Race Season Update

Training is going well. I was sick in the middle of May for a week and half but it wasn't much of a set back. I am at 1300 miles for the year. I think my highest total for a year is less than 2000 miles. Shooting for about 3000 this year.

Race season update:

Wayne Elliot Circuit Race: 14th, pack finish: Crazy downhill prior to the flat sprint, 1 guy got knocked off the road unfortunately for him when he tried to jump back on your own personal plus size racer was right there. Shoulder to Shoulder contact and right back off the road for him. I was shooting for a top 10 but couldn't find a gap to sprint through and decided safety was the better part of valor. Crit managed a top 10.

Sterling Road Race: DNF: We roll out for the neutral start and the rain is falling lightly, we take the left for the 2 decent size climbs and the rain starts to fall a little harder. We start to roll down some large hills and it is so humid I take my sunglasses off and it promptly starts HAILING...good size hail, really hurts at 35 mph. I can only open one eye at a time so the other can recover from the pounding. At the base of the descent the whole pack slows way down and as we are rolling along the flats a guy hydroplanes and wipes. I tail-gunned one more lap with Crit and we both called it a day. Not worth it.

Scarborough Training Crit: I did a lot of work for my boss in the last race and helped chase down a break for him on the last lap blowing myself up in the process...BUT don't forget he pays me! Crit managed to get the team a point so Team Last Place really was...we were the only team to score who scored only 1 point.

Westside Ride 8th, pack finish: My best finish as a cyclist! 8th in an open category race so we had everything from Cat 1's to 5's including 15 members of the Mathew's Central Maine Cycling Club. I had no problem hanging with the pack and on the drag towards the finish I ended up with a great alley on the inside and a semi-lead out by the Mathews team (is there such a thing as a side draft?) and as soon as I moved to the front and thought...hmmm maybe I will go early and see if I can get the jump on the faster sprinters there was a fire truck filling half of the right lane. I had to wait to see what the field was going to do before I became one with the fire truck. In hindsight I probably should made my jump then and hoped the fire truck would distract people but I hesitated. Not sure if I would have done better than 8th anyways. I was 24th and off the back last year so very happy with the outcome. Crit finished 5th (about 5 meters in front of me) and BF ended up 41st out of 59. Which is a great outcome considering he got dropped on the first acceleration as he was blocked by numerous "racers" who didn't come to race.

Lake Auburn is tomorrow--weather is calling for heavy t-storms. Great.

Great Falls Crit Race is Sunday in Auburn, more rain. I will need to be very diligent in both races as I know two of the guys showing up are capable of teaming up and riding off the front. If they go I go. Crit will be there for both and our goal is to watch for breaks but ideally get a sprint finish to work towards his upgrade.