This is the first year I have done the Dogwood road race. I examined the topo and noted the climbs. I was fully aware of the amount of climbing to be done today. I even put my 25-12 cassette on. I thought I was pretty prepared. Lets just say you have to see it to believe it. This is the toughest course I have ever raced on. Without going into a play by play I'll just throw out some general observations in no particular order.
Fast, crap that was a fast start for a 100+ mile road race. Not having much experience racing in the "A" race since I'm a suck ass 3 take it how you want. The start was f'ing FAST.
Quite a few people were dropped before we summited the first climb which was HUGE!
I was feeling great, almost too good if ya know what I mean. At the start of the race I was one of the silly people up front chasing people. About 35 minute in Brewer asked me how I was feeling and I told him I wished we were 1:35 into the race. Not good since we had at least another 4 hours ahead of us.
These guys can climb. We're going up these dare I say hills big chain ring style. Some were steep enough to throw it in the 39, but when there was a surge you better be tough enough to get back in your 53 cause the group ain't wait'n.
One would think that the second lap would be more tame cause of the smaller group and ~55miles of climbing in your legs. Wrong. First climb second lap. DRILLED IT! The surges started again. I kept myself up near the front and was fine.
Man, these guys get more and more horse shit with each other the farther along the race progresses. By horse shit I don't mean poop in the road, or people being mean and calling each other names. This is a term I use for those times in the race when the attacks start, and people counter, and there is chasing and PAIN all with the intention of dropping people out the back! The anticipation of "horse shit" behavior is the worst. It is almost a guarantee that when there is a climb 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up someone will attack and then counter and then hammer at the crest.
All in all this is a great course and I will be back next year. I ended up finishing 8th. Yeah believe it, 8th in a 1/2/3 road race. I wasn't just sitting in, I continued to chase/attack for the duration of the ~110 miles. I learned so much from this race and have a new respect for the 1/2 field.
