Weekend recap

Thankfully, I came home relatively happy on Sunday evening. All in all, I think I raced pretty well, considering the small number of races I have done this year and the fact that I have been sick. I ended up getting second in the time trial, which I have to admit was disappointing to me. I wanted to win the time trial. A fellow racer was drafting off me in the time trial, which I have never had happen before. Irritating, to say the least, though I'm guessing it was not intentional.

For the crit, I really needed to get some points to maintain my status... which did not work out so well. I did, however, ride the crit well, which is an accomplishment in itself for me since I am a big wuss in crits. I stayed near the front the entire time, which I almost never do. So, I stayed near the front for the entire race, except for the final few hundred meters when it really counted; hmmmm... something's not right there. I guess I should work on that!

The road race course was pretty tough. We had a mild 12 mile stretch to start it out and then headed up a 12 mile climb. The climb was, of course, followed by a long descent, and then a long flat, windy section back to the start/finish. The woman who had won the tt and the crit got a flat a few miles before the climb. It shocked me to see a couple teams head straight to the front to pick up the pace in attempts to keep her (and some of her teammates) from catching back on. Bad etiquette, in my opinion. The pack should have maintained its pace until the climb, giving her a fair chance to get back on.

Anyway, she didn't manage to get back on before the climb and things broke up quickly there. Pretty quickly, I was in a lead group of 5, which then shattered itself (I was the first to fall off). I recovered and rode at my own steady pace, which allowed me to catch everyone except the leader before the top of the climb. At the top, I was with a girl who is a very good climber, but who apparently does not at all like descents. I looked back after the first two switchbacks to see that I had a huge gap on her, so I gunned it and kept going. I was gaining on the leader, but never did catch her.

So, that's how it all went. We'll be racing again this weekend in Enumclaw, Wa, so hopefully the upward trend continues. Summer is finally hitting the northwest this week (high of 92 today). I like summer and all, but this has just come on a bit too quickly for my taste. It was 29 when I was driving to work one morning just a couple weeks ago!