The Mental Game

Yesterday was the Tour de Moore, a brutally fast 99 mile road race in the sand hill region of NC, it was a good race for me, but more on that later.

The night before the race I drove to Greensboro and stayed with my teammate Craig. Craig's wife is a Sports Psychologist and we had a brief conversation on the mental aspect of cycling. I was talking with her about a problem that I and many of the Athletes I coach have, the ability to remain focused during a race. She told me about exercises and drills that can help with focusing during races.

The conversation lead me to think about many races in the past that I could have placed much higher in had I simply focused on what was going on and remained mentally sharp.

Fast forward to the next morning and the start of the 99 mile road race. The race started out with around 80 riders, including all of the local big hitters and the 3 large/strong teams that seem to control all of the races. Craig and I, being only two strong had a good but ambitious plan. We were going to make sure that one of us was in every break that formed no matter how big or small. It was a good plan and we both raced very well, together we were in no fewer than a dozen breaks. We made the tactical decision not to work in any of them, unless there was a likely chance that they would stay away. After all, we were doing enough work covering all of those moves.

Part two of our plan was to mark 5 riders that we felt were very likely to be in, or cause, the winning break. We did a great job of this, for the most part. At about 70 miles into the race, I was taking my turn near the front covering while Craig was taking a rest further back in the field. Thats when it happened, I lost my mental sharpness, my edge, my focus I am not sure when it happened, or how I was probably day dreaming or focusing on the pain in my legs or my butt or whatever it was. By the time I came back around and decided to participate in the race again, to my surprise there was a break, gone, out of sight! I don't know how I missed it but 3 of the 5 guys we decided to watch were in the break!

Craig rejoined me near the front of the race and we took turns trying to both latch on to attacks and attacking ourselves, anything to get up to that move. Unfortunately, everyone else was either trying the same thing or was riding to keep the rest of the field together (teams of the break riders).

So the best we could do is try for the field sprint, which was going to be tough since neither of us are great sprinters. The run in to the finish was fortunately extremely technical with about 8 corners in the last 1K, a railroad crossing and a hill. We had a good position and Craig was on my wheel with 1K to go. I floored it up the hill as hard as I could, caught a good wheel and expected Craig to come around me at any moment, but he was bumped into the gutter in one of the technical corners. I managed to hold on for 6th in the field sprint giving me a 15th overall.

It was not a bad result and a great day of racing for us both. The moral of the story is that if I had remained focused and followed the wheels of the guys we were supposed to be watching, I would have made it into the winning break, a guaranteed top 9 finish, probably better. In a race with $4,000 in prize money, it was a costly mistake. So practice your mental skills and your focus, make sure you have your "race brain" in gear when you take the line, it makes a big difference.

US Open Gallery

Last Saturday I went with Tonya to watch/support her racing in the US open. It was a crazy day. If the crowds, press, top teams/racers in the country and tough race course wasn't enough to get her going, we woke up the morning of the race with 2 inches of SNOW on the ground! The promoter wisely delayed the race one hour and it ended up being clear, but still cold.

Tony did great, considering the competition, she was a "survivor". Only half of the starters finished and she rolled in a very respectable 38. Her two teammates finished 32 and 34.

It was a great race and we will definitely go again next year where I will once again, without a doubt, be spectating.


Its hard to tell who she is, but anytime you get on the jumbo-tron, you gotta get a picture!