UCI Masters World Road Championship report

All the social media stuff today is really cool but it forces me to tell my stories in explanatory mode rather than with some suspense. Today for example, Kevin knew within seconds of my final attack that led to victory that I had made the move and just where on the course it happened. One of the race moto’s with a reporter on the back of the motorcycle tweeted “Race leader Canada's Robert Anderson attacks SA's Paul Furbank on the climb just before heading right towards Table Mt pic.twitter.com/rO9RlBAT” (actually, the picture he took is pretty cool, not really a poker face, I was hurting. I was also in stealth kit mode as I learned a few years ago that the last thing you want to wear at worlds is anything with rainbow stripes on it.). Anyway, let’s see how this story goes.

It was hot (a little more than 90 degrees), windy (circa 20 mph), just enough climbing to be selective (5,100 feet), and just long enough to fit into my wheelhouse (96 kilometers). I had written this script many times before but there was a twist this year. Ya see I have gone back to work full time and I don’t have the fitness I’ve had for the past eight years after retiring from the software business for the first time in 2004. Instead of 5 ¼ hours of riding every day, it’s now every night after work for 3 hours and 15 minutes on the Computrainer. No more riding outside, it’s all indoors to get the max out of every minute on the bike. And it still leaves me short of what I could do in a race 12 months ago. It may sound like I’m complaining but that’s not my intent. All it has done is made me race smarter. It’s no more finding a good place on a race course to ride away from everyone and stay away. The physiology is more of an even match, now I have to really think through the entire race and try to win with my head instead of just my legs. Even here in South Africa there is no escape. Each evening after finishing the day training on the race courses, it’s been five to six hours trying to fulfill my work obligations. Of course that all makes this win that much sweeter.

There’s something else too, my body is breaking down. I have a degenerative hip and I am scheduled to have a full hip replacement on October 15^th. I am lucky though, it affects my time trialing but not my road racing, at least not so far. So the only pain I feel in a road race is the same pain everyone else is feeling; the legs, lungs and heart.

Back to the race … The plan is pretty straight forward; probe early on any climbs, but only when it’s crosswinded or tailwinded, sit up in a head wind. These pressure points do two things; see who’s paying attention in the group, and start to build fatigue.

After gaining G2 from the probes, force a selection. I knew long before the race started where I would do this. There was a 9 kilometer climb 25 kilometers into the race and the steepest part of it had a dead crosswind. Attack from the back of the bunch and gutter everyone.

Hey, it actually worked. Five of us got a gap including the guy that finished right behind me by just under a minute in the TT two days ago. I strongly suggested to the other four that this was the race and we needed to go. As usual I took the initiative and drilled it for the next two kilometers to make sure it stuck. This time I allowed an echelon to form, no guttering. There was still 70 kilometers left to race and I needed help. Interestingly, the next time I looked back there were only three of us, the other two had popped. The question was, “is three enough?” Only time checks would tell.

Off we went; me, my TT buddy Paul, and a Norwegian. I pulled, Paul pulled, the Norwegian sat in. As you can imagine, I had a few words with the Norwegian. He said something back in Norwegian, I don’t think he understood or spoke English. I’m guessing he was making some excuse why he wouldn’t pull through. On the next steep pitch I punched it, not an attack but a little test of the Norwegian. I looked back and he was gone. It was now Paul and me and there was 65 kilometers of high wind, heat and pain ahead of us. Paul was up for it.

So this was the second to last step in the plan. Work the break and figure out how to win out of it. Time checks were critical at this point to see if we were blowing ourselves apart only to get caught and maybe dropped or had the rubber band snapped.

Five k’s later the first time check came, one minute forty seconds. That’s good. Five k after that came check number 2, 4 minutes 20 seconds. What!!!

I screamed at the moto “are you sure???” Yes she said, “4 minutes 20 seconds”. The elastic had snapped but Paul wisely said not to trust the moto. I’ve been there before and agreed whole heartedly. We put our heads down, pushed it hard each sharing equally.

The course is more or less a lollipop and we’d just finished the loop and were headed for home. There were 35 kilometers to go when we got the next time check, 6 minutes and 40 seconds. There was now no doubt who was going to finish first and second but of course far more important was who was going to be first and who second.

Now for the final step in the plan …

A couple of the great things about staying with Molly and Rob Van Houweling are they love racing and are truly a team and Rob is the most amazing support person anyone can have. I have been very lucky the past two years to share accommodations with them and Rob just takes care of everything to do with my bike and racing for me without me even asking. I don’t think I would have won the TT without his help last year and certainly not the road race today without all his help. Thanks Rob!

The reason I point this out now is that Rob convinced me to make my final attack at a particular point on the course. It amazes me how well he understands my strengths and weaknesses on the bike and how well he understands racing a bike. Of course so does Kevin and last night he too strongly suggested I do the same. How foolish of me would it be to ignore these scholarly men.

So, right on point I gave it everything and there it was, caught on Twitter.

But guys like Paul don’t simply throw in the towel. About 1 ½ kilometers later I crested this second to last climb with a mere 20 seconds on Paul and I was in extreme pain.

So who was going to crack first?

A kilometer later another of the motos pulls up beside me and says Paul’s 100 meters behind. I’m not making any progress.

I’m seeing black spots and trying to force everything out of my body. The same moto is beside me again and says it’s 200 meters now. Suddenly I find myself thinking ‘on this road surface, at this speed, on this grade, how much time is a 200 meter gap?’ Are you kidding me, you idiot! I give my head a shake and get back to pushing the pain because it doesn’t matter now, I’m all in.

If I can make another kilometer on these final rollers, it’s all downhill for about 9 of the last 12 kilometers with a pretty much flat final 3k to the finish. I can out-TT Paul at this point and, as you already know, I did. The final spread was 1 minute 56 seconds, plenty of time to really post up and celebrate for the last 100 meters.

So I finally got my hat trick, I have now won a world championship on the mountain bike, in the time trial and the road race. I am happy.

One final note, in our little B&B here in South Africa we won four rainbow jerseys. Cale Reeder won his TT beating a local legend and disappointing the South African fans, and Molly Van Houweling is my new hero. She won her TT on Thursday with the fastest time of any woman and kicked butt today winning her first rainbow jersey in the road race. Awesome!

I’m tired now and need to go to bed but I want to say thanks to all my friends and family who flooded my inbox with congratulations. This win is for my buddy Chris Lyman, I hear you’re continuing to kick ass in your recovery. I want you back at the world championships soon.

And finally to Jill, Claire and Lea, thank you so much for supporting me and letting me dream to do what I did today. I know it’s not easy when we eat at 9 o’clock at night and you know I love you all so much.

Thanks, Rob

 

55-59 96km
1 Robert ANDERSON 02:59:42
2 Paul FURBANK 03:01:55
3 Johan SPIES 03:10:19