The last couple of days have been awesome. We made an attempt at a Crit on Saturday (see last post for details) and yesterday we made it to the second one, and had an absolute blast. This isn't tough to do, as bike racing s a beautiful sport and every race is different and exciting. Yes, triathlon is awesome too, but bike racing has such a level of complexity, both in strategy and the manner in which energy is used, that it's like playing chess while trying to squeeze every last bit of power out of your legs.
This race was special, because my good friend Matt decided 10 minutes before the race that he was going to jump in and experience bike racing for the first time. He had his doubts about his ability to stay with the group, but I had total faith in him and knew that if he just played it safe, he'd finish with the group, but more importantly, keep the rubber side down. (not crash)
The race was a smashing success, as Matt not only finished with the group, but did the bulk of the work and managed to single handedly split the pack with 2k to go. This would have set up great for me, to attack and take the victory, but I had somehow let myself get distracted and had miscounted the laps. I feel terrible that I let his hard work go to waste, it really was perfect timing. I've never raced with a teammate in a race though, so lesson learned. Thinking that we had 2 to go, I came across the line in 14th wheel (roughly) and to my dismay, the lap board showed 1 to go. Damn. I put in a strong push to move toward the front, but just as I did, the racer in third wheel (where I should have been) made a very strong attack and got off the front. I sprinted to the front of the line, took the third-to-last turn, and sprinted again, hoping to close the gap to the leader, who had at that point, been joined by one other rider. Unfortunately, there was only 400 to go, and while I had gapped the rest of the field by a comfortable distance, I was closing the gap to the two leaders too slowly, and only managed to make it across the line in third.
I've always had a problem with counting in races. I miscounted a 200 backstroke once (8 lengths of a pool). I get so caught up in racing my opponents that I lose track of time (or rather conjure up my own timeline) and mistimed my final effort. No problem though, Matt and I finished out the weekend with 160 miles of riding, $40 in prize money, and a phenomenal start to our two-week training camp in Phoenix. And YEAH-it's sunny every dang day :)
*when I find some pictures from the race, I'll put 'em up*
