Westlake, June 10, 2008
From CRCycling
By Kevin
"B" Race
I skipped the race last week since it was raining heavily. Apparently that was a good idea since there were 4 crashes in the B race due to the slippery pavement.
Today, it was rainy in the morning, but the weather cleared up to be beautiful and sunny by race time.
I was feeling a bit tired in the morning from the Sunday in June ride, 70 miles riding in an oven with blast furnace hot winds ripping out of the west kicked my ass. But by race time, I felt pretty good and relaxed.
Like two weeks ago, the field was about 20 riders, and again, Snakebite only managed to field a handful of riders, Ian, Dave, and Jon, instead of the 10 or 12 from earlier in the season, and again, the wind was out of the North north west so there was a light headwind on the Bassett road stretch, and a bit of a tailwind on Ranney Parkway.
Sometimes that wind pattern sets up to favor a breakaway. The race started off at a slow pace. The weather was hot, and the race was going to be close to 40 miles so the field seemed reluctant to take crazy chances. Premes came and went. The field nipped the heels of the sprinters to prevent gaps from opening.
I spent the first half of the race sitting in, then got active in the second half. Several times I had flashbacks to the Sunday in June ride since I was hanging around in the field near Ralph and Dave. In the second half I attacked at various points around the course.
No break got more than 10 meters off the front. Every attempt was easily nullified by the field. Dave, Ralph, Rick, and I took a hard dig at the front through the S curves on Ranney Parkway--the elastic stretched, but the field easily pulled us back. I took a solo flyer with 2 laps to go, but the field pulled me back quite easily. I was relatively happy, though, I was moving along at 25 mph without too much effort.
Inevitably, the race came down to a sprint. I picked the wrong wheel to follow and ended up coasting over the line again. However, I got closer to the finish line this week than in prior editions.
I felt a lot stronger this week than in the previous weeks. I was able to attack and respond to attacks consecutively without blowing up. Looking back at my training log from last season, I started peaking during the second week in June. I think I'll be able to constest for a placing from a win or break this season after all!
Next week will be the longest Westlake race of the season.
