Before the start of the race, I was talking with both Chris and Tristan that I did not believe we would be as fast as Fond du Lac (26mph avg). I thought we would be fast, but not quite that fast. I just did not see the group putting out 26mph efforts two days in a row, especially with the wicked turn 2. Boy, was I wrong or what?
The day started much like every other day during the later part of the week: body woke up at 5:30, I forced myself to sleep until 7, got up, puttered on my computer while watching Psych on Netflix, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, and waited on Chris. Once at the course, we got registered, pottied and then I went to look for the medics. As much as I love those guys, I really wanted to punch one of them yesterday. Not for any fault of his own, he did patch me up quite nicely, but because my nerve endings are finally re-growing in my hip and the application of ointment caused a searing pain rivaled by few experiences in my life. When he rubbed it in, the pain only grew. I hobbled back to the truck, cursing under my breath. If you know me, I try not to curse too much, if at all. It tends to get reserved for moments like this. I hurriedly got my stuff together at the truck, so we could head out on the warm-up ride. I figured riding my bike would help alleviate the pain. While it did not, it at least got my mind off of it enough that I could focus on the task at hand - prepping my legs for downer.
Following our warm-up, we headed over to the start line to try to get a good spot in the field. As the race began, many of the new riders that joined us quickly fell off the pace as we charged along. Glancing at our average speed from time to time, I figured that a break would not stick in our race today, so I let myself float in the back waiting until the appropriate time to move forward. Seeing Tristan trying to mix things up at the front and go for a breakaway, I started working my way forward. By the time I got up there, he had already drifted back into the pack. Now that I knew roughly how long it took for me to get to the front, I settled back in to the pack to save up for the finish. With about 4-5 laps to go, I started working my way forward. The one thing I did not factor in was that the announcers were going to give away money and stuff every lap for the last few laps. Instead of having a keen sense of the rhythm of the race, the dynamics completely changed and I was unable to get back up like I planned. I tried every lap to climb up the field. While I made some headway, I was not in contention for the top spots coming into the home stretch. I rode hard up the finishing straight, picking riders off, but I figured I was too far back to worry about points or money. I ended up 23rd and Chris finished 43rd.
The thing I was frustrated with was that I did not feel like I worked all that hard. It actually seemed like a fairly easy race and I had a gob of energy left in the tank. Chris and I have already decided to light some fireworks today in Madison, since it is the last day of ToAD. Leave everything we have on the road. With us being way out of the overall, I'm 31st and Chris is 53rd, nothing left to do than kick some tail today and help those with chances of moving up the leader board mix things up. If you're in Madison, come on down to the Capital square and watch some bike racing!
Happy Racing!
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