Rose Festival Road Race

Well, it wasn't 'pretty' but we actually had a pretty good race... Paul Deninger and Josh Wandrey flew the American Equity flag in the 60 mile cat 1,2 event on Sunday with me.  Our 'plans' fell apart a bit after Josh got caught up at the tail end of a mishap as we were barrelling down a straight-away single file, but I wish him a speedy recovery, and hope he can enjoy the experience as part of the racing experience, by getting back at it, as soon as it makes sense.  He ended up getting 12 stitches on his knuckles and plenty of road rash.  We were cruising along pretty quickly.   I nearly avoided the situation, launching into the ditch, but unfortunately had to witness the impact. 

After that situation, we began to execute 'plan b', me and Paul were in control at times, attacking/counter-attacking and strategically picking places to try and lose the 'favorites' (Mattias Perret, Mike Scencenbough, Will Rekemeyer, etc).   During the last of three laps, me and Paul traded a volley of counter-attacks and I found myself dangling off the front.  The attacks had been dragging up groups of three of four, until everyone finally lost interest/energy.  Well, I gave it a shot, and extended my gap to about 30 seconds over the course of about 6 miles.  Unfortunately, I didn't fully commit, becuase I felt that if I got caught, I would be discharged from the group, having exhausted myself in the effort.  With only Paul in the field to defend my move, it seemed likely that the pack of about 12 remaining riders would eventually reel me in.  In retrospect, however, I got discharched anyway, so I should have dug a bit deeper.  Riding solo tempo is an aspect of bike racing that I am completely comfortable with.  Of course, I was hoping that two or three guys would join the effort so that it could be more favorable, but it was a good experience to be off the front, providing me with a satisfying feelling.


 In the end, the results weren't there, as we just missed out on winning one of the 6 paying spots...  but dang it all, we definately raced it.  Josh would have rounded out our tactics perfectly, so it was great to have him on board, this time, and for future outings.