This was my 3rd Cat 4 race and I'm still learning a lot about postioning. This was a great course in Bethel. Not sure if any other races use it, but it's an industrial park similar to Wells, but with a nice, steep hill right before the start/ finish line.

I went out easy and hung with the rest of the pack for the first part of the race and found that I could usually pick a line that would allow me to drift into the hill and spin all the way up while still passing others. About halfway though, I tried jumping off the front at the hill, but couldn't get away even after a couple attempts. I still held on the front to try to win the prime, but just ran out of gas 3/4 of the way up the hill.

Towards the end, I felt pretty good, but waited too long to move my position. I was about halfway back in the pack on the last lap and moved to the inside so that I'd be in the top 5 for the hill, but had the door shut on me pretty quickly by one of the Bethel cycling guys who were working together to line up their sprinter. I hopped a gap over to the outside to try to counter that move, but it was already too late then and I was still in the middle of the pack at the bottom of the hill. I took some places on the hill, but knew I was way too late to wind it up for the finish and came in around 15th to 20th.

Anyway, the course was great and I had a good time, but damn did I have to fight for position with 2 teams there having 5+ guys.
What could I have done better in the race with positioning? I keep thinking that I need to just bust it out on the 2nd to last lap and see what I have left afterwards. I finished up with a lot left because I didn't really feel like I had the position to sprint.

-Oppie