Race Day Report

Well, today we made our way up to Pennsylvania for the Turkey Hill Country Classic. First off I have to say the Turkey Hill People really know how to put together an event. There was free food, drink, games and events for the kids, great racing, great parking, great race course. I know there were a couple accidents, not in my race, but that is a part of racing unfortunately.

The Race: I felt tired driving up to the race this morning and generally lacking in strength, I think maybe I've actually been riding too many miles and am a little burned out. But it was all good anyway.

The first lap was pretty dicey with guys moving up and around in the field. It wasn't much fun to be riding in the group, and I found myself staying near the back. Not a great idea, since the accelerations out of the corners was actually pretty violent and it was an all out sprint to catch back onto the field. It was a fast course, but had a couple menacing hills that you could really feel, especially going straight into a pretty good headwind.

About 4 miles into the second lap, with a single man breakaway up ahead, the pace slowed down considerably going up those hills. I had moved myself up into the top 10 or so before attacking. I made it clear of the field and didn't look back, but was hoping at least one other guy would jump with me. A guy did and we worked together for about a mile into that fierce headwind, getting a gap, but like I said earlier, my legs were already pretty well gone. Finally at the start/finish corner I took a peek back to see the field had pretty much reeled us in. On the next bunch of hills I found myself drifting back in the pack and a gap actually formed. The peloton went around a sharp corner and started pulling away. I was spent from my breakaway attempt and just didn't have the legs to get back on the train.

I spent the next 1.5 laps by myself. At one point on the biggest hill, I did manage to claw my way closer to the group, but lost it again when they crested the hill and motored away.

Overall, I'm happy I tried something (bridging to the lone-man break attempt), He won the race and must be some kinda monster bike racer. Congrats to him. I also made some crucial mistakes that I paid dearly for. Ride and Learn I guess.

In two weeks I have another race so we'll see how it goes.