Final Season Races Wrap-Up

Headed into the final weekend of races (for me) with limited training the past 2 weeks. With out of state (WA) family in town and daily trips to the beaches with 6 kids didn't leave much time to ride. The only time I found was the 4 bike-commuting trips to downtown Norfolk during that time.

I had low-confidence in my fitness going into Saturday's CAT4 race at the Chesapeake Criterium. I had made the Tour de Port/Peake weekend my priority races so I was working back on my build to peak for the cross season.


Photo courtesy of http://pedalnaround.blogspot.com/.

It was nice to have teammates in a race. AAB managed to get 7 riders in the field. I started off in the second row and immediately fell to the middle-back of the pack. I know it's not the safest or the best position but I didn't know what to expect from my first CAT4 race. The pace was high (25 avg) but steady. There were a few attacks but nothing stuck. From the back, I would watch as helmets started to bob up and down and knew that the pace was picking up. Usually, the only time the field reacted was when Bender or Steven moved. There was one wreck where newly upgraded Devendish (KH Cycles) "slipped on a banana peel" as described by Mike Lirette and took down the Hokie rider. The majority of the race I usually stuck on Shawn's wheel. As we entered the bell lap, I was about 20th wheel going into the final turn. I managed to pick off a few people and tried to get back on my teammates wheels. I finished with a 14th while the team had 6 guys in the top 15.

As far as my fitness, maybe taking it easy the two weeks was helpful as I barely felt like I worked until the final lap.

On Sunday was the PLT #3. There were 15 guys in the CAT 4 race so I knew I had a top 15 finish. Tripower TurboTim was 3 mins behind me and wanted to get atleast to the Griddle n' Grits store before he passed me (last race with 2 min gap he passed me just around the turn onto Benefit). The wind was helping on the ride down Shilleleigh, Benenfit and Lake Drummond but would be in your face on Ballahack. Bunch 0' Nuts road wasn't as bad since it's mostly protected and the ride back up on Shilleleigh wasn't as bad as expected. I managed a PR of 57.39 (previous was 57:54). Not sure where that left me in the CAT4 results but most likely a 14th infront of the DNF guy. Congrats to Mike Lirette for beating TurboTim by 1 second. Mitch probably scored a top 5 with his run too. Chuck had a PR too. Rob put up a top 5 time in the CAT 5 race then threw on his running shoes to go run a bunch of miles.

There's still a chance I may run up to Richmond for the GFTL but we'll see. Right now my road season is done and looking forward to some fun Cross racing.