Lake Velo # 3 Carnation

This course was a flat course out in the farm land of Carnation. Friday night it rained all night and when I woke up Saturday morning it was still raining. Boo. I wasn't really looking forward to racing in the rain. A good friend of mine Jake Frame who used to race pretty seriously a few years ago (I'm trying to get him back into it) and seem's to know all the local racers, once told me he would never ride in the rain. Back when he told me that I didn't really understand it because at the time I was just riding the bicycle for motorcycle race training. Now I understand it. I raced in the rain and snow earlier in the year and since April I think I have raced once in the rain. That is several months of loving the sun and dry weather. I understand now Jake, thank you.

The race series is put on by Hagens Berman Cycling Team Pro/AM team which holds a few of our Cycle U coaches and seems to dominate the local race scene. The whole way up it rained. When I arrived it was down to a mist. We had a large team show up with 9 Cycle U members ready to race and hoping it would dry out. Sure enough with about 20 minutes to go the weather cleared up. We unlayered and lined up to race.

It started somewhat calm then picked up in pace. A couple guys tried getting away right on the first lap so that made the pace even faster. The next lap was fairly calm. We were doing a total of 6 laps. We came around a corner and a friend of the teams that races at Pacific Raceways and is a very strong triathlete as well as a top Time Trialist hit the deck hard right in front of me. He landed hard and I could hear the wind being punched out of him. That kinda shook me up a bit and then a lap later there was another pile up in the same corner with 5 guys taking Chris down from the team. However he was up quick and trying to get back on his bike when I went by. Every lap after that we were all tip toeing through that corner. We let 1 guy get off the front for a lap or two. The pace kept speeding up and slowing down which made staying on Rolly's wheel difficult. With 2 laps to go the "plan" was to get 2 or 3 guys to the front to hammer the pace on the last lap and then Rolly would lead me out for the sprint. Plans never seem to happen the way you want them too. None of the other teams in the group wanted to work to get the guy off the front back, so Rolly moved to the front and started putting in some hard efforts that snapped the guys back to what we were doing. We were racing bikes, not on a Sunday ride. The pace increased and I was able to get on the back of Rolly's wheel with half a lap to go. This is when the extra power from good ole adrenaline comes into play. Everyone is bumping trying to get in the best position as we came around the last corner. It was really nice because we had both lanes at 1000 meters. Normally it is only at 200 meters. I sat on his wheel as long for a little bit then everyone started sprinting by us. I moved out and went, but knew we still had a ways to go so I didn't crush the pedals too hard. I went by a few guys that sprinted to early and got behind a Hagens Berman rider. I moved over to his left on the shoulder and began my sprint. Just as I did that he moved over as well and I had to sit up. Wrong place at the wrong time. I rode across the line right behind the top 3.



It was a fun race and I finally was able to get myself in a position to try for a win. Our pace was just under 25 mph on average. My max speed was 39.7 on the sprint. Thanks to Rolly for taking control and getting me up there with a chance.

Last race of the year is in Bremerton at the Blackberry Festival on Sunday 9/06.