So last Saturday was the first race of the season... I didn't really plan on going, but a last minute itch got the best of me. I hitched a ride down there with Mike & Collin since they were going anyways. This race was about a 4hr drive from Wichita Falls (living in Texas has given me a new appreciation for just how big this state is), it wasn't long before someone threw in a spice girls CD. We rocked the Spice all the way to the race and then cranked it up a little more in the parking lot while we were changing. I don't think many of the other guys in our race took us very seriously after that, joking around at bike races sometimes seems to be fround upon.
While the music was blasting in the background and we are getting ready to rock & roll the weather was hovering around 35 degrees. When we rolled out I was the only idiot without anything on the legs, outside of lots and lots of oil. Call it stupid, but it goes back to racing in Europe... It just seems harder to go real hard when you have loads of clothes on your legs. It took almost no time for me to warm up though, I rode on the front for a little bit on the 9 mile stretch taking us out to the large loop (where we would then do 2 laps) and got the legs loosened up. Once we hit the big loop the attacks were pretty persistent until a small group of guys finally stuck it. They stayed away till we hit about the last quarter of the loop which put us on a small, torn up farm road with a nice cross wind. The pack got lined out and we slowly brought back the break just as we were coming up to the feed zone at the end of that stretch. After that we hit two sharp power climbs with the second one being a bit longer than the first. They were long enough to hurt quite a bit (especially the second, being as I was told this was a flat race these came as a surprise to me). Since the break just came back, the attacks started coming again and the first attempt went on the first climb. I made that break and we jammed up that climb and over the other side into the bottom of the next climb where we got sucked back in by the pack. Then someone else attacks and splinters the field, I dropped a little to far back and ended up in the second group over the top but after a few minutes we were able to bring ourselves back up to the lead group.
That was pretty much the hardest part of the race for me, going into that second climb over LT made things a little tougher than normal. We dragged along fairly slowly for the second lap till we hit the farm road again. At this point I had long past needing a nature break and every bump on that road was making the bladder scream. It got to the point where just pedaling was tough, I came real close to just pulling over and taking care of business. While I was focusing on avoiding any big bumps, a group of five got up the road unbeknownst to me. They were out of site pretty quickly as I never saw them... When we turned off the large loop, we had one final climb till we shot down to the finish. Two more guys decided to make a go for it on that climb, one of those guys I had marked and wanted to be on his wheel if he went. Well, I was... but as soon as I got out of the saddle the bladder was about ready to burst. I was faced with a decision of going with the move and putting a nice dent in my dignity (as I was wearing white shorts) or just sitting back down and let them go... I chose the latter... not sure why, I really want to win... but maybe with a little more class...
I came in with the demoralized field and sprinted for 3rd in the field sprint and 10th overall... out of the money... again... Dang it!
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