In the photo: Sean Davis
Written by Sean.
It’s not every day a Mikes Bikes team member gets to represent in an Oregon race series. But I was lucky enough to compete in the WVCT. The race series featured 3 road races across the farm land just outside of Portland.
Unfortunately, this also meant that I would have to compete in these races without any teammates, which poses its own set of challenges.
In the first race (Piece of Cake RR), I was able to just sit in as an unknown rider and let the other teams represented launch attacks and work to pull back breaks. It wasn’t until the final 3K that I moved myself into the front of the race and attacked with 500m to go to take the win in an uphill bunch sprint.
This set me up as the series leader and wearer of the green GC leader’s jersey.
In the second race (Cherry pie RR), I no longer had the luxury of an unknown rider. In this race, teams were actively working to drop me from the pack, so I had to work a bit harder to stay with the main pack. I then attempted to counter attack the field with a solo break attempt 5 miles from the finish. Unfortunately, I attacked into a head wind and the course was pan flat for the final 3 miles. This resulted in me getting caught about 2 miles out.
The plan then shifted to recovering as much as possible to try and salvage something for the sprint. But to my surprise, the legs recovered nicely, and I was able to lock onto the train of another team and sprint for my second win of the series. Furthering my points advantage.
In the final race (One Horse RR), I knew I simply had to finish to keep my leader’s jersey. But what’s the fun in that? I took this race as a chance to test my fitness and be aggressive. This led to a Normalized Power of 304w for the 60-mile race.
The race finished with a 3k climb, which I was looking forward to putting in some hard moves. Unfortunately, with 1K to go, I dropped my chain and let a group of 4 get up the road. I was able to chase back 3 of the 4 but was one rider short of taking the win. Second place would have to do.
Thankfully, this secured the GC win and I was able to walk away with my CAT 2 upgrade!
