Post date: Jul 18, 2010 2:40:27 AM
Our trip started around 1:00 on Friday where we packed Fred's car. Thank you Fred for generously lending us your car, without your help we wouldn't be able to race this weekend. It was a very tight fit, but we were able to
use our supreme Tetris skills to fit everything in. We had a long drive down to Murray Kentucky, but we made a few stops, once for gas and once for a pre-race meal at Appleby's. We stocked up on food at Potomac IL's
nightlife hotspot: Walmart. After we were fed, we made the rest of the trip down to Murray.
We checked in to the hotel around 10:00, I thought that I had lost my keys, and Waylon thought that he lost the quick release link on his chain. Luckily both were found. We all crawled into bed. Spooning positions were called
on a first come first served basis. We checked our emails, and attempted to do some homework. Soon, we went to sleep in order to wake up at 7:00 the next morning.
We woke up to eat some continental breakfast, and pack our bikes in the car. We got to the race site at an hour we thought would give us enough time for registration and a warm up. Nobody told us the registration line
would take forever to move. As a result, I got about 10 minutes to warm up and line up at the start.
My race with the cat D's started with a rolling start. I was positioned near the front but out of the wind. The start didn't launch as fast as I was expecting, and I started to get restless about four miles in. I decided to
make a move, and chase down a solo rider who broke away. The field caught up with both of us, and I gained nothing from that attack, but in enough time, I was able to recover my energy and didn't move too far back. Soon after that, the pack missed a turn, and we were flagged down to stop the race. We turned around and restarted, but as everybody was turning around, I lost my position, and had to deal with all the slow downs at the back of the cat
D's. It felt as if I were calling out "slowing" more than I was breathing.
Not 1 mile past the restart did a crash occur in front of me. I ran off the side of the road to avoid it, but I couldn't get around without completely stopping. I got back on the road as soon as I could, but I watched as
the pack slowly drifted away from me. I tried to bring myself back, but I realized that my race was now with the others who fell off the back. I dropped my head down and put my forearms on the tops of my handlebars,
and time trialed to gain at most 10 positions.
I finished the rather short 16 mile race in 37th position out of a field of 65 riders. I did a cooldown and met up with Waylon and Elena to cheer them on as they started their races.
Waylon started his race first, and made it through 2/3 of the second lap until the A's poured on the heat after the big climb. He maintained this pace for a while, but later realized that he could not maintain the level of effort. I was surprised to see him back at the car after my victory lap, because I was supposed to retrieve his water bottle to hand up to him during his third lap. I rode with him on his victory lap where we stopped so that the Men's A pack could waltz past us. We finished the lap to wait for Elena's return.
Elena came back after accomplishing her goal of finishing the race. The women's A's field maintained a good pace that Elena felt comfortable with. Unfortunately, she came back disappointed after she was dropped on the big hill when she found herself unable to maneuver around a slow rider. The pack sprinted away at the top while she was boxed in. Determined to finish, Elena shared pulls with another dropped rider to complete the 48 mile course. At mile 40 she bonked, and pushed herself to the finish line.
Thoroughly worn out from that day, we all just sat in the car keeping warm for at least a half hour before mustering up enough energy to clean up and pack the car to drive back to the hotel.
-Jesse Young