In Your Travels

Tough Day at the Race

With the constant flow of races making it feel a bit like work, and the Criterium Championship title on the line, last Sunday's race was really, really tough. I was suppossed to race Saturday, but felt tired and a little down, so I stayed home. The race was a far drive of 2 hours each way and I just wasn't into doing the drive alone, and Holly was getting her hair cut. Now I kind of regret missing it. Lost out on a ton of BAR points, but it wasn't going to be fun for me, and I'm doing this for fun. I have a job....

Sunday the race was one of the hardest I have done within memory. I actually had to fight not to get dropped and I had a hard time passing people, which is usually easy for me. The course is a tight isosceles triangle with a 60 foot evelvation change in one turn and a gradual uphill on the home stretch. I realized it just wasn't such a great course for me, too tight, not fast enough, and the field was going ape since it was championships. I tried to make it into a move that went with 6 (1km) laps to go, but failed, and when I got caught the pack flew past me. I couldn't move up before the end of the race, and my teammate Mike Bradbury dragged me up the line on the last lap, but that big move fried my sprint, and we got shut out behind a line of guys in the penultimate corner. Had to slow down a lot, way too much braking, so that was game over, finished 10th. I'm still like 5th in the BAR but the leader has like 160 points to my 75, so my shot at winning the Cat three BAR isn't looking so good. I'm thinking about upgrading, I dunno, it depends on how I do at Clarendon in 1.5 weeks. One thing is sure, I had my best training ride of the year today, so this hard race has really helped my form. Race in Baltimore this weekend that is a better course for me, techincal yet fast and open in sections, with a good hill, so I hope to bring my A game and win.

posted by Mark @ 12:38 PM