2 races down, lessons learned.

Well, we had a strategy going into the race a but once the wheels got turning it kind of went out the window a long with a lot of assumptions that the first race was going to be some what slow because of the bad winter. Writing this now I am sure everyone had a lot of pent up frustration and wanted to take it out on the field like my goal was. Lets review how today went.

Arrive on time but there was a huge line at registration and took about 15 minutes longer than expected this is where things started to unravel. That delay caused me to rush to get on the trainer which I wanted to spend a good 30 - 45 minutes on. When I get over to Luis' car I went to pump up my tires and the valve came off the stem as I was removing the caps, this had never happened to me, but of course my wrench is on the other side of the parking lot in my car. So grab it and start getting things squared away and getting dressed.

I was all over the place, not focused at all, in the end I was only able to get about 10 minutes on the trainer, and that wasnt even with any good resistance, just spinning. Get off, and go group up as the juniors race finish and BS with teammates as we wait for them to clear the course and take a couple laps. At this point Heather, Christian and Joe came over to say hi. I was already a little upset with the way everything went and then noticed my rear tire was rubbing my chain stay.

The clearance was always close but now this was serious. I able to move it over just a bit but it was very close and in a sprint it would flex and rub. Not much I could have done then though unfortunately. As we head off for a couple recon laps it was good to open the legs and chat with teammates about what were going try and accomplish. Legs with a little bit of heat in them not enough to be considered warmed up we head to the start / finish line. I was able to get a good place, evidently a little too good.

As the whistle blew we went off, clipped right in, no issues. Maybe it was anxiousness but as soon as we started I got cottonmouth, gum wasnt helping and I didnt want to reach for my water bottle as I was trying to keep an eye on everyone around as we started to hit the turns. As the laps counted down for whatever reason I was always at the front pulling, every now and then some one would attack and we would catch them quickly as the field was going at a good speed. I am not sure how many laps I lead but between a teammate Jeff and I we did a lot of the pulling as none of the other teams wanted to any of the work. That is the lesson learned. I should have just sat up and let them do it and let the pack slow down. I think coming in to last turn I was in the front but knew since the field was with me there would be a field sprint, as we turned i got over to the right and let them go at it. I was didnt want to get mixed up in a sprint for 30th and be taken out. In the end I finished 16th, not disappointed but could have done less work and raced a little more wisely.

After that race finished there was a few minutes between that and the 4/5 which had a field of 75 riders. I said a couple words to Heather and Christian and headed off for the start. Got a decent position and learned to sit back in the pack more. Whistle went off and away we went. Right away the pace seemed to be faster, I kept eyes on a couple teammates and moved up as they did, generally after the turns. One thing about leading the 5's though I was able to take the line I wanted at the speed I wanted. In the pack there was a lot of slowing down at every freaking turn and then sprinting after every freaking turn. This went on pretty much the whole race. There was one lap where I was able to get away and keep it for almost an entire lap and it at the turns where I felt most comfortable and was able to keep it going, but alas it didnt last long.

Come the final lap the pace picked up a bit and I was in the top 10 and approaching the last turn there was a huge surge of people trying to go for the sprint. I took the turn and held my line, and then proceeded to move to the right and let the people sprint for 30th, because literally as i crossed the line (39th) there were still jackasses trying to sprint for it.

In the end I learned I did way to much work and probably crits arent my thing. Out here raw watts is what will win a race and I generally need a longer race and some good hills to separate myself from the pack. All in all though, a perfect day for racing kept the shiny side up and dont think there were any accidents in the my races, at least none in front of me.