Made it!

I made it through my first stage race! It was super fun (the whole weekend), and super hard (on the last day). We made it to the start of the first road race on Friday with enough time to drive the flat 17 mile loop. We would race that loop twice. I have to say my plan was to stay safe, in the pack and not use alot of energy, and not lose time. There were a couple breaks, one guy was off the front for the whole first lap. the race was only hard during the intermediate sprint and time bonus at the end of the first lap. Right after that, I took the front and drove the bus for a while. TAI had 3 other riders in the 4/5 category so it was pretty fun. On Friday, I finished 20 something in a pack sprint.

Day 2 was a circut race (5 mile loop 4 times). Not really that long, so I expected this to be fast. It was fast, but I was at the front of the pack most of the race, until the last lap, where I had to go talk to the official, because of something, and when I got back there, he was talking to someone else, and said he didn't want to talk to me. I think they thought I went over the yellow line, and mistook me for someone else. Anyway, I couldn't get back up to the front of the pack to get in position for the spint. There was no time trial in this race, the big daddy road race is coming up.

We drove the course after the race on Saturday, and that was a good thing. There were some major climbs on this course. My plan for the weekend had been to save myself until the long(er) road race, but I'm not entirly sure if that was the best option, if I'd got some time bonuses, it would have greatly helped my GC standing, and we had time to recover between races. I gained alot of experience here, and had alot of fun. Our plan for sunday was to kick it into gear early, before the climbs. I wanted to push the pace until we got there, otherwise it would have been a stop and go brake - sprint type of thing, because nobody wanted to work. We had one guy on our team that is more of a climber, and I told him to sit on my wheel and don't do any pulls. I'd take a big pull, and then finally some other guy would pull up in front, and then I'd get on his wheel. It worked OK, I didn't kill myself, but I wanted to pull our guy to the bottom of the climb. When we got to the climb, it was every man for himself. I was at my max, and didn't completely lose sight with the leaders, and if I'd have had more legs i might have been able to bridge the gap on the descent or after the descent. The guys I was descending with made the bridge, but I just didn't have it. I rode alone for a while, until I was caught by the group including the 'yellow' jersey. They were working together (rare - i think - in a cat 4/5 race). I tried to break away just before the final climb, and did, but was caught on the climb. I gave it my all, and considering my short bike training season this spring, I think it went awesome. Bike racing is fun. 2 weeks ago I was in a trail run, and 3 weeks ago a ski race (the weekend before that 3 ski races) I have the fitness, and my legs are getting there. I can't wait until Mt. Hood. The final day there is 70 miles of pain (instead of just 43), with a Saturday Time trail, and a difficult Friday circut race. Hopefully I can keep my HCT in the 40s. I will post an update on my iron overload after my doctor's appointment on Thursday.

WVC 4/5 Results Here