Spring fling last saturday was good. Had a big field starting, about 35 riders. The prime lap got moved back to lap 6 so there was some time to settle in before the speed picked up. Was feeling good, managing to stay with pack. Was out of contention on the prime lap. was maybe just a few spots out of scoring points. But this time I didn't make the mistake of sitting in and letting a gap form between me and the lead group. with about 3 laps to go the wheel i was riding on started struggling, i sat there for a second thinking he could close the gap that had just formed but he never did. Went around for about 1/2 lap waiting for one of the 3-4 guys I was with to attempt to bridge. that never came so i decided i had to go. Definetly burned a match on that effort which left me trying to recover for the last lap. There were riders all over the place at that point, with myself hanging on the back of the front 10. Final lap came in and tried to put in an effort but still couldn't make up any positions. Finished at the back of the front group. Good learning experience and still gaining fitness.
The highlight of saturday was watching Joe in the older cat 5 group take 3rd place. He came around the last corner in the lead of a 2 man breakaway. He later said he knew he couldn't sprint with those guys so that was his only chance. The guy who was sucking his wheel got first and another rider just nicked him for second. Still very exciting though!
Sunday was the final of the perry dam series. Team Colavita/Parisi definetly did some damage! Dan Oldehoeft won the cat 5 open series, Britton K. won the cat 3 series, Brad Williams won the cat 4 series (eventhough they didn't recognize it). In the first race of the series, brad won the overall but somehow got scored in the back of the cat 3's, not winning the cat 4's which is what he did. Long story short, they tried to correct the situation but some other riders threw fits so they decided to leave it alone. Brad, only scoring points for 2 of the 3 races was able to take 3rd place for the series eventhough he deserved 1st.
Jane racing in her second race in the beginner cat 4, took first and managed to take the 1st place overall series having only raced in 2 of the 3 races. So now she's hooked and we've got her officially registerd with usa cycling as a team rider, got her a kit, and managed to sell her road bike on friday with a new race bike coming in this week. Watch for good things to come from her! She could be a very competitive cat3/4 racer.
so in my race we had myself with Steve, Joe, and the new rider Phil for team Colavita. I was feeling really good about this race. I knew starting that my biggest competition would be this guy I knew from dental school. He graduated last year and is apparently a rediculous athlete. First lap around was tame, came to the hill for the mountain goat points and we all stayed together until the last moment. The guy I knew from school sprinted it out and he took first and I grabbed second. The next 2 laps were fairly relaxed, take it easy, try to stay out of the wind and conserve energy for the final hill. I still had Joe and Steve with me who were offering themselves to help me win. Problem was that there really wasn't much they could do. No matter what happened it would come down to the final hill between me and the other guy. In retrospect steve or joe could have launched an attack by themselves and made the other guy chase him down to try to burn up his energy. Well, final hill and the other guy takes off. I'm right on his wheel, seeing if he's going to tire out. We get to the final 50 meters and I'm cooked. I look back and don't see anyone so I sit down and spin it out for second. Racing only 2 races I took 3rd for the series. It was however, the beginner cat 5's. Should have raced open 5's but saving $50 by racing in the beginners was something I had to do.
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