9/20/97
Just did my last road race of the season, and, boy, am I tired. I started my day waking up at 6AM and riding my bike 30 minutes to get to Don's house. From there, we took Michael Petty's van to the race in Port Orchard, which was about 1.5 hours away.
Alan Petrie was there, as was another Hedonspeed member. I heard after the race that Alan had a solo breakaway for a long while, but was later caught by the pack. Later yet, I learned that it was Michael Petty that was largely responsible for the pack catching him, although he says that the pack probably would have caught him anyways.
I had a pretty good start, with only two people in front of me for the first couple hundred yards. Then when the pack reformed, I was in the lead for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Then the pack blew right by. I wasn't the only one off the pack. I was in sight of the pack for at least one and a half laps. I was pulling some guy riding a Fondriest bike for awhile, and eventually I was surprised to see Don Petty. He apparently wasn't feeling in top form, and soon, Don and I were sharing pulls. After a lap or two of this, Don managed to get the guy on the Fondriest to share in the pulls. That's how I finished the race, taking fairly short pulls while Don took long pulls that lasted half a lap, and the hilly part at that. I think this may be the first race where I didn't get lapped!
After an eternity of being in a paceline averaging over 20mph for the first time in my racing career, the last lap finally came up. From the pattern of pulls we were taking, I was supposed to take the last pull that would end at the finish line. I didn't want to mess up the rhythm, so I started my turn at the front of the paceline normally. I was thinking that I will do a decent job of pulling the other two guys until at least the 200 meter mark which is about where the sprints generally begin. But after a few minutes at the front, the guy on the Fondriest decides that he can power away from us and takes off. Don must have been waiting for his move, because he was right with him. Later Don told me that he was thinking of blowing by both of us much earlier, but decided to see what the Fondriest guy was up to. By the time I got my sprint going, the other two had about a 20 ft. lead from me. I was pretty certain that Don was going to beat the other guy, but I was wondering if it would be possible to for me to catch the other guy. I wasn't sure if the Fondriest guy gave up when he couldn't beat Don, but with about 15 ft. to the finish line, I blew right past him. I was kind of surprised that I did.
All in all, a very good end to my first racing season. My next race will be in a week, maybe, in the form of a cyclocross race.
After the race, I rode another 40 minutes to get to school from my house. I am now very, very tired.