Sunday, May 8, 2011

Ravensdale Road Race 2011

Today was my 20th bicycle race since March 6th and sadly this is my 1st blog entry. Come to think of it I'm behind at least 2 ironman races, 2 70.3 IM races, and a bunch of other crap. I'll get caught up on that soon I'm sure :-)

Anyway, today's race!

Last week at Vance Creek we enjoyed dry sunny conditions, the same could not be said for today. The Cat4 race didn't start until 11:09, it was great to be able to sleep in a bit and "enjoy" slightly warmer weather then the morning starters. Today we were racing 5 laps at about 9 miles per lap. Pretty standard stuff, nothing really significant about today's course, one little hill and a couple small rollers but that's about it. At either the end of the first or second lap there was a crash in a corner, I was a couple wheels back and managed to swing wide to avoid it. I had to chase a bit to catch back on to the pack but it wasn't too serious. The rain and wet roads were awful, today was a day to stay on your toes. On the third lap I was about 4-5 rows from the front when I saw my teammate Travis off the front with 2 other riders, Jed and Jason. Jason has won nearly every race he's entered this year, Jed is very strong, and Travis is a beast. I knew if the pack didn't close them down soon that this was a breakaway that would stick, they had some serious horsepower. At the beginning of the 4th lap I moved up to my teammate Chad who was near the front. He was sitting behind 4/5 Byrne (another team) riders who were working at the front to bring the break back. I respect that they were trying but either they didn't have the legs or the heart to really do much. The race official gave us a 1 minute to the break time check around this time, I knew the worst Cycle U (my team) would finish today was 3rd, the break was going to stick. One final note on the break. Bikesale is a team that had 11 riders in the field and they made absolutely no effort to pull the breakaway back. I was truly embarrassed for them, not to even try was pathetic.

Back to me, it is my blog after all, even if I only update it once a year! Since I had Travis up the road I was able to just sit in the pack and take up space till the end. At the start of the final lap I moved back up near the front with Chad. Chad is fantastic at moving through the pack, I stayed stuck to his wheel the rest of the lap. Inside the last mile Chad was in the lead up the final hill, he was setting a strong pace and I was sucking his wheel, thanks Chad! With a few hundred meters to go riders started coming up on both sides. I was able to jump behind Paul from Recycled Cycles and actually catch my breath a little. Somewhere inside 200M a couple guys launched hard up the side, I was slow to react but I slid left and hammered it. I was able to get by Paul and a couple others but I ran out of road before I could run down the two guys who broke early. I rolled in 3rd behind these guys finishing 6th overall. All things considered I'm pretty happy with 6th. Last week at Vance Creek I finished 4 seconds off the winner but rolled in 26th and was very disappointed.



Recap:
6th place out of 72 starters + Travis took 2nd place = great day for Cycle U in the 4's.

GPS data:
http://app.strava.com/rides/529110

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonconnell/sets/72157626546701639/