This Sunday I raced the Cat 5 35+ division. There were about 35 starters for the four lap race on the 5 mile course. I saw an old buddy Chad there. He introduced me to a couple of his buddies; there were four of us from three different teams. There was a little excitement on the first lap as the guy right next to me went down. He hit my leg, but not hard enough to make it scary. It turns out he hit Chad's rear wheel.
I'm still figuring out this road racing thing, just hanging out in the pack. Just for fun I rode off the front on the second lap. Unsurprisingly, nobody followed the new guy with the mountain bike gear and probably the oldest bike out there. On the third lap, I was hanging out on the back of the pack on the left side when some guy blows by, so I figure what the heck, I'll go with him. Nobody else came with us, and I pulled in front of him, but he didn't even stay. With probably 20 minutes to go, I figured I'd never make it, so I sat up and waited for what seemed like forever for the pack to catch up. If I knew they were going that slow, maybe I would have kept going.
Finally some action happens about about 1/3 into the final lap. Chad and I somehow end up at the front and he says. Lets go, we can make it. So we hit it. Another dude comes up and passes both of us. It seemed like he was going so fast that I didn't bother to try and stay with him. Chad did, and they were able to hold off the pack until the finish. It seems that in this situation, you have to always go with the guy, or to at least try initially. A fun race, and I'll be doing the
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=4055 Palmer Library race next Sunday. This might be more exiting since it is twice as long.
