Slammer Road Race

Last Sunday was the first Road Race of the 2007 racing season. The Slammer Road Race is where everyone finds out who trained and who didn't over the winter. Or it was until the time trial was added to the spring road racing series. Since I was sick and ended up in 13'th place, I was looking for a good result to prove myself. The course is a flat loop with a short steep hill about 4 miles from the finish that we go over 3 times. The weather was great, almost 70 degrees and the field was about 45 cat 4/5 men. The first 2 laps were done at a very easy pace about 19 mph. There were a couple of attacks and each time up the hill we pushed the pace and dropped a few riders. I spent most of my time near the front with my buddy Zach Crowe. There was a good cross wind coming down Kuna Mora road and I tried to organize an echelon to put the pressure on the guys at the back, but as usual it was like trying to herd cats. That didn't happen so we all waited for the finish. Even with the mellow pace we came to the finish with only 20 riders or so.

I was about 6 wheels back at the 1K mark in a good position. One of the Georges riders came to the front to lead out his buddy and started with about 800 meters to go. He only lasted about 100 meters and left his buddy out with 600-700 meters to go. That obviously didn't work and they they both ending up finished a little ways down the field. At 250 meters to go, an unattached rider opened the sprint and I was a little late following. Since no one else went, I was forced to jump myself, going a little earlier than I wanted to, but I was able to hold off the field for a 2nd place finish. The rider who jumped had a good sprint, it's debatable if I had gone with his move if I would have been able to come around him for a win. He read the race a little better than I did and it payed off for him.

This weekend is the first Criterium of the season on a new crit series. I'm using this race as a VO2 workout, so I'm not planning on doing well, but I'll post the results after the race.