After a sleepless night of loud trains and a very uncomfortable bed in a motel, I "woke up" at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for my races Saturday morning. By the time I made it to Athens for my Cat 4 race that started at 9:10 a.m., it was already 8:40 and all the racers were staging for the start. So, me being me, I didn't warm-up, and lined up next to all of them as to not get a bad start. (Big Mistake)
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| Cat 4 staging |
Once the Master Men finished, my class all moved out to the start line, and I got pushed back to the third row. Off the start, someone slammed into me, causing me to put my foot down to save myself from crashing. After that, I was preoccupied with avoiding 5 crashes, multiple leg cramps, and trying everything I could to catch up to the front of the group. By the second to last lap, I was finally moving up in the field, but by the time we came around the last corner, I was still towards the back. Once I saw the finish line, I did everything in my power to move up, and after sneaking my way to the front of the group, I contested in the sprint, finishing 6th out of over 40 starting racers. I was a little disappointed that I was 1 tenth of a second off of 5th place and the podium, but really pleased that 1st place only finished 1 second in front of me, and that I had qualified for the Amateurs Twilight race at 6:00 that evening.
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| Warming up |
Moving on to the Juniors race...
I was feeling decent, but I could tell that my legs weren't at their best. So, after a short warm-up on the trainer, I went over to staging and waited for my 1:30 start. My plan was to do what I've done in previous races--make a big attack and ride off the front to win. But, when I did attack, I quickly learned that I couldn't hold it, so I let the group catch back up. Throughout the race, there were a team of kids who would slow the pace down and then have someone attack from the back and try to go solo. They tried this 4 times and I was forced to close the gap each and every time.
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| Thanks to Wizard Racing for the photo |
On the last lap I made one final attack after turn 3 to surprise everybody and gap the field. I had a major gap after the last turn, but with just 10 feet to go on an uphill finish, another kid caught up to me. I made one final attempt to beat him to the line, but my legs were jello. In the end it was a photo finish with him JUST BARELY beating me by about an inch. I was disappointed that I didn't win, but still happy with myself because I knew I wasn't feeling my best.
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| Sprint finish |
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| Juniors podium |
And now for the Amateurs Twilight race...
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| Sandor and I in staging for the Twilight |
Staging was hectic. I went from being on the front row, to getting shuffled to the 6th after an unexpected parade lap. Once the race started, everyone seemed to move into the middle, and all of a sudden, within the first 5 seconds, there was a massive crash. I was right behind the wreck, so I frantically tried to move over to the right to avoid it. But unlucky me, my front wheel hit a guy lying on the ground and I flew over my handlebars. In the wreck I suffered a chain ring to the thigh, a slash to my knee, and a stem to the groin, but luckily my bike only had a dropped chain and scuffed up bar-tape. After I got up and assessed my condition, I decided I wasn't going to take the free lap. I felt that if I went back in, I would just get wrecked out again (plus, I was hurting a good deal). So I pulled myself out of the race.
And then Sunday came...
I still didn't get much sleep and I was still feeling pretty bruised up the next morning, but I wasn't going to let that be an excuse. I did my warm-up and then lined up in the Cat 2 Men 19-29 class. Off the start, I got the hole shot and sped through the woods. About 15 minutes into the race I got stuck behind lap traffic in a really tight section and a guy in my class managed to get around me. I rode his wheel until the last section of the course, where I attacked and dropped him.
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| Crossing the finish |
My second lap felt strong and consistent, and in the end, I won by a comfortable margin. It was a fun race and it was great seeing all of my friends from the SERC again.
This coming weekend is the Florida State Mountain Bike Championship, so stay tuned!
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