The Exhale Races

August 21-22, 2010, North Wilkesboro

I remember being a student at Appalachian State, driving back to Boone from Durham and getting stuck in the famous race-day traffic jams on US 421 just east of North Wilkesboro. During this era, racing fans were still able to make a twice-yearly pilgrimage to the Brushy Mountains, dubbed "the moonshine capital of America," to watch the sport's best racers duke it out in the cradle of stock car racing. North Wilkesboro Speedway was built in 1946 to give moonshine runners a place to race their heavily modified cars, and it soon hosted races in the fledgling NASCAR series. The speedway remained a symbol of the humble roots of of the sport until 1996, when massive growth and a change in NWS ownership led NASCAR to larger and more modern tracks.

Although the speedway no longer hosts the highest levels of stock car racing, the track is still used for local late-model events. And in 2010, it became a cycling venue. In the fashion of the Ace Speedway Series and our own Ring of Fire, Pirate Race Productions began hosting twice-monthly crits on Wednesday nights at NWS, and capped off the first year of the series with an all-you-can-race weekend smorgasbord called the Exhale Races. Pirate Race has quickly developed a reputation for producing unique and challenging events in our area, and after participating in their Tour du Life in May, we had the Exhale weekend circled on our calendar. With Pirate Race offering a single flat fee for entry into any race for the whole weekend, we carb-loaded and headed to Wilkesboro to race until our legs fell off.

Saturday, August 21

After two years of time trial racing at the modern, polished superspeedway in Charlotte, arriving at North Wilkesboro Speedway was like stepping back in time. Weathered, wooden press boxes perched atop the faded metal seats of the grandstand. The single-lane road leading to the interior of the track wound behind the splintered backstretch bleachers, now overgrown with brush. We drove into the infield, not through a lit 4-lane tunnel, but straight over the track and past the red-clay stretch used for tractor-pulls. As we parked outside the metal, open-sided pit garages, it was easy to see why the speedway was no longer used by NASCAR's elite. Still, it was a thrill to be preparing to race, not around a faceless industrial park, but in a historic sports venue built for racing.

Women's Cat 4
Family life dictated that we ease into the Exhale weekend with just one race each on Saturday. Amy led things off with a 20-minute contest in her category. Toeing the line with just 4 other competitors, the quintet became a trio after just two laps of the 0.6-mile track. Amy and two others proceeded to trade pulls for the remainder of the race, choosing to forgo any attacks and hunker down for a final sprint. As the trio began the final back stretch climb (a shortage of funds available to finish grading the track during its construction resulted in a climb up the backstretch and a downhill finish line on the frontstretch), the rotation found Amy in the unenviable position of the leading the group in the last lap. Unable to shake the other two off her rear wheel, she came across the line in third.

The women's Cat 4 field heads out of turn 4 toward the start-finish line.

Approaching the 3rd turn. This shot shows the grade of the backstretch climb.

Men's Cat 4Rounding out the first day, my category shot off the line, sprinted through turns 1 and 2, and hammered up the backstretch hill. Despite my improving fitness of late, a year's worth of getting dropped early in races left me uncertain of my fate for the weekend; the fact that the track had a slight climb didn't help matters. So as the field accelerated into turns 3 and 4 on the first lap of the 40-minute affair, I began to worry that my all-too-familiar pattern was going to remain intact. As the track tilted downward toward the start-finish line, I held my position in the field and caught my breath, determined to hang with the field as long as possible. As we hit the backstretch for the second time, the field settled into a rhythm that would characterize almost every lap I raced for the remainder of the weekend: a rapid acceleration out of turn 2, followed by the entire field sitting up and slowing just before turn 3. This flow gave non-climbers like myself the chance to stay with the field without going beyond their red line. As the laps clicked by, I continued to stay with the field, albeit still antsy about whether or not the field was still toying with me and would eventually wake up and rocket away. I began to race harder at the front of the field, hoping I would lose as little ground as possible when things got frantic toward the end of the race. As the race entered 10 laps to go, I still felt good, although I was yet to realize that I was expending a ton of energy staying near the front in my still-somewhat-paranoid state. But I was already feeling that my first event of the weekend was a success, having stayed with the field longer than any race since spring. I saw the junior who won the crit at the WNC Grand Prix hanging out near the front with me, and I entertained the thought of jumping with him if he launched an attack. Sure enough, with eight laps to go he made his move, and after a split second to decide if I really wanted to jump, I went for it. Alas, my split-second hesitation was my downfall, and instead of catching on his wheel, all I achieved was upping the pace in the now-chasing field. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I settled back in the pack to try to conserve energy and hold on without getting dropped. I stayed with the field into the last lap, and as the field would up for the sprint after catching the breakaway, I realized I had burned all my matches in my failed jump a few laps earlier. I crossed the line in 21st place, but very happy to have not only stayed with the field but to have actually been racing.

Sunday, August 22

Masters 35+ 4/5

With my spirits buoyed by my race the previous day, I was excited to be at the speedway and racing early on Sunday morning. My confidence was soaring as I warmed up, although my legs still smarted from the efforts from Saturday that I now knew were unnecessary. I entered the 30-minute masters race knowing that I would need to be smarter in the field in order to conserve energy, not only for this race but for the Cat 4 race in the afternoon, which at that point I still considered my "main" event for the day. So as the gun went off, my goal for the race was to manage my efforts better though my position in the field and to avoid wearing myself out chasing breaks down at the front. Fortunately, a 5-man break went up the road midway through the race, and with a combination of tired legs and the prospect of lots more racing ahead, the field was content to let them stay away. I succeeded in my goals for the race, staying with the field, having some gas left in the tank for the final sprint, and coming across the line in 14th for what would be my best result of the weekend.

Masters under-35 4/5

Lining up for the under-35 cat 4/5 masters race

One of the nice things about the Exhale Races was its emphasis on racing as many events as possible. To that end, women were eligible and encouraged to enter men's events. Amy, being just ever-so-slightly younger than me, had targeted this race as a good warmup for the day along with her teammate Erica Chard. However, in talking to a fellow racer from my first race, I learned that masters-age racers can race down in younger masters-age races, meaning I had the rare opportunity to race with Amy. I quickly registered and got ready to do my second race in a row in support of Amy and Erica in their attempt to go Thelma-and-Louise on the dudes. Going into the race, Amy's plan was to hang in as long as possible, and my plan was to hang with her and help her if necessary.

Now, Amy has raced with guys before, but only at the Ring of Fire, where the women get lumped in with the Cat 5 guys. These races, which typically have fewer than 15 participants, tend to be a bit disjointed in that the women ride their race, the guys ride their race, and it doesn't typically feel as if they are really racing each other. This would be her first honest-to-goodness crit against the hombres, and to add to the challenge, the field was the largest of any race that weekend and included Cat 4s. My repeated beatings by her in time trials have taught me not to doubt her; however, the expectation that she would eventually get dropped seemed realistic, not due to her ability but simply that this was her first go-round in a race of this kind. So we set out at the back of the field at the start of the 30-minute event relaxed in our modest expectations. Amy was energized by being in such a large and potentially faster field than she was used to, and I excited to be racing side-by-side with her.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the finish line: it turned out that Amy didn't need any help from me at all. Apparently in her element in a bigger, faster field, she worked her way through the pack as if she had been doing it all year. She moved easily from wheel to wheel, deftly managing her efforts and responding to every acceleration. I morphed from a deputized SpokesWomen Syndicate domestique to an excited spectator, sitting on her wheel and watching her stick her nose in the middle of the pack as if she were one of the guys. The joy in watching her finish the race with the field was overwhelming, and although her placing said 30th, she finished ahead of 9 other men and achieved the most significant result of the weekend among the two of us. It was also the most fun I've had riding or racing a bike.

Amy and I cruising with the under-35 Cat 4/5 masters field.

Women's Cat 4

After the underwhelming women's Cat 4 race the day before, Amy felt that she had a point to prove in Sunday's race. After considerable debriefing of Saturday's race, her main goal for Sunday was to spend less time at the front in an effort to make the race hard when it counted. Although the field remained small, three more-experienced racers joined the three podium finishers from the previous day, resulting in a much more animated race. Multiple attacks were launched on the prime laps, including a two-up breakaway attempt by Amy and another competitor, and although none stayed away, it did serve to keep the pace high. Despite the more attacking nature of Sunday's race, the race again came down to a bunch sprint between the five who were still left. While one of Amy's Cat 4 compatriots scored a deserving double-win for the weekend, Amy punched the clock in second place after a long sprint out of the 4th turn.

Sprinting for the line

Sunday's women's Cat 4 podium

Men's Cat 4
With Amy having secured two podiums in two days among her gender, it was time for more fun. Still buzzing from the men's race earlier in the day, Amy entered my last race of the weekend, the men's Cat 4 race. Brimming with confidence, she had every intention of going for it. Brimming with lactic acid, I was shot before the race even started. With nothing left in the tank, and now knowing that Amy could take care of herself, I drifted to the back of the pack at the start and settled in to watch Amy race. The slightly smoother pace of the Cat 4s allowed Amy to deftly move around through the field, taking wheels, and even defend her position with an elbow here and there. By the closing laps of the race, she was riding in 8th position at the font of the field. She would eventually cross the line in 16th, again finishing with the field and ahead of six others. As for myself, with my tired legs unable to respond to the late-race surges, I sat up on a couple of laps so that I could jump on the back of the field when it came back around and watch Amy finish her amazing weekend.

Men's Cat 4 action

By the end of Sunday, it had been a fantastic weekend. We got to race in an historic setting in an event produced by one of the better race promoters in the Southeast. We did eight races between us in a little over 24 hours. After a season of training with little to show for it, I was able to finally stay with the field in my races and left with new confidence. Amy scored two podium finishes in the women's races and displayed the depth of her talents by racing shoulder-to-shoulder with the men. I guess that's why they call it the 'Exhale' Races...