Two Wheel Blogs

OK that's it. I said I would do it and I did. I've submitted my upgrade request. If it's approved today's State Road Race will have been my last race as a Cat 5.

And it was a good race. There were over 40 pre-registered and I think just about every one of us turned out. I took a quick look over my shoulder at the start line and was impressed by the size of the crowd lined up to race there.

I set just two goals for myself for today's race:

1. Stay with the lead group
2. Finish well

See how far I've come in my short racing career? Only a few weeks ago my goals had more to do with survival: not getting dropped and not crashing. From there my goals morphed into gaining some level of control over my surroundings. Bicycle racing is an activity where you can learn quickly.

Come to think of it, you'd better learn quickly. Repeating the same mistakes too many times can become very painful. And expensive.

So, today's race. I was genuinely surprised at how easy the first hill seemed today. It nearly killed me in last weekend's pre-ride. For some reason today I had no problem sitting 3rd or 4th wheel all the way up. Maybe they were just taking it easy. I reminded myself not to waste too much energy.

A lot of good that reminder did me. Once we got over the top we settled into a tempo pace just short of 25mph.

And that pretty much set the tone of the race. A fast pace on a rolling course would keep breaks to a minimum. In fact there was only one attack anywhere but on the last climb, and we brought it back quickly.

So much for conserving energy. I quickly devised my "only hope" strategy. I took a few turns on the front. The idea I had was to push the pace when the road turned up. Not to attack, but to just push it a bit. I really hoped this might soften up some of those legs behind me. In the end I don't know if that strategy paid any dividends, but it was about the only card I had to play because the way this race was going it was going to come down to a sprint. I knew I had no chance if that happened. You play the cards you're dealt.

The big climb pretty much broke things wide open. Two guys made it over the top together and started working together. At first I thought one of them was a team mate so I sat on the wheels of the dozen of us who formed the chase group. As it turned out the one I thought was John was a rider dropped from another field. Back to the front I went. From what I could tell they looked strong. We'll never know whether the two of them would have managed to stay away though. A mechanical ended their chances though. Put it all together, and that left about 15 of us as the lead group for the last 12 miles.

Those 12 miles featured rolling terrain followed by a big descent, and finally a relatively flat 4-5 mile run to the finish. I looked around and saw the same 5 or 6 guys I'd been at the front with the whole race. They looked strong.

They looked big too. The race had unfolded as perfectly as possible for them. The sprinters were licking their chops. From that point I knew my best shot was to hold whatever wheel looked fastest and hope for some opportunity, however unlikely that might be.

We turned the final corner, a hard off-camber left-hander and our speed headed toward 30mph. Just as I started to crank it up a couple of riders bumped elbows on my right, sending one onto the soft shoulder. Somehow he managed to keep it upright. I guess that gave him a needed shot of adrenaline, because the next thing I knew he was sprinting away from me. I got the wheel, but I ran out of road. I could only get my front wheel to his bars at the line.

Fifth place was mine. The guys in first through fourth earned every bit of it. Congratulations to all of them.

And congratulations to everyone else who raced today. Each and every one is a success in his or her own right.

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