to really work with Alfonso, the guy who caught me.  But if I could stay away and break him, then I win.  If we don't stay away, then we have a 3 on 1 situation and we break him.  Either way, I'm in a good spot and he's in a bad spot.

So, when we "worked together" I made sure I went a mile or two per hour slower than he was pulling.  I also made sure he pulled on the uphill portions and I did so on the downhill.  Then, when he could see me, I hung my head and looked tired.  When I was behind him I coughed and spit and coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed.  I wanted him to think I was dying.  And that deception, is what makes me feel bad.  I don't like to deceive people for personal gain, even though it's perfectly acceptable in this application.

When the time came to go, I went.  I attacked and attacked and attacked.  Eventually, Alfonso, who is recovering from knee surgery, had enough and called Mercy.  He told me to go ahead, "You win," he said.

Alfonso came in 2nd and my teammate Shane came in 3rd to round out the podium.  It was a good day on the bike!

Originally I had planned on racing the 112 mile version of the NBC, but because Tour of the Gila is about a month away I need to really dial in my training these next few weeks.  I can't totally trash myself on a brutal route and distance like that because I would miss several days of training to recovery.

Here's the gopro footage of the race:


These next few weeks I need to really dial in my diet and training, especially my sleep.  I'm not going to step on a scale until after Tour of the Gila.  At this point I need to be as strong as I can be.  That doesn't give me license to pig out, but the weight doesn't really matter at this point, nothing I can do about it now without losing power.

I appreciate your time reading and I hope it's been informative and or entertaining.

Until next time!

Oh, and here are the last two videos from last week's TBC.