Tuesday Night Worlds Crit race - 5/6/14
My world has been busy with racing lately. This is the 3rd race in 11 days. I'm feeling pretty good and think I've already mostly recovered from Sunday's Trizou triathlon. I got to catch up pre-race with fellow teammate in Mike Flanigan who races in the A race and Dan Hegger who is doing his first ever bike race with me in the C race. It's great that he made it out there. Maybe we can get even more of them to come out next week. The more they race, the more confidence they will have.
A car had driven through the course just prior to our race. I'm not sure how they got around the barrier, but they were chased off and police were called. A police car was there for the start of our race. He followed us around and made sure the route was safe. The pace started off fast right away as per usual. I stayed up near the front as much as possible. The pace eventually settled down and I found myself in the top 3 the rest of the race. I didn't push hard to do it, but I did find myself out in the lead pulling the others for at least a few of the laps. I was making sure not to wear myself out too much, but I also didn't want to let anyone catch back up that had been dropped off the back either.
Before I knew it, the time limit had passed and we were on our last 3 laps. The first one went by with no moves. Then with two laps to go, there was one rider that went for it. I was right on his wheel without even having to close a gap. He was pushing hard to try to get a gap, but I wasn't letting him go anywhere. I'm not sure what was happening behind me, but I bet it was stringing things out pretty good. He seemed to be content to do the work for me, so I let him. I waited until the 2nd half of the hill on the last lap to make my move. It was hard for me wait so long, but I certainly didn't want to go too early. I also knew I could go with someone if they tried to come by, but it didn't happen. Once I started I knew I just had to hammer it out the whole way through the line and try to not let anyone follow close enough to use me and slingshot by at the finish. I made it to the top of the hill still in first. I could see a rider out of the corner of my eye. I pushed even harder. This was for the win. I had clean wheels through the finish line and logged my first ever bike race victory! I was so thrilled! I couldn't wait to share the news with my family and friends. I celebrated with a Culver's peanut butter cup concrete. Victory never tasted so good.
Related links:
Big Shark Tuesday Night Worlds
USA Cycling Results - Vann Knight Tuesday Night Criterium Series
Strava Tuesday Night Crit
way to go
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