Long Weekend of Racing

Friday:

This weekend's adventures started at the 4th of July Crit in Davis. I arrived in Davis at 7:00am to do my duty as a corner marshal for the early races before I took the line for the junior race. The race went pretty smoothly, I took a two lap flyer early on to launch either Taylor or Alex up the road and make Evan Huffman chase. Well all three of those guys went up the road, which meant the race was over for the rest of us. Zach and I had to cover anything that tried to go up the road, and just sit on everyone. I ended up in the second group up the road, with four others, where I picked up a prime and won the sprint to finish 4th. In the front group there were some tactical imperfections between Alex and Taylor allowing Evan to outsprint Alex in the finish.
After the Juniors Zach and I had an insanely long rest period before the start of the 3's. Neither one of us really wanted to warm up, which made for some painful first few laps. I have not figured out why, but that was a very odd race. The pace seemed pretty slow and there was always someone up the road. Midway through the race I tried for a few primes and won a large tub of cytomax. On the last lap one guy went off the front and everyone was certain we would pull him back... but no one was pulling. I went to the front a few corners sooner then I wanted, but I dug as hard as a could and brought Zach 2nd around the final corner (one guy still up the road). The solo rider up the road hung on for the victory, Zach got nipped at the line by one rider to bag 3rd place, and I came in at the back of the front group at 12th. I guess I caused a wreck in the right hander from my speedy cornering on the final lap ;)

Saturday:

Leesville Gap Road Race... That was an insane course. I had a ton of fun, but I definately need to work on my climbing more. Not too much to say about the race because my vision was so blurry from all of the bumps. The gravel was fun, the bumpy roads hurt, the climb hurt more, and I will be back next year better prepared... I hope.

Sunday:

Vacaville Grand Prix- A technical course with a hill in it. I enjoyed the course that they set up, it's challenging and fun at the same time... I thought so at least. In the 3's race we had 16 laps to do, and after about 8 my legs started to feel a little better. With 7 to go I covered some moves and got into an 8 person break that had a tiny gap going into the hill. Josh Rennie and I drove it hard up the hill and got a larger gap as the rest of the 6 riders sat up going up the hill. I don't know how long it was, but I think it was a few laps untill Russell White decided to make the bridge up to us. Once he joined us we stretched out our advantage, but never had a big enough one to hold off the charging pack. On the bell lap the field caught us, and I attacked again going into turn one knowing I could get a good gap through the tight corners. I got a pretty decent gap, but didn't have enough juice to make it over the hill infront of the group. It came down to a sprint and Zach got 9th along with some money. This was a very tough weekend and I am super excited to take the day off from my bike today.