I got my bike race season "officially" going on Saturday with the Hornby Hills Kermis. It was a first time event for me, and not exactly what I expected. In the 5's it wound up resembling my solo winter back road training with the exception of the occasional 2-4 man paceline, and of course the lack of "gas traffic." All in all, I don't think I had the best legs - I am not sure why, just not the best day - but I was pretty happy with my ride and wound up 4th. The winner rode 2.5 laps on his own always in our vision, but never really "catchable." My group was followed by the car. It was fairly disorganized, and wound up coming down to a sprint, which I lost miserably. After the wall on the last lap, we had no threats behind us and nothing to chase in front of us, so things got silly and at one point I think we were coasting at about 5 mph trying to establish how we would finish. I went for a break with about a mile left but couldn't shake the two with me.
Congrats to Andrew on his win, and Brad had what looked like a strong start before his unfortunate mechanical!
Next week is the Battenkill, and I really don't have the long rides under me that I would have liked to, so this is more of a "do my best and finish as strong as possible" sort of event. April 21 is the BU triathon, the Binghamton Circuit Race follows, then it is the Bridge Run Half Marathon, possibly the Bristol Road Race, and then May 20, the Run for the Red Marathon. So several weeks of random events coming for me... and nothing is really a "target" race, but rather the most diverse month and half of racing I have ever put together. What it lacks in focus, it should more than make up for in fun I guess!
Good job on your first race!
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