Yesterday was my first Superweek race this year. My 2nd P/1/2 race ever. And it all starts in a 100 mile death march through Alpine Valley. But I think I had a good start to my Superweek I finished, more than most can say.
My race went off at noon and started off nice with a comfortable speed. Getting my bearings I looked around to see the teams there. Karl Menzies was the only one from Health Net, 3 riders from BMC, a couple Colavita riders, about 4 from A&F, and then just a bunch of other guys....with a squad of Hong Kong riders that were a little sketchy on their bikes. The first lap was pretty easy I thought, but half way through the lap I could see the field in front of me, but it was small...awesome...I'm positioned nicely in the middle of the peloton. I look back and I have 2 riders behind me. What the hell!?! About 1/4 of the field was shelled just 1/2 lap into the race. Wow. I kept with them....
Lap two comes around. We're still going nice and slow. A BMC rider is up the road. We get to the first climb of the lap and theres beeping and whistles and chaos. All of a sudden 8 or so Cat 3 riders come blasting around us with Dallas at the front of it keeping the pace. Dallas actually pulled back the BMC rider out front for us. Well, our field wants in on that even though we're not in the same gruppetto. So all of a sudden our race gets fast and strung out. During one straight we're booking it at about 35 mph...with a crosswind. Lap 3 was the same and a group of 5 got off the front involving Menzies (Health Net), Dierking (A&F), Jensen (Trek), and then 2 colavita riders. Then lap 4 my legs decided they didn't want to spin up one of the climbs....crap crap crap. And then I was dropped. I tried hard to catch back on and by this time the peloton was very small. I caught up to another dropped rider...we worked hard, but he was pessimistic. I couldn't have that. At the end of that lap he said that he's out...I keep going for some crazy reason. Later on in Lap 5 the rest of the Cat 3 field catches me and on the back were 3 other P/1/2 riders. Dan from Turin comes to me and pretty much says "if you're in for the long haul I'll join you". How can I say no. So then it was Dan (Turin), Christopher (Hong Kong) and me. The next 5 laps we just keep the pace steady so we don't blow up. Dan and I did all the work...the Hong Kong rider pretty much exploded, but had enough to stay on our wheels. With 2 laps to go he tells us that his body is fried, but he wants to finish. He asks us if we can help him get to the finish. Well, if he doesn't sprint around us and gets 3rd in our group Dan and I are fine with that. He agrees. Oh...and he's also only 17 and his coach is making him do every Superweek race...which is insane to do to a 17 year old. Hopefully he doesn't get too burnt out.
The last two laps were just killer...you know you're almost done, but it hurts after all that time already spent on the bike. But we got it done. I let Dan come in 1st in our group, I came in 2nd and, Christopher in 3rd. Well, I'm happy I stayed in it. I hear that about 65-70 guys started the race...well only 30 finished with me placing 29th. Thats in the money and what I'm proud of is that I finished. It was a hard race though...I wasn't even going to do the race and then decided to. I guess it was worth it. But I still don't quite like AV...not gonna lie.
Well, today is Whitnall...only 90Km of racing today. It'll be fast but not as hard as yesterday. I'm just going to stay in the group and then hopefully have a good position at the end to get a good sprint in.
P.S. Lets hope that Brandon Gavic (A&F) is alright. He was in a crash and looks like he may have a broken collarbone. Get well, or just be well now.
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