I raced my bicycle this weekend.

First was the 8 mile Team Time Trial. Our team consisted of me of course, another Cat4 that is about as fast as me, and another kid who was on his first race ever. We dropped the latter about one mile in. My other teammate is out of shape so I did 90% of the work and even had to slow down a few times to make sure he wasn't droped. All in all a pretty unimpressive performance. I think we finished sixth ouf of eight.

Road race a couple hours later. All flat except for a small climb to the start finish line, four laps for a total of ~40 miles. First lap was pretty chill. At the end of the first lap/beginning of the second things started to get a bit heated. I went hard on the final uphill trying to create some sort of split. Split did happen soon after and a break formed, although I managed to not end in it somehow. Oops. Four riders broke away and I got stuck in the group following. Between a few riders blocking and the others not wanting to work and/or not knowing what to do, there were only three of us chasing. The chase soon became hopeless and the group settled into a pretty slow rhythm. I beat the pack in the final uphill sprint to finish fifth. Or at least that's what I think happened, didn't wait to check the results and they haven't been posted yet. After that we ate some fast food and did the five hour drive back home.

That was Saturday, on Sunday I raced a 50 minute crit. The course was really nice, with a ~10% short hill and a couple of tight corners. Took about three laps for the field to break apart. Two riders attacked and were otf, I was in a chase group of aboue eight. Some other attacks went and I unfortunately let a gap open and get droped, ended in the third group with two other riders. Second to last lap one of them almost crashes in the last corner so two of us went together to the last lap. I droped the hammer on the hill but the other rider was on my tail so I droped the hammer again right after the hill and left him in the dust. After the two corners I looked behind and saw a pretty good gap so I just cruised to the finish line. Well, he sprinted and overtook me a meter from the line. Oops. I didn't check results and they haven't been posted, but I think I finished in the top ten.

All in all, a fun weekend of racing. Next weekend is the State Championship RR which I really look forward to (really tough course) on Saturday and a crit where I'm bound to get droped on Sunday. Quite busy March and April but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much going the rest of the year apart from a boring crit here and there. Wish I could go to the Wisconsin collegiate race in two weeks but I have a stupid conference that weekend. Oh well.