IVRR 2010

This is what Independence Valley Road Race looked like this time last year.

This year it was fantastic, mid 50's and sun. A huge relief compared to what we endured last year. Which by the way is still my #1 worse day ever on my bicycle. The race started on the wrong foot for sure. During the neutral roll out the lead car decided to take a quick left hand turn into some driveway. This almost caused some 60 racers to hit the deck. That was a little annoying that our lead car didn't know where they were going but kinda comical too. No harm no foul. The job for Shawn, John and myself was to keep Jed blocked out of the wind and put the hurt on the other teams. The first climb is 2 miles into the race with a 5% gradient and that broke things up a bit and I was able to get closer to the front where Jed was. Once we were on the flat section on the back side I moved right to the front and had Jed get on my wheel. I set a fairly hard pace and Jed had to tell me to slow down a couple times. I rotated out and let some other teams take some pulls. A couple Bikesale.com guys went to the front and got a gap on the field and I jumped up to the front again and brought them back. It was fun being the grunt and I was just hoping as my legs began to burn a couple times that it would pay off and make the field smaller. The 2nd climb really isn't much and only has a 2% gradient so we all stayed together. The race was going to be 2 laps with each lap being 20 miles. I hadn't seen any other teammates so I figured they were in the 2nd group and it was just Jed and I. Come to find out later Shawn flatted 5 miles into the race. Total bummer. The pace on the first lap was pretty fast and from what I heard after the race that 2nd group stayed fairly close for a little while but lost touch before the 2nd climb. I am not sure if my brain was not working but again I decided to go on a flyer. At the time I was thinking I would go hard before the climb in hopes of making the field chase me. I stood up and sprinted off the front and got a good gap then sat down and started pacing myself. A guy bridged up to me and tapped me on the back as he went by and said come on. I jumped on his wheel and we worked together and got a nice little lead on the main field. I was starting to tire pretty quickly. I sat up and told him I was done just as we came around the corner for the 1st climb. He actually gave me some encouraging words before I sat up so that was real nice of him. As soon as I saw the climb I knew I was done. At that point I cussed myself for going on a flyer. The main field went by me and was gone up and over the hill. I struggled up the hill and got to the descent and really tried my best to catch back up to as many guys as I could. I passed a few and then messed up on the right turn at the bottom of the hill and lost alot of momentum. I was confused as to what the volunteer was doing at the corner. I thought she was pointing at the car that was coming and that had stopped but she was actually pointing me in the direction I was supposed to go. Oops. I ate some food and recovered a bit then set out on setting a decent pace and catching as many as I could. I came in and finished 24th out of 50. Jed was able to finish in the top 15 but its hard to say what would have happened if I would have stayed with him the whole race. You know the "don't leave your wingman Mav" feeling. I hope the pain I suffered during the first lap caused some others pain as well.

I get a weekend off of racing which will be enjoyed with the wife and dogs camping somewhere away from the city, then busy again training for Walla Walla next month.