CRCA Club Race #1 - M1/2/3 - Kevin

Goals going into the race were to ride smoothly with the pack and be more assertive about my position. Extra points for getting into break attempts. Internally I thought it’d be pretty cool to get a top 20 but it’s hard to say with these large 1/2/3 races.

I really need to figure out my routine as VP of Club Racing. I showed up about one hour earlier just to make sure that everything was going ok. The night prior I had constant paranoid fits where I’d check my emails to make sure I emailed everyone the right time. I was pretty warm after riding up but after 1 hour of standing around and talking to various staff, I realized that I was very cold again and shivering.

I barely had enough time to throw all my things at the rock and use the restroom before the race started. I marked a huge move by Greg Hruby to connect with some riders up the road and my body was screaming at me for not being warmed up. The wind made things really interesting. It was very difficult off the front, making bridge attempts extra hard and in both my cases, futile.

I missed the big break of maybe 5-7 and thought my race was pretty much over as the field slowed to a crawl. Around lap 3 or 4 however, the big teams started looking at each other and you could hear them mumbling that they actually didn’t know who was up the road. Due to that confusion, the chase was reinvigorated and we reeled them back with about 2 to go.

On the final lap, the real sprinters were really hurting. We left a gap with a group of 20 of us descending Harlem Hill but no one felt particularly motivated to leave them behind. I decided to work to hold and gain position and stick it out for the field sprint. I ended up going into Cat’s Paw with about 20 or so wheels ahead of me. There was some shenanigans up front and to my left and the field just started opening up randomly. It took quite a bit of weaving to get around. Was pretty stoked to cross the line for 15th with some very strong racers.