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08-20-08, 10:42 AM
It's been a hard road these last few years during my various knee debacles, but I should at last be summiting the final hump. As I'm more than three months post-op, and officially cleared to do as much riding as pain allows (which, by the by, is 15-20hrs per week :D ) and having rolled my flat TT'er butt off the front of the local fast group ride for 20 hilly miles last Saturday, I felt like some racing was in order.
My first opportunity to race was Tuesday night, and as I'm now a broke college student and not a petty bourgeoisie Staff Sergeant I carpooled up there with some friends to save on gas. As luck would have it, one of the guys who races for a different team and I were both doing the A (1/2/3) and B (CAT3/4) races and we conspired to "attack the crap out of" the B race to try to get a lap up on the field. I wasn't sure how well this would go as we're really in the height of racing season, but it's always a lot more fun to animate races. It's what Jens would do.
After several hard fought attacks that were reeled in by the field, we sat with 15 minutes to go, and my friend jumped again, I immediately got on his wheel, and we brought another rider who'd been aggressive all evening with us. Our trio had tried this before, and subsequently been reeled back, but with the pack worn down, and sprinters unwilling to work so close to the finish we gained a good gap that just kept getting bigger. With 5 laps to go I knew we had it, and we continued to roll at a steady 27-28mph. I'm pretty badly off sprinting form, and as we came around into the final 200m I couldn't come around my friend, who, no offense to him, I should be able to come around on anything but a vertical finish.
In any case, I'm pumped to be back racing, and I'll take a podium result for my first time toeing the line since May!
My first opportunity to race was Tuesday night, and as I'm now a broke college student and not a petty bourgeoisie Staff Sergeant I carpooled up there with some friends to save on gas. As luck would have it, one of the guys who races for a different team and I were both doing the A (1/2/3) and B (CAT3/4) races and we conspired to "attack the crap out of" the B race to try to get a lap up on the field. I wasn't sure how well this would go as we're really in the height of racing season, but it's always a lot more fun to animate races. It's what Jens would do.
After several hard fought attacks that were reeled in by the field, we sat with 15 minutes to go, and my friend jumped again, I immediately got on his wheel, and we brought another rider who'd been aggressive all evening with us. Our trio had tried this before, and subsequently been reeled back, but with the pack worn down, and sprinters unwilling to work so close to the finish we gained a good gap that just kept getting bigger. With 5 laps to go I knew we had it, and we continued to roll at a steady 27-28mph. I'm pretty badly off sprinting form, and as we came around into the final 200m I couldn't come around my friend, who, no offense to him, I should be able to come around on anything but a vertical finish.
In any case, I'm pumped to be back racing, and I'll take a podium result for my first time toeing the line since May!