Arriving at the race about an hour and a half before start, I was glad to have been able to take all the time I needed to get myself ready. I was going to do both the Cat 2/3 and P/1/2 races today. I mixed a few bottles of ice water with some Organic Blackberry Osmo Active Hydration and loaded them onto my Tarmac SL4. I then proceeded by getting dressed in my Capo long sleeve skinsuit (despite the warm weather, I opted for aero) and applied some Personal Best Betwixt chamois cream. I sat around for a short while in the shade while watching another race finish, before spinning on the trainer.
The Cat 2/3 race was was really choppy. Team Specialized Racing Juniors had a handful of riders that had just raced down at Sea Otter, and they used their numbers to dictate the proceedings of the race. Being the only one from TMB p/b Incase in the field, I decided to play this race a little more conservatively- trying to mark only moves that I saw as a serious threat. About half way through the race, Specialized had one rider in a 4-man breakaway which had about a ten second advantage on the field. The juniors were setting an easy to moderate tempo on the front of the group and were riding defensively to make sure that break stuck. I decided to bridge to that move, and did so successfully, but it was reeled back in about a lap later. For the rest of the race, I sat in.
With two laps to go, Specialized had all their riders on the front, with what looked like some sort of a lead out for Matt Valencia. I was on Matt's wheel going into the last lap, Specialized still setting the pace on the front. Everyone behind them was shouting to get them to go faster, since their junior gear restrictions had them limited to a modest 29 mph. They eventually got swarmed in the last half of the final lap. Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada had two guys attack up the gutter and on the outside of the final corner. I followed wheels from in the inside, which put me in about 5th position into the last corner.
I finished 3rd, behind the two Bicycles Plus riders. Pretty happy with this result, and with where I stand with my fitness. A big thank you to all of our sponsors who each played an important part in my achieving of this result!
The P/1/2 race was death. My allergies had been affecting my throat, nose and eyes throughout the 2/3 race, and it hadn't gotten any better before the P/1/2 race. I didn't do much, and watched a group of 9 get off the
front early. A handfull of riders lapped the field, those riders making all the action at the front of the lapped peloton with about 20 minutes remaining. Chuck set a gruesome tempo for 5 of the final 8 laps. The final lap was pretty dicey, my legs feeling pretty wrecked from the prior race. I rolled across the line in 24th.
