I hate rain and I hate snow and I hate cold and for some reason it is the middle of April and we are getting it all. I was pleasantly surprised to show up in Indy yesterday and it was a touch warmer than Kzoo, about 50 degrees. As the race drew nearer, the temperature kept going up and the rain stopped and the sun came out. A beautiful day for racing. Today I was to head over to Ann Arbor, which I'm not sure I could have raced because I don't have a collegiate license, but also the weather is just terrible. I have a creeping feeling of anxiety as I feel race season is already slipping away from me, but I must remember I'm hoping to be able to get to a lot of the Monday night races, and I still have more races scheduled!
4/14 Eagle Creek Crit, Indianapolis, IN 12th Cat 4/5
4/22 Notre Dame Crit, South Bend, IN
*4/29 Mooresville Crit, Indianapolis, IN
6/3 Cobb Park Crit, Kankakee, IL
6/9 BTR Crit, Kalamazoo, MI
6/15 Zeeland Crit, Zeeland, MI
7/15 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
*It's a 4 hour drive and the race is at 10am
As long as I get Mondays off at work or at least out by 5, I'll be doing a lot of the US-131 series races at Martin Speedway! I plan on doing 5 or 6 of those, maybe more, plus the 6 races here are about 12!
Yesterdays race in Indy was interesting. Before the race, I lost a lot of confidence and told myself to just hold on. Do everything I could to stay with the main group and hope for something great to happen. I warmed up well, for about a half hour, and then I stopped at the start/finish line and I was just about the first guy there so I started the race in the front, which was nice. Confidence came back quick as I realized I could stick with these cats, the race started pretty mellow, which was to be expected.
The race quickly moved to being fast and there were a lot of attacks, each move was dragged back to the main field rather quickly. A large team out of Indy was in this race and they were setting the pace well, and keeping the race fast, so no breaks could stay away from the field. As I pedaled near the front of the main field, watching attack after attack fail and come back, I thought no move was going to make it; just stay towards the front and out of trouble and there will be a bunch sprint at the end.
With this in mind, I still chased after a few attacks, I wish I would not have now. I was thinking, maybe just maybe if I guessed right and got in a move, maybe it would stick to the end, none of the moves I jumped on lasted more than half a lap. Thinking nobody was going to breakaway, I happily sat on some wheels in the main pack, biding my time to make a move at the finish.
About a little over half way through the race, 4 or 5 guys did make a move, and it stuck! One of the guys from the big Indy team was in it, so they weren't doing any of the chasing anymore. I stayed put in the main field, thinking this move would eventually come back but it never did. I think the main field, including myself, realized this group wasn't coming back with about 3 laps to go, now it was about being the best of the rest.
On the last lap, and all the previous laps, as soon as the group made the final curve into the finish, the wind just blasted you, it was awful. Coming around that final corner on the last lap, I was sat probably about 6th wheel but I was in the middle; boxed-in. Something I won't let happen again. I couldn't really go all out on the sprint because I had no where to go. I finished in 12th with the main pack, and after having learned some things, I'm very excited for races to come.
Things I learned
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-Don't chase after small moves, you'll do too much work and the move comes back almost immediately
-In the bunch sprint, get on the outside so you have some room to move up
-Find someone who looks strong and follow his wheel the entire race
Looking forward to racing at ND next weekend, I have some more insight as to how I should race, and I'm hoping for a little better result than yesterday in Indy. Still good yesterday, it was a learning experience and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more!
Cheers! CE
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