The alarm started going off at 4:30 am Saturday morning. I decided to save some money and head to Sequim the morning of the race with a couple other teammates. I met Shawn and Tim at 5:30 at Shawn's place and we went down to catch the ferry at 6:10 am. Getting out of the car to see all the other cars on the boat, 90% had bikes on them. Then I proceeded to trip walking up the stairs, obviously still not awake yet. We arrived at the course at 7:30 and began to get set up.
All of this for a 50 mile bike race. If I was to tell some normal person who does not ride a bike they really would look at you like you were crazy. I'm happy to be apart of the craziness though.
Our plan for this race was pretty much the same as it was the week before. Get to the front on the last lap and lead out a sprint or try and get in a break away. We are getting better but we still missed our goal. The race started really fast and we were up to 24 mph before we really went more that 1k from the start. Apparently no neutral roll out this week. The first lap as usual was fast and a couple guys shot off the front trying to get in a break. I remember saying to myself "let them go" when the 3rd attempt at getting away went up the road. Of course it didn't happen and we all stood up and sprinted to a pace that would bring them back. Once again SCCA/Starbucks was up at the front the entire race with 2-4 guys bringing back everything that went up the road. Shawn was up there for the first 2 laps as well doing some work. We came around for the 2nd lap and just went over one of the small hills on the back side of the course and I was 10th wheel or so next to the center line and decided I would give it a go at getting away. I stood up and sprinted off the front of the group and held it for about a minute. I thought the motorcycle official would have stayed in front of me but I went right by him and just tried to keep a decent pace. The problem with my move where I did it was the course is straight and flat for several miles and I had to deal with the wind. I should have went about 3k from the next hill because shortly after that is a descent and a corner. I think that would have been a better place to try and get away. Atleast that is what I kept telling myself which didn't help my confidence much. I actually got a pretty good gap on the field and took a couple looks behind me and was really surprised by how far I got. I was waiting for someone to try and bridge up to me so we could work together but nobody did. After 10 minutes or so I decided I would sit back up and wait for everyone. The beginning of the 4th lap the whole Cycle U team got together mid pack as discussed prior to race and went to the front of the race and started to do some pulling. After a few minutes we all got seperated and that was it for us. Jed tried getting away a couple times during the last lap but kept getting pulled back by the group. We all tried again to get to the front but were never able to. Jed was our top finisher of 16th, I was 19th, Shawn was 23rd and everyone else was mid pack. SCCA/Starbucks once again dominated and won the race.
We did improve on a few things as a group and keep learning as a team which is important. Tuesday night races start again at Pacific Raceways so we will be there as a team practicing our team tactics.
Next race is Independence Valley Road Race. It snowed last year at this race which was an experience I never want to go through again.
No comments:
Post a Comment