Night and Day(race report)

as i mentioned before, today i carpooled way out to BFE el centro with a couple of racing buddies to compete in the imperial classic. aside from the long drive and having a tough time finding the venue, i think it was a pretty good day overall.

i had five days to obsess over the well-documented pre-race mistakes i made last week. the biggest, again, being that i didn't get much of a warm-up in at all. and i mean a few minutes of soft-pedalling on the trainer was it. not even enough to break a sweat before doing my sighting lap. fortunately, yesterday was much different. i thought all week about warming up and nothing else until friday night when i went for a run and visualized my pre-race routine by focusing on nothing but that. it must have worked great, because i couldn't even tell you how far i ran.

once we(jason, ben, and myself) arrived at the venue, we signed in and got our numbers. and as soon as that was done, the bike went on the trainer, the headphones were jammed in my ears, and i started my warm-up. the first good sign was that within five minutes i was covered in sweat and my legs felt nice and peppy. and once i knew i was ready to go, i then turned my focus to getting a good roll-off and staying near the front so as not to have a repeat of the first lap ass-kicking i received a week prior.

well, that almost didn't happen, because i was so locked-in and zoned-out on the trainer that i nearly missed the start. it was only when ben walked over and told me everyone was staging at the line that i realized what was going on. and with about ONE minute to go, i still had to put my jersey and gloves on while he zapped my tires and got my bike off the trainer. when i finally got over to the line, i was the last one to roll up with about...oh..20 seconds 'til the start. as it turned out, though, this might have actually been a good thing because that final pannicked minute probably helped my hear rate stay right where it needed to be and keep my mind on the race.

i got to hear the last few seoconds of the race referee's instructions, and once we were given the signal to roll i made a conscious effort to move towards the front of the group. it was a little tough with about ten guys trying to catch the rest of us off guard by hammering away in an effort to blow up as much of the pack as possible before the end of the first lap. and i have to admit i started to get a little worried when the effort i put in to stay with them sent my heart rate through the roof for the first few laps. but once i was able to settle in, i found that i was easily matching the fastest riders' accelerations out of the corners. unlike last week when i started all the way in the rear and didn't have the ability to get up to the front guys, today i had already made the decision to latch on to every move. in fact, it's safe to say i made that decision as early as last monday. and while it took the first few uncomfortable laps to settle in, i finally managed to grab the front ten and stick with them.

after that, the rest of the race was rather uneventful if you take out the moment where i had to lock up my rear wheel at 25mph on a straightaway because the guy in front of me decided to sit up and stop pedalling when everyone else was getting out of the saddle to drive into the next corner. plus, one sketchy moment after another while having to adjust to one of the many cornering-challenged boneheads in the early laps. there was one attempt by the front five riders that almost got away, but i figured since i paid my $19 to race, there was no way i was going to let that happen. the two dewalt guys didn't seem real interested in chasing them down(those guys never seem to want to make much of an effort), so as i went around one of them, i said, "don't try so hard." those two weren't willing to take any pulls, so i ended-up bringing everyone back to the front group on my own. they weren't the only ones i talked to over the last few laps, though. i found myself barking out orders and suggestions to hopefully keep people from making stupid and dangerous moves on the last lap. honestly, i don't really care about anyone else at this point. spill all the blood you want as long as it's not mine!

coming around on the final lap, i was part of a group of maybe ten riders on the front of the race, fighting for the win. and with two corners left, i was in what i thought was great position to get at least a top three. but as i tried to sweep around the outside on the final righthand turn, someone had the bright idea of breaking formation mid-corner without even glancing to his left and realizing he was totally boxed in. as i reacted to that genius move and avoided a sure collision, i was sent careening to the far side of the street at a less than ideal angle which actually robbed me of a lot of useful momentum when i had to both avoid crashing into someone's front yard and keep enough momentum to stay with the leaders. i did manage to do that, but in the time it took me to recover, i went from 5th wheel to dangling off of the last guy in line. the finish was about 300 meters from the last corner, and it turned i would need all of it and every ounce of strength i had left to build up enough steam and get back around some guys to cross the line 5th. a good result but hugely disappointing knowing that i could easily have taken a top 3 or the victory. i know stuff like that happens all the time. it's not the first time i've been victimized by another rider's carelessness/overzealousness and it certainly won't be the last, but i still feel like i should have placed a little higher in the end, nonetheless.

overall, a great result if you consider last week's result and essentially "re-learning" how to race in my head over the following five days. hopefully i can learn as much from this very encouraging result as i did from last week's fail fest and keep the momentum going in the right direction.