Tour de Dung race 1

This is my first road race this year. I did this race last year as a category 5 and really enjoyed it. The roads are good and wide with a nice shoulder a few small hills to keep you honest but mostly a flat course. It is a 12 mile loop and we would be doing 4 laps for a total of 48 miles. Most of the team arrived Friday night and we met for dinner at what is now going to be our annual restuarant, Alder Wood Bistro.

We awoke to bright sunshine and beautiful views of the mountains around Sequim. I really like the area and the weather, as it’s mostly sunny. The teams plan for the category 4 race was to try and get someone in a break if one went and if not then to be there at the finish controlling the race. Unfortunately we weren't able to do either of those. We did get in a brief break as Jon went off the front for a short period of time. Getting away in the cat 4 field is pretty hard. We had a good squad at the race with Shawn, Travis, Mark, Jon, Chris and myself. I think we were a bit out gunned though as SCCA/Starbucks and Bikesale.com had a lot of numbers too.

The race kicked off at 10:05 and I was mid pack for the first lap. Just after we got done with the neutral roll out, I could hear the sounds of someone crashing behind me before we got to a turn. It turned out to be Travis who got bumped by another rider and then it was a domino effect that took him out with a bad front wheel. He was ok we would later find out but that hurt our game plan a bit as Travis has a good engine. The race went on and was fairly fast the first 2 laps and we had some wind to deal with as well but it wasn't too bad. The 3rd lap was pretty slow and I was moving around the peloton looking for our guys and telling them to get ready to move up. I was in a good position at one point and moved up on the right shoulder to 10th wheel or so. Now it was going to get hard.

It’s easy or fairly easy to stay mid pack but as soon as you get to the front it gets hard to stay as everyone wants to be in your spot. I moved up to 4th wheel at one point and the next thing I knew I was back 20 wheels or so. I could see the SCCA/Starbucks team had 2-3 guys up at the front the whole time along with Bikesale.com who had several as well. It was going to be hard to be there at the end with both of those teams. I faught to stay in the top ten going into the last 4 miles and figured I would get in on the SCCA/Starbucks train if I could as I know several of those guys and have raced real close with them most of last year. I had a guy in front of me from another team that kept moving left to right which made me real nervous as my front wheel kept touching is back tire. I moved over to the right a bit and got behind 2 SCCA guys and followed them through the 1k to go sign. Now the pace was hot and we were doing around 30 mph coming to the 200m sign where they open up both lanes of the road for the final sprint to the line. Someone on my right started the sprint and I followed as all I could see was yellow on both sides of me from Bikesale.com. The SCCA/Starbucks boys were still at the front and I was in the top 5 with about 100 meters to go but was getting pinched from both sides from guys not holding there lines. I decided to sit up as I wasn't going to fight with all of them and honestly didn't feel I had enough kick left in my sprint to make my way past all of them. Plus it was looking pretty dangerous and I had a feeling. That feeling could have been the reason I sat up and coasted to the line in 25th position. That feeling could also have been seeing the future of what might happen. Either way I am glad that feeling came up because as soon as I crossed the line it was carnage all over the road. It was an amazing thing to see happen right in front of me. Here is a picture right before it happened.

I am not a NASCAR fan at all but it reminded of the races when they have big crashes at the end. Imagine this, two guys to the left came together and went down and bounced off the road down in the ditch. Then 2 more in front of me came together and bikes were flying in the air. I moved over to the right to avoid them and one guy was sliding on the pavement and got hit by the guy in front of me who then shot over his handlebars. His bike reached out and grabbed my foot trying to get me to join the party. Thankfully the offer wasn't enough to get me on the ground. It shot me to the right down the 2ft ditch and into a field where I was able to ride it out like "cyclocross". Man what a crazy race and a crazy ending. Road race #1 done.

Lets see what Tour de Dung #2 brings.