i’m on my way home from a tough weekend of racing in lago vista. i got my first good result as a cat 2 and my best result so far in a big race by taking 3rd in today’s race.
saturday was the clockwise loop with 60 miles in 11 laps for our 2/3 race. we had michael lalla in the early break, but that got caught with about 5 laps to go. we missed the next move of 2 guys and were never able to get a guy across before the sprint. frustration was the mood afterward.
sunday was a day for retribution. the reverse loop was much more selective. small gaps started to appear as early as the second ascent up the steep climb. i realized lots of guys were hurting on the false flat after the climb and was able to move to the front easily there. on the 4th lap, i put in a strong attack after the climb to soften up some legs. it did more than i expected, it initiated a solid break of eight.
the break organized quickly and opened up a gap of almost a minute in our first lap away. most of the teams were represented: myself, two garmin kids, robert biard of 787, zac lytle of park place, robert snedden of rockwall, johnathan hughes of austinbikes, and a guy from jack and adam’s. the gap continued to grow by about 10 seconds with each successive lap. we rode within our limits on the hill and rode hard on the descent and flats. each time we would crest the hill, i would go to the front to bring the pace back up on the false flat. i could tell everyone was suffering with about 4 laps to go, but knew i should save my move for the last lap.
with three to go, we were notified of a chase of 8 that were eating into our gap quickly. we kept calm and the pressure on as before, and going into the last ascent we still had 30 seconds. just before we hit the last hump on the climb, the jack and adam’s rider casually rolled off the front. no one reacted. our mistake would give him the win.
i decide to try to jump across the gap by attacking after the climb. two guys were getting dropped already, and my move ended their chances of getting back on. the group worked together to pull me back and did just before the tight turn at the top of the course. there were still small gaps, so i attacked again, as soon as i came out of the corner to see if i could get rid of a few more riders. it worked. robert biard of 787 and zac lytle of park place were able to make it back to my wheel for the descent. robert and i were the strongest and drove the pace down to the finish line, with zac taking a few pulls when he could. robert and i did an honest sprint, but he got a little bit of a jump on me and took second place with me in third.
i’m very satisfied with my form right now and hoping i can continue to ride well for another month. we’ll see how the watts look in a few weeks at fayetteville.
sh
