Taken from my club forum:
A couple of us - Jeff Erler, Luis, Brian Meadowcroft, and myself - went up to "Peach Bottom" PA this weekend to race in the cat 3/4 road race. With a name like Peach Bottom it was hard to resist. What I thought was going to be a rolling, mellow course ended up being one of the hardest road race courses I've done.
As usual, we spent some time talking about cassette choices, the course profile, strategy, and tactics. Little did we know that a lot of that would go out the window once we saw the course! We showed up almost 2 hours early to see the start of the women's open and the 4/5 race. I'm still not sure whether the decision to pre-drive the course after the 4/5s was a good idea, but off we went to check it out. At this point the 4/5 race had 7-8 minutes on us and we knew we'd catch them and pass any stragglers. Barely 2-3 miles into the course, the carnage was already becoming apparent as we were seeing popped riders hanging off the back of the pack and unable to catch back on. Long story short, probably 25% of the 4/5s were dropped on the first lap. This course was muuuuch harder than the course profile suggested. It was very intimidating just to drive the damn thing, riding it was going to suck big time! There was one great part of the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs - as one of the dropped riders was suffering off the back, a group of dogs came up and started nipping at his heels while he was in the red zone! Awesome image, you had to be there to get the full hilariousness of the situation. I was tempted to bark out the window as we drove by the poor guy.
As we lined up for the race, the self deprecating excuses starts in earnest - no one was very confident they will be finishing this one. It seemed like it would be a race of attrition and as we rolled off, mood was great but confidence was not particularly high.
The race starts on some nice rollers and I begin paying attention to who is in the race. The main person I was marking was Jeremy who now rides for Haymarket, so I was trying to stay near the front and near his wheel. Although I can't really follow him if he really wants to go, he does not always get tactics right and it's possible to stay close. The four of us, Luis, Jeff, Brian, and I were all pretty much together for the first part of the lap, but in short order the center line rule was ignored and people were shooting up the far left side of the course and all came around me. I did not want to be at the back of the pack up the climbs but looks like I would be.
After the doing the first lap it was very clear that the course is as hard as we thought! I put down personal best 2 minute power pretty much each time up the main climb. The other climb wasn't a slouch either, I actually think it did more damage because if you were close to the rivet the false flat that followed would pop you.
A couple more laps into the race, and I was sure that the next time up a climb would be my last. As I looked around, the group was shrinking each lap but somehow managed to stay with it. Overall the pace of the race was not fast, with a couple of moves going off the front here and there. I did not have the confidence to try and bridge and one time Luis went off the front and I at least went to the front and controlled the pace of the race. I would rotate into the front and just ride tempo, when people came around I let them gap me so that others were forced to move around me. Yeah, a little cheap but the point was to let a break get established and not just have the regular old race. Jeremy tried to "bridge" up to about 5 different small groups but instead dragged the whole pack with him... sigh.
By the time the last lap came around, though, I was getting more confident and moved to the front and began to really watch my position. On the last climb there was three off the front that we probably wouldn't catch and the chase group split into 3 different groups. I ended up in the 2nd group and accelerated out of it after recovering a bit, making sure not to let anyone sit on my wheel. I reached the front chase group and started to position myself for the sprint. I knew people would go too early, and when everyone jumped out of the saddle I stayed seated and in their drafts until the last 50m or so and sprinted for 5th in the group, 8th in the race. Pretty happy with that result given my winter training and how much more season is in front of us. One place out of the points but $30 richer! Luis bagged 18th and although he was disappointed, I think he's doing awesome this season and will have his podium finishes really soon.
Overall, this is a great race, highly recommended. Next year I'll play around in some of the breaks of the front for sure.
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