3/2/98
It's been a while again since I've made an entry. I've been somewhat busy with school.
I've been riding quite a bit, commuting to and from school, since Lan is keeping strange hours because she is working on her thesis proposal. I haven't made many of the team training rides, but I've been riding by myself a lot
Yesterday was the first race of the season. It was this year's version of the first race I did last year - the Tour de Dung... short for Dungeness, as it takes place in the Dungeness Wildelife Recreation Area, near Sequim, Washington.
Quite a few people showed up for the race. I was entered in the Cat 4/5 race, and along with myself, Scott, Jamie, Jesse, and Robert (?) where there. Jesse drove with Lora and Geneva, who were doing the women's race. Lora won the GC for last year's race, but this year she is Cat 3. A couple of guys arrived by the time I was on the second lap. These guys were doing the Masters category race. Michael Petty was there, but he was too sick to race. Others that were there were Tony, Michael Gordon, Mark, Matt and Don Wells. Don Perry had apparently got sick.
I was wondering how I'd do. The race began quite slowly. At times, we were only going 18 miles per hour. The first lap of 12 miles in this 48 mile race went really well for me. I was able to easily stay with the pack, something that had never happened before. There were quite a few times when the pack slowed down dramatically. This normally happens at turns, where everyone slows down. Normally, the people in the front sprint right after the turn, forcing the people in the back to first slow down, and then quickly speed up to catch up. This happened a lot in the race, except that no one in the front sprinted. It allowed me to stay with the pack quite easily.
The race was going so slowly after the first lap, about a third of the way into the second lap, I followed a guy who was going near the front, and ended up at the front of the pack myself. It wasn't going very fast. Everyone seemed to sprint up hills though, but they didn't continue going fast after the hill, so I was able to catch up easily.
But all this ended near the end of the second lap. The speed went from the slow 18 mph to a fairly respectable 23 mph. I was barely able to stay with the pack, and after a few rolling hills and some corners, I was off the back. The pack was still within view for quite a while, but my third lap was mostly a time trial effort. I stopped after I completed my third lap. Scott had gotten dropped near the end of the first lap, and he quit after the second. I thought Jamie was doing pretty good, but he was dropped and quit after the second lap too. Robert got a flat near the end of the first lap, and he quit too, since they wouldn't give him a spare wheel quickly. Out of all the ACC team members that started, only Jesse managed to finish the race. He was with the pack for the sprint, but he wasn't up front. The sprint seemed to start waay early, like aroudn 1500 meters, instead of something like 200 meters (which is what I assume is the norm). Jesse ended up behind someone who pooped out before the finish line, and there were so many people going on both sides of him that Jesse couldn't get around him easily.
Lora finished near the end of the pack. Which is quite amazing apparently, as Jesse told me that she stopped once because she thought she had a flat. She then time trialed up to the pack, where once again she was delayed because she got caught behind someone who started to slow down. So basically, with a little more luck, she could have won, perhaps easily. Some of us were discussing this, and concluded that after two laps, she could have just time trialed for the last lap and won...
I didn't stick around to see how the Masters guys did. I was getting sleepy. As a matter of fact, I fell asleep on the ferry, and a ferry worker woke me up in my car by hitting the window quite hard. That woke me up quickly.
I hope to do a little better next Sunday. This Tuesday is the first Tuesday night training series for the track. Hopefully it'll be dry, and I'll be able to drag out my track bike. I bought a cheap aero wheel cover for it at the bike expo. For a quick entry on the bike expo, click here.