My First Weekend as a 2!

I finally upgraded and decided to try my skills last weekend at the Winters R.R. and the Suisun crit. Both of these races were fairly close to my home so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do both. The winters race was very tough with 4 laps of fast flats plus cantelow equaling 90 or so miles. The first half of the first lap was fine, the climb was fine, but the gradual descent down pleasants valley after the descent off of cantelow was crazy fast. We were going 40mph for... I don't even know how long, and finally eased up going into the start of the second lap. The second time up the hill was very fast through the fed zone and pushed me towards the back of the group. The final section of cantelow I was put into some difficulty and started the descent a little off the back. I caught up to the last group on the road at the bottom of the descent, looked up, and saw 6 or 7 small groups of 10 going balls out infront of me. Physically I felt alright, but my lungs decided to catch on fire after about 5 minutes of spinning my 52x14 at over 40mph. So, naturally, I blew up... was pretty dissapointed to get dropped on the flats, but what can ya do. Next time.

In Suisun I wanted to test out my sprint with the big boys. The race was pretty fast, and super long. Throughout the race there were always small groups up the road that never seemed threatening. With about 6 to go a large group of about 12 rolled away and I thought it was over, but some how the group I was in decided to go for the win. Seeing my opportunity get closer I began moving up and positioning myself for a bunch kick. With 3 to go the front group was within reach, and one guy drove the pace too high into the first turn washed out. I was 3rd wheel at the time and barely managed to get under him and the guy infront of me who felt the need to slam on his breaks. Now I was on the front too close to the group to sit up, and not sure how things were behind me, so I decided to bring the group back. One to go and the group was together for an ideal sprint finish, but I was too tired from the previous effort to get into the right position and ended up somewhere in the top 20.

Now I look forward to a huge showing of DBJRT at the Dunnigan Hills R.R. First time I will be racing that race eventhough I have been there watching twice now. Both times I had fallen ill a few days before. Lets hope for the best this year because it is going to be a memorable one.