Monday, April 27, 2009

Vance Creek Road Race 4/26/09

Leading up to this race I was a bit worried. I don't think I gave my body enough days off the bike to recover. I did a team ride on Saturday that I probably shouldn't have done, and ended up bonking on the ride. After the ride I had to head over to Downtown H-D Buell for there grand opening of the new store in Renton. I couldn't believe how many people were. The new store is very, very nice and they are doing well so hopefully we will fire that hobby back up here this year and get out on the race track. Once home I put some Icy Hot on and tried massaging my legs and laid around watching tv. I tried really hard not to walk around the house unless is was an absolute must. Shawn and Mike showed up around 6:30 and we headed out Elma, WA. The course started at the old Nucleaur plant which was quite interesting and pretty cool to see up close.
The race started with a down hill and then led out onto a windy farm roads with alot of chip seal. I moved to the front and hung out there with Rolly for the first lap. After we climbed up the hill to complete lap one I couldn't find anyone else besides Rolly and me. Mike, Mark, Shawn, Tim, Chris, Doug, where was everyone? Well looks like it was just us. We completeled lap two and then Mike pops up and says "hey whats up". I was like, "where you been man I was looking for you". He then tells me he was right behind me the whole time. Apparently I didn't even see him. As we got up the steep kicker at the finish line we began our decent for the last time. There were several attempts to try and break away from the pack throughout the race but every time we brought the break back, it was going to be real hard to get away. My legs felt good and Mike and I decided to move up to the front on the down hill and then we talked about maybe doing a sprint on the down hill. We both knew it wouldn't work but said why not. So I sprinted off the front of the pack and went hard for a bit and then tucked in and coasted. I checked my speed right after I sprinted and it was around 42 mph. We were moving pretty good. Of course the pack caught back up and we were swallowed again. I paced the pack for a bit along with Rolly. Neither of us wanted to be at the front. As we started climbing the hill to the finish I knew I didn't have the legs to sprint up a steep hill. Rolly got blocked right at the 200 meter sign which could have cost him a really good finish. Mike took off and I just chilled up the hill then tried to put something together but didn't have it in my legs. We all finished in the pack and Rolly was in the top 15 I believe. All in all kinda a non eventful race but it was a good time. The whole team finished and nobody DNF'd so that was great.

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