El Diablo Rojo

So what started off for the mens 4 race as great day ended badly for some. The race was very smooth for the first 5 laps. I was always near the front yet never on the front and felt awesome. My teammates Healy, Evans, and Dowe also were out of trouble but a bit further behind. Coming down to the last 2k the pack devolved into a bunch of first time racers. With 80 guys on a narrow country road the pack would accelerate hard then brake just as hard. Wheels were overlapping and guys were getting bumped and pushed all over. This with 2k still to go. At about 600m I was on the far right and Healy was on the far left both of us in the top 15. He found his gap and just as I started to move myself when there was a massive crash. At least 8 guys were spread across the road and more were stacking up. Evans and Dowe, who were behind the crash, ended up on the left side in the dirt but managed not to go down. I got bumped hard and ended up on the right side in the dirt. I got back on the road and started to sprint again but I was just outside the top 20. Healy timmed his move perfectly, avoided the carnage and finished 7th. I'm pretty bummed as I felt great, road a good smart race and came away with zero points.

Anyway at least Healy got a top ten and there is always tomorrows TT and crit!

DrPete 

WTH is up with the crashfests? Zimbo just posted his 39-second crit too. Bummer.

Crashing is for wussy. Make sure you stop by here to get checked out, though...

Snuffleupagus

Yeesh man, at least you stayed shiny side up. Good luck in the upcoming races.

El Diablo Rojo

Results were just posted and ended up 25th, pretty disappointing result considering how good I felt today, like Snuf said I kept the rubber side down. Healy got 7th one position away from the payout. Unless I unleash one wicked TT tomorrow (read win) I'll be helping Healy get a good placing in the GC. He's riding as well if not better than me and he's got a nice handful of points going into tomorrows last two stages.

mike9903

Glad to hear that you finshed the race in one piece, I heard there were a lot of crashes in the womens and Cat 4/5 races. I was surprised there were none in the Cat 5's, I did have some closr calls.

I had a blast in my first race, I learned tons and I am looking forward to do much better in my next race. I ended up getting dropped on the 3rd lap and never really recovered after that. The Pro/1/2/3 group was catching us so they race official was telling us all to go "neutral" I had no idea what that meant. The next thing I know we are cruising along at 23 mph, someone up front decided to give us a "leg check" and kicked it up to 30 mph +, the rider in front of me allowed a huge gap up and off I went sprinting to catch up. By the time I caught the group I was toasted, I cold not hang much longer.

I learned my lesson about riding in the front 1/3 of the pack, it seemed like I was sprinting non-stop to catch the group after EVERY turn! It seemed that I would start off in the top 1/3 and somehow end up falling back to back 1/3, I guess I need to be a lot more aggressive when riding.

I am hooked to racing now, so I will be riding with the Bike World team at the Pace Bend race in 3 weeks. I hope/think I can do much better.

El Diablo Rojo

Great Mike I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, tomorrow's another day and another chance to improve. Yeah the womans race had a girl go to the hospital on the roll out! One big difference between the 4's and the 5's; the pace is more consistent. Rather than the wild burst of speed then slowing down over and over, the pace is pretty steady. That's why I was so shocked at how we finished. The race was really clean until the last 2k. Then about 30% of the field lost their collective minds.

mike9903

I was really surpirsed by the speed in general, in the roll out we were cruising at 20 mph. I heard about the girl going to the hospital, I was driving the lead car in the womans race.

I would much rather keep a pace of 25 mph instead of going from 18 to 27 over and over again. . .

merlinextraligh

So much for the iron fist.

Great you had a good time, and applying your new found knowledge it will be much easieer next time, But I couldn't resist a told you so commment.

The good news is that you can ascend the learning curve quickley. And congartulations on getting out there and doing your first race.

mike9903

Yah the whole iron fist thing really did not go as planned, just give me some time!

I learned a lot from the race and l am already looking forward to the next were I can apply what I learned and all of the training I will be doing between now and then.

El Diablo Rojo

Mike are you doing day two tomorrow?

mike9903

Nope, before I knew I was in it I committed to other things, I wish I could though the TT looks pretty sweet.