Off to the Races!

So, here we go...the race season has officially begun. Today was day 1 of the 8 week SIPC series. The weather was actually nice for a change (last year it was freezing rain for this race) and there was a pretty good turn out of racers. Maybe 22 or so in th B group and probably around 35 in the A group.

Woke up feeling marginally better than I have been feeling. The Death Virus I have been hosting in my body for the past 2 weeks seems to be wrapping up it's stay and moving on to greener pastures. Still not 100% as I was having a hard time getting full oxygen, but I'll take it.

Got there in plenty of time, but still somehow managed to fritter away my warm up time. I managed to get in one lap with CJ before they had us lining up to start. After a longish intro by Joe Moreshead the gun sounded and we were off.

This being early season and all, I try to stay as close to the front as possible without getting into the wind too much. I don't like to be in the back of the group if I can avoid it, as it tends to be more sketchy the further back you go. Laps 1-3 were fairly comfortable as everyone got their early morning legs on and the jitters out of their systems. We were cruising around at about 21 mph and no-one seemed to be under any duress as quite a few of us were chatting and catching up on the Winter stories.

Around lap 4 CJ rode up next to me and said his shifter wasn't working. Seems he couldn't shift at all. After a little on the bike elbow grease didn't resolve it, I told him to pit and have the boys fix him up. Meanwhile some of the guys had decided it was time to turn the screws just a bit on the pace as a few different riders made brief attempts to break from the field. The pace picked up to around 22-23 mph, but still completely manageable as we were basically all in a bunch.

I chased a few breaks early on as I wasn't sure who the riders were and didn't want to give anyone too much leash in case they had the legs to actually do some real damage. Fortunately nothing ever went too far up the road.

CJ jumped back in after getting some mechanical assistance in the pits and we were all together again. The pace was still in the low 20's and no one seemed to be struggling as the group was still pretty much intact. There was a little bumping and elbowing here and there form a rider who was way too sketchy for my tastes. I decided that I didn't want to be anywhere around them and moved up to 4th wheel for a lap or two until they settled down.

Finally the last 2 laps were on the offering. Pace picked up again and a few small breaks in the group started to form. I was in decent position until the last lap when on the back stretch I somehow managed to get boxed in on the inside. The front of the field was starting to ramp up the tempo and I was trapped.

Coming around the last corner I watched the field split and knew I had to get through or the race would be gone. I snuck my bike through the right hand side and got to clean air. I saw the leaders were about 100 meters ahead of me with about 700 meters to go, so I stepped on the gas and got the bike moving. I made it past the second cluster of riders and grabbed the tail end of the lead group and managed to pip on of the guys on the line to snag 5th place (was that you David?). I was totally cooked, as I had had to start my sprint from about 600 meters to get back to the front.

I did the warm down lap with my tongue hanging out, but happy that I snuck into the points. CJ pedaled up to me and seemed pleased as punch and mentioned it wasn't as hard a race as he had worried about. I would have punched him, but I was too tired to do so.

Overall the race was 22.5 mph average and I managed to get up to 36.7 mph in the final sprint...not horrible.

It was actually uncharacteristically serene, but I attribute that to people just shaking off a long Winter and getting their legs spinning again. I would guess it'll be a little harder next week. I'll be sure not to get myself boxed in again and may even decide to take a flyer early on to break things up a bit..we'll see. I can always have CJ tow me around until he passes out!

On to next week!