Raced again last night in the 4/5 PIR race. It was a complete downpour for most of my 10 mile ride to the race, 100% of the race, and just a little on the way home. When I rolled up to the registration, I noticed that no one was warming up...everyone was under the tents. It was pretty amusing, but I quickly joined in on the fun (if you call it that).
20 minutes later we were off. I was shocked at how quick the pace was for a race in the rain. I had water being shot up at me off of the road the whole time. Weird thing was, the water coming off the asphalt felt really warm, so it wasn't as bad. Anyway, we were again doing 13 laps or about 25 miles. Hot laps (what they call primes out here) were laps 8 and 5. For the first one, I was set up perfectly, finished second in the sprint, and then realized the officials messed up and didn't ring the bell, so that sprint didn't count, but the bell was ringing so it was on the next time around. I didn't fair as well and finished the sprint in 4th. There were about 25 guys in our race and at this point I was trying to hang on. I was whooped. During the next lap, I got a much needed push from a buddy that got me spinning my legs again. Ok, now I am back in it. I decided not to sprint for the next hot lap and save something for the finish.
The last 5 laps I rode really well and always stayed in the top 6 or 7 riders. Coming out of the last corner I was sitting 6th wheel. There are two guys who always get a leadout and sprint pretty well, so I was looking for their wheel...Got it. Just as I latched on, the other rider I was worried about went way outside and started to sprint. Could he actually sprint all the way to the finish? I stayed on the wheel I was on and with about 200 meters to go, I went around and finished with a nice 2nd place. Made my ride in the rain all worth it.
Cheers.
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