How long has it been since the last Florida Point Series race? I'll give you a hint, it's longer than I can count on my hands and toes, even if I had extra ones... Anyways, after nothing but training rides, last weekend's race was something I had been really looking forward to.
The Saturday race was at Pinellas Park, a circuit course. My first race of the day, in the heat of the afternoon, was the junior race. There was nothing extremely interesting that happened but there were a couple of new riders in our small pack. The finish came down to a group sprint and I came in 5th place in 13-14. It's a satisfying result because one of my goals was to get some more points to keep me in second place in the Florida Point Series. The highlight of my weekend though, was during the women's race a bit later on. While warming up, I'll admit I wasn't too excited about racing with the women 1,2,3 and masters +55, along with the pack of 4s. A friend [and multiple national champion ;)], Jackie Crowell was racing with the 1-3 women and I decided that I would do my best to stick on her wheel (for reasons stated above...) Turned out to be a really good idea on my part. Throughout the race there were good attacks by both categories, but I stayed right in the pack, nearly always in a good position. (One of those exceptions was when I ate my jell and then remembered that I was wearing a skin suit with no pockets to put the empty packet in) Every few laps I repeatedly surprised myself with how long I was staying in the pack during the 40 minute race and pretty soon the cowbell rang. Amazed that I was still with the large group I started moving up in preparation for the finish. But as the end got nearer, the adrenaline higher, the riders got squirrely-er. I got rather shaken by the number of near crashes in the last 500 meters. I crossed the line placing 5th, 2.5 seconds behind Jackie Crowell and just before my friend Ashlyn. The excitement of doing so well was great, I wanted to jump up and down but decided against it. (Later on I learned that our average speed was 28 mph, for 40 minutes...)
So now that I've written a novel about my amazing womens race, I'm going to counter with writing very little about Sunday. Actually, there's nothing really to tell except for was happened in the first and last mile of the race.
First Mile: It was more like the first 100 yards from the start was our first turn, a right. I don't know who fault it was (though I have my suspicions), but someone at the front turned left and half the pack followed. We quickly realized the mistake by all the shouting and did a quick 180. Just to make me feel bad, the only ones who turned right like we were supposed to were the 10-12's.
Middle: Riding
Last Mile: Christian and I were on the front of the group when our teammate Nick did a quick "sprint?" ahead of the pack and got a bit of a gap. A couple seconds later Jay, Lucas and another junior came flying around us and got a large gap, going straight into a bullet train of four. Casey, Christian and I quickly followed suit but could not catch the break who kept throwing nervous glances back at us. I guess you could say we ran out of steam and they got away going up the last hill. I rode in by myself and after dodging a couple of cars, came in 7th place. Lucky 7.
It was a long and hard but fun weekend, and it's finally over.
Can't wait till Lakeland!
