How Sweet It Is!

Alright, here's my first blog post. Ever. So here goes. After the majority of my past two seasons on the mountain and cyclocross bike, i thought I'd take a shot at road racing again. The last time I raced road, i raced as a junior, so i wasn't quite sure what to expect. After a 35 hr training week in California and a mellow rest week, I thought I'd hit the roads in a circuit race on Saturday, the Amgraph Three village tour, and the Keith Berger Memorial crit on Sunday. Saturday rolled around and I made the early morning trek to Baltic, CT. to race fairly early morning, something I'm not used to as a cat. 1 mtb racer! Even though it was early, it was HOT. Our cat. 4 field was racing four laps, a total of forty miles. We had the biggest field of the day, starting with something like 75 riders, with some familiar faces from my junior years racing the road, as well as some hot tubes development racers, which i had learned to fear if they were racing in my junior field. They're some strong juniors! Sparing you all the exciting details of getting ready and warming up, our race went off. First lap, right from the gun, a rapha rider went off the front, sending the field into chase mode for a while. The legs didn't feel so hot, so i tucked myself into the front of the field, but not too far back into the field, where skin is lost and bikes are broken. The second lap rolled around and my legs began to roll around as well, feeling a little bit better. At this point the field was back together and the pace was dropping a little bit, so i thought I'd see how the rest of the field felt and sat on the front for a while. Now this is the part where i usually get myself into trouble during road races. After racing mountain bikes, when something is constantly happening, whether its the terrain or chasing down someone or trying to put time into the guys behind you, i get bored road racing.



The majority of the second lap i spent on the front, as seen above. I figured at the worst I would get a good workout in on the day. The third lap rolled around, and there was definetly some guys trying to make some moves and jump out front, which was difficult on a courselike this, where the only time you could get away was on a steeper climb about halfway through the lap that was about a half mile long, or near the finish, where there was a small climb that flattened out a little bit right at the finish line. I wasnt really looking to make any attacks, because at this point i wanted to keep myself out of trouble and see what i could do at the finish. The third lap went something like the third lap as well, a couple of moves that never really stuck and a pretty nasty crash at the back of the field that I didn't see, but heard. With about half of the last lap complete, you could tell that the field was getting pretty antsy, figuring that i was going to be a big bunch kick to the finish. With about 1.5 km to go, the same rapha rider that went off at the beginning went for the winning move, and with no reaction from the field, that was what it was beginning to look like. Sitting on third or fourth wheel, we took a 90 degree right hander right before the finishing climb started. I jumped off to the right and hugger the side of the road, hoping to catch the rapha rider and see how much i had left for the final 500 meters. Just before i caught him, i looked back, and to my suprise there was no one on my wheel. At that point i made the pass, and figured that it was now or never.

I got into as big a gear as my legs wanted to push, and went for it! At 200 meters, I looked back, and tried to survive to the finish. I succeed, sat up, gave a little celebration fist pump, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. needless to say, I was pretty psyched! My first road race where I've finished it alone, and not behind the field! Although it was fun, it is now that time to upgrade. Having had enough points to upgrade as a junior to 3's and having them expire the following year, its time to upgrade.


Well, now it's back onto the singletrack for me for now, with a 12 -hour solo race at Pats Peak this weekend. Check back for the full race report. All in all, a great weekend of racing for the comp edge boys, well done! Also a big thanks to D. Cole photography for the awesome pics and our trusty team mechanic!