Early Bird #2

If this entry were to have a subtitle it would be, The lesson of suffering and then sprinting.

The race was a bit faster this week. The field was also about double the previous one. On the third lap this big dude went by me up the middle following another guy and so I thought he'd be a nice big body to draft off of. He was, but he also wasn't stopping when he got to the front. Since I was already there I figured what the heck, let's see what happens. The group didn't react and so I thought maybe we've have a shot to at least stay away for a lap or so but it was not to be. The guy on the front of our little three man train pulled until the exploded. The big guy I was following did the same. When it was my turn the group had brought us back so to ensure I wasn't towing the entire group I just swung the hell off the front and drifted back 10 or so places.

But that effort hurt! And I never even stuck my nose in the wind. Those two guys were super strong and should have took much smaller pulls trying and I think the three of us could have organized enough to stay away a bit longer.

With three laps to go I was in the pain locker so I decided I need a good set of wheels to follow and just sit there for a couple laps. What do you know, that actually helped! I recovered a ton and after turn 1 I moved up 5 or so places. After turn 2 I moved up another 5 or so until I found myself in the top ten for turn three, which is really the last turn because 4 is a huge sweeper. I ended up beating a couple guys in the spring which really surprised me. Mainly because I suck at sprinting and I remembered these guys for being super powerful in Cross races.

So, I finished about 7th or so out of 40 guys. A group of three attacked after turn three and ended up holding it. I had no idea that we weren't all together. I'm more stoked about the lesson I learned, which is, even if you're hurting and it's hard to hold wheels, if you suffer through, you might be able to recover enough to do decent sprint at the end.

Oh yeah, and Freddy Rodriguez won the Pro, 1, 2, 3 race in a bunch sprint. He and Danny Holloway left the rest of the group like they weren't moving. It was awesome to see up close!