Race 1: Masters 30+.

You never know exactly what the first race of the season is going to bring. I find that these early season races are generally more tame and laid back than the mid season crit’s, which is fine by me. The wild card is the fitness level. Last year at this race, I was a bit better than expected, this year a bit worse.

Overall, the pace wasn’t bad but when I matched some accelerations at the front, I could tell the fitness could be better. Not much happened overall. With about 1.5 laps to go, the pace slowed a bit and I launched a solo attack that got me a little bit bigger gap than expected. For a few brief moments, I actually thought I might survive, but with ¾ of a lap to go, as I turned into the headwind and headed down the back stretch, things began to seem glum (I’m not Liam after all (see below)). By half a lap to go, I was watching 40 riders pass me like I’m standing still and I held onto the back for a field finish.

Definitely not disappointed at the attempted break, I like to race a race, and you never know what will happen. A little bit more strength and it might have stuck. Alas, the reality is that my fitness has room for improvement, giving me a bit more training motivation over the coming weeks as the heart of the season approaches.

Race 2: Cat 3.

I thought this was a glorious race for the team, as a team. The lineup was Liam, Newt, Briney, Wiberg, Morrissey, and myself. We knew that Liam, Newt, and Briney wanted to save themselves for the end so me, Morrissey and Wiberg covered many of the early breaks, and I think Briney and Newt tried some attacks toward mid race (there were always XXX jerseys up front and I couldn’t always tell who was off the front). I tried to do as much as I could at the beginning, because I was struggling a bit after race 1, and wasn’t able to contribute much to the second half of the race. Morrissey seemed to go with nearly every break and I thought Wiberg was going to make more than 1 attack stick, especially at the end. It seemed, however, that the race was going to come down to a field sprint. Newt, Briney and Liam were amassing toward the front in the closing laps, as two riders were dangling off the front. Then, with a little over 1 lap to go, like a rocket, Liam accelerates off the front and closes the gap on the two in the break, fast. I could see him just fly by both of them. It was a hard, definitive attack that you just knew was going to stick. I had a huge smile on my face as I forced my cramping legs through to the finish to see an ecstatic Liam lying on the grass, hands above his head. Briney ended up 4th and Newt 5th. A victory and 3 of the top 5 spots was a fine beginning to the season. It was a great race to be part of, everyone contributed and we cleaned up in the results. Team Success.