This was the first of two races for the day. I figuered that the 35+ race would be the safer of the two. Well, nobody hit the deck but, this wasn’t due to lack of trying. What a sketchfest.
Pulled into the lot about 50 minutes before the start time. Found a spot right next to Erik. Headed over to reg. to get my numbers. When I got back to my truck Erik was warming up on his rollers. Thats to say he was bouncing between our vehichles trying to stay on them. Pinned on my number and did a quick spin on the trainer. When I went to change my rear wheel out the skewer snapped on my race wheel. Well that’s not supposed to happen. I had a spare and was glad it happened in the parking lot and not halfway into a sprint.
Found a spot in the lineup about midpack. Mainly so I could chat with Oscar from BBC and Rob from Taleo. Oscar had one teamate as I did. Taleo on the other hand seemed to have about a third of the field. Everywhere you looked you got blinded by the flourescent green kit. About 75 dudes rolled out on the whistle. Started out quick 28-29 mph for the first couple of laps. Then a few primes and the pace eased back. From the gun I was hanging out in the top 25 or so. I would move up to the top 5 or 10 then we would get swamped and I’d find myself back where I started. This was a constant throughout the race. As Larry had said on Thursday night this race was dicey. Don’t know if it was people being tired from the road race the day before or people not being comfortable in a crit. I didn’t see much of Erik till about 7 to go. He was moving up in a group as the line I was in was sliding back. I moved up and after a little jockeying was able to get his wheel. Let him know I was back there. He was trying to hold position but it wasn’t to be. We soon found ourselves midpack again. With 2 to go there was a lone rider attacking. Holy Crap it’s Oscar. He got a good gap and went hard but as the bell rang he was back in the group. Nice try O. Last lap and it’s nuts. Seemed everyone thought they could win and needed to be up front. Erik seemed stuck so I scooted past him. Heard him yell go Mike as I weaved through the group. Coming out of the last turn I was around 30th but had nowhere to go . Just a wall of bikes in front of me . This isn’t going to work. I saw a hole on my left and was able to get to ther outside. The sprint had already started when I hit the gas. I was able to make up some ground and cross the line in 15th.
Mike