I raced at princeton the first weekend, and then went to virginia beach. Hung out with my cousins there for a week and had a blast. We had two awesome bonfires. See, that's how good it was!
I went home for a few days, and spent friday night visiting friends at philly. It was incredible to see them. We had a great night on the town. Then, I headed back to wes on saturday to race the 3/4 race at bethel.
I have to say, I've been getting really forgetful lately.
-I forgot my bike computer (srm head unit) in philly when I went to virginia, and my dad had to mail it to me.
- I forgot my bike trainer in VA beach and after 200 miles on the road, I had to turn around to go get it.
- I forgot my pajamas at a friends place in philly.
Whoops...
A little prequel to the race report: I'm a CAT 4. The categories go 5->4->3->2->1->Pro.
Cliff notes: 3/4 race at bethel. My 3rd race as a 4. Burned a match early in the race and decided to take it a little easy after that. Started cramping towards the end, but still got 14th of 70 (Official said that at the start). I was a little squirrely (wind was pushing me around) and guys in front of me kept swerving to avoid potholes. I felt bad for whoever was behind me though.
Longer version:
Had an interesting drive to the start. I was thinking about how this was my 3rd race as a 4 and I hadn't really trained over break (whoops). Saw a cop car out of the corner of my eye and slowed down a hair, the guy who had just convinced me to slow down a little (because he was flying) got pulled over. Sucka!
Got to the start sans warmup and lined up. Found myself next to CDR, which was a good thing since I wanted to say hi to him.
Off we went. The first few laps, I tried to do a better job of drafting than I did in my last race and succeeded. I found myself moving up on the climb and then realized that I was at the front of the pack, where I didn't want to be since I wanted to hide and move up later. Of course, this was after I bridged up to a small break. It got caught about 5 seconds after that, so pack into hiding I went.
At one point I ended up rubbing the tire in front of me, whoops...
People were still shuffling around a bit, especially in the windy back stretch and trying to shift over to the other side as the wind direction changed. I had to move around to compensate, hence a little squirrely. Bleh, stupid.
There were a couple of breaks up the road, but everyone was confused about it. CDR launched off the front to chase down one of them and I followed suit.
There was a point where I was considering dropping out since my lungs had started to hurt, so I just backed off and took the hill seated a few times and that knocked out the stupid notion from my head. I had to back off again since my calves started to cramp again. I really need to figure that out...
5 laps to go, wait really? I started to drift back a little as people swarmed and went into the wind. I followed them up. Moved up till the top 25 or so, by the start of the last lap and continued to try to move up without spending too much time in the wind.
I heard someone go down to the behind to the right, so I moved into the slightly more open right side of the lead up to the hill and gunned it when I had a bit of an opening.
I had to take the long way home to avoid getting boxed in. I crossed the far side of the finish line in 14th. I'll take it.
All in all it was a good race, once I get this calf cramping issue solved I should be able to up the ante a bit.
Weather was beautiful, I finished safely, so all is well. I think the guy who crashed was fine since he landed in the grass.
Longer version:
Had an interesting drive to the start. I was thinking about how this was my 3rd race as a 4 and I hadn't really trained over break (whoops). Saw a cop car out of the corner of my eye and slowed down a hair, the guy who had just convinced me to slow down a little (because he was flying) got pulled over. Sucka!
Got to the start sans warmup and lined up. Found myself next to CDR, which was a good thing since I wanted to say hi to him.
Off we went. The first few laps, I tried to do a better job of drafting than I did in my last race and succeeded. I found myself moving up on the climb and then realized that I was at the front of the pack, where I didn't want to be since I wanted to hide and move up later. Of course, this was after I bridged up to a small break. It got caught about 5 seconds after that, so pack into hiding I went.
At one point I ended up rubbing the tire in front of me, whoops...
People were still shuffling around a bit, especially in the windy back stretch and trying to shift over to the other side as the wind direction changed. I had to move around to compensate, hence a little squirrely. Bleh, stupid.
There were a couple of breaks up the road, but everyone was confused about it. CDR launched off the front to chase down one of them and I followed suit.
There was a point where I was considering dropping out since my lungs had started to hurt, so I just backed off and took the hill seated a few times and that knocked out the stupid notion from my head. I had to back off again since my calves started to cramp again. I really need to figure that out...
5 laps to go, wait really? I started to drift back a little as people swarmed and went into the wind. I followed them up. Moved up till the top 25 or so, by the start of the last lap and continued to try to move up without spending too much time in the wind.
I heard someone go down to the behind to the right, so I moved into the slightly more open right side of the lead up to the hill and gunned it when I had a bit of an opening.
I had to take the long way home to avoid getting boxed in. I crossed the far side of the finish line in 14th. I'll take it.
All in all it was a good race, once I get this calf cramping issue solved I should be able to up the ante a bit.
Weather was beautiful, I finished safely, so all is well. I think the guy who crashed was fine since he landed in the grass.
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