Its always a curious thing to be the first race of the day. The town is mostly asleep on Saturday morning at 6:30AM when you get your number and check in for the race. The warm up laps are done while the street is still being swept, the cops are trying to get all the cars off the course and the organizers are still trying to set up and be ready.
Soon enough it all falls into place and you find yourself standing on the start line trying to focus your brain no less get the legs ready to respond. Like all these races someone jumps at the start and sets a furious pace to get us going and create immediate gaps on the un-prepared. Today it was our team mate Steve Birnbaum. As he tore up the street in front of us no one really chased. The other teams kept him insight and slowly reeled him back in after a lap or two.
The race continued like this through out. One of us would go off the front, others would chase and eventually we would be back together again. While there was a slight up hill on the back stretch for the most part the race did not have any true obstacles that would allow a break to get away and stay away. I know, I tried on three occasions with various other riders including my team mate Bill. None of these efforts worked.
During one break led out by another team I was sitting second wheel coming down the fast finishing straight when up ahead a buck (deer) came out into the street. Fortunately for us the moto ref was there and reved his engine, waved his arms etc to get the deer off course. It sprinted like we all wish we could.
The result of all these attacks and pressure on the field was by the time it did come down to the final lap only 1/2 the field (12) was left and more than half of those were far enough back to not be in contention for the bunch sprint. A few turns after crossing the finish line with one lap to go I heard that sickening thump and what I thought was a crash behind me. I was sitting 2nd wheel and the rider in front of me (Dan G of CO Bike Law) turned to look. I yelled at him to keep going as I was afraid his looking behind might cause him to slow and me have to brake, which sets off a chain reaction in the peloton, or even worse for Dan to lose control.
We made it through all the down town turns and were going up the back straight when the attack came. Bob from Natural Grocers was off first and going fast. I went hard but could not close it before the turns onto the down hill finish straight. We were going really fast now and I could detect a slow but certain gain by me (or maybe Bob was slowing or both). Still everyone else was behind and I thought I might have a chance. About 50-75 meters (hard to tell exactly where you are at this point in time) I detected movement from my right. I suddenly realized I was about to be hit by another rider and sat up and yelled at the same time!
Luckily I slowed enough that Callen, Zumxr racing, went across me at an angle from right to left but missed my wheel, just barely. In the same flash of a second I was sprinting again but also saw Bill K going by and then we were across the finish line. Callen won, Bill K 2nd, Bob 3rd and me 4th. Behind was a blur for me but our team mates Steve B and Butch took 8th and 9th respectively for a total team top 10 finish!
In the cool down lap I was happy to learn there was not a crash but rather clipped pedal and stopping with no consequence other than lost placing. Callen apologized and we discussed the need to keep your own line in a sprint. The race was over and since it was not yet 8:30 AM a shower and breakfast sounded good before the drive home.
No comments:
Post a Comment