Well, I confirmed my suspicions; I can descend, TT, and sprint. My climbing on the other hand is quite deficient. This past weekend I raced my first serious road race. All in all it was pretty fun.
I got 9th in the road race. I didn't expect the front of the pack to attack so hard on the first climb and especially didn't expect them to stay away the whole race. I paced myself and started picking off some of the people that started to hard on the early slopes. I blasted down the other side in hopes of catching back onto the group: no luck. Only me and one other guy were willing to work with the group and to try to pull back some time. I yoyo'ed a few times when we hit a few different hills, but consistently got back on. Approaching the finish, I was with two other guys. We had been together for a while and just recently dropped 3 or 4 more guys. I could see two more guys working together about 100 meters in front of us. I wanted us to catch them, but it didn't look promising, no one was wanting to pull this close to the finish. The last one kilometer was a climb to the line and I started putting in some effort at the bottom of the slopes. I looked back and the other two riders were gone. I broke them. I now turned my focus onto the two guys in front. It was going to be hard to bring them back. I turned it into high gear and started my sprint. One of the guys turned back and saw me approaching, he hollered to the other guy and tried to stand and sprint as well. I blew past both of them as I peaked the climb. Twenty meters of flat and I crossed the line in ninth. Come Sunday afternoon, I was very thankful I made up those four positions; the points really helped.
I wasn't really happy with my road race finish, so I was looking to do damage in the TT and gain back some confidence. I showed up right on time and was ready to suffer. As the official let go of my seatpost, I started out hard with a standing sprint. Once up to speed, I settled down into the extensions; my legs were feeling that burst of effort. I buried my head and kept going. I passed one guy, then another. I had passed three or four guys when I came screaming into the turn around. That could have gone a lot smoother and faster, but oh well. It was a fast ride; I averaged 25.6 and did the course in 18:12. It earned me second place in Cat 5 and was the third fastest time in the Cat 4's. The guy that won the TT for Cat 5 beat me by 12 seconds. Supposedly, he is pretty good and solo'd off the front of the road race for the victory. Third place in the TT was over 30 seconds back from me. I felt pretty good about my performance.
Sunday morning was the crit. The one part of the race that I was actually pretty nervous about. I've heard horror stories of Cat 5 crit's and didn't know how it was going to go. I didn't know if there would be crashes, breaks, or if I would be able to hold on. Fortunately, there were no breaks and the laps went by pretty smoothly. A few people attacked, but the were countered quickly. We played the hesitating/"no one wants to pull so let's swerve all over the road" game a few times when we hit the head wind coming down the finishing straight. Nevertheless, I was feeling good as we circled around and Frank rang the bell signalling one lap to go. Since it was the last lap, I figured I should go ahead and shift into the big ring. I had been riding the whole race in the 39 tooth: higher reps and saving my legs for the upcoming sprint. I had been focusing on number 516's wheel since he was currently leading the omnium with me in second place. Not sure where he went to in the last straightaway though because as we entered corner 3 I was sitting in third place. The two riders in front of me bumped elbows and heads. I saw the younger guy on the outside fly over the curb, through the grass, and into a parking lot. A short incline and I was coming through corner 4 in second place. Once we were soundly on the straightaway about 60 meters out from the finish line, I launched my sprint and buried my head. Approaching the line, I looked back to see the gap. I had opened up about four to five bike lengths on second place, so I sat up and cruised through the finish line. I won!
With that finish, I clinched the omnium win, won $125 dollars, and got upgraded to Cat 4 ahead of schedule. Pretty awesome day. I was pretty pumped and pleased with myself for such a good finish and smart racing in the crit. I am excited for the upcoming races in Chattanooga now. Riding Cat 4 will give me a shot at prize money for each discipline. This will make things more interesting and give me more competition.
Bring it on.
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