Week to week...

Same roads, two radically different races.

Last week the wind was blowing, clouds threatening rain but the racing was a blast. DBC put their boys on the front and drove the pace all day long. Working in pairs, the men in orange would pull our little pack through the wind until they blew and had us moving at a pretty good clip. By the end there were only 15 of us left. The data showed a 2.5 hour race at what is typically a hard crit effort. I was destroyed but enjoyed every minute of it.

Yesterday was back to negative racing. The team in yellow and the team in red had superior numbers, enough in fact to try a couple different approaches to winning the race. Alas, they both had their minds set on the bunch gallop at the end so 70 of us went into the last turn together. Sure, there were a few attacks along the way. Attempts by other teams to make things interesting but team tactics are clearly not the strong suit of the Cat 4's. I guess when you're doing hypoxic math 2 in 70 odds is better than 1 in 5.

As for me, I didn't fight hard enough for position on the last significant hill. I watched the daredevils charge down the other side suspecting they wouldn't make the corner. My suspicions were confirmed as I rounded the corner and found riderless bikes in the road. I came to a complete stop and then chased my ass off to try and catch the pack. At the base of the 'feed zone' kicker I caught the back of the pack and then drove hard to get around those who were loosing contact with the business end of the race. I caught the back of the lead group right as the front was cresting the hill...another pack finish. After reviewing the data I have to agree...it was a nice day for an easy group ride.