ToAD - Grafton

Chris and I arrived early enough to be able to enjoy another nice warm-up for the Giro d' Grafton. This race was not nearly as sketchy as the day prior in Thiensville, with only 1 guy going down. I started the race in much better position than the day before, right behind one of my quickly becoming favorite riders in the group Tristan from Team Mack Racing. The guy in front of us had a hard time clipping, so we lost a little placing, but that was not that big of a deal to me. I was in a place that I was comfortable with, so I was fairly happy with the start of the race.

A few laps in, I had another new experience for me, my rear tire was leaking. Yippee! It took me a couple laps to completely diagnose the issue. With each turn getting scarier, feeling like my tire was going to roll off of my rim. As I slowly lost contact with the field and felt pretty sure I had a flat, I rode to the SRAM Neutral Support to get a new wheel. They fixed me up and I was ready to go! I love those guys! Thanks to the free lap, the officials got me back in the field and I was on my way.

Following the flat, it took me a couple of laps to get comfortable bombing through the corners again. Once I had my confidence back, I started working my way forward. With six to go, I saw Tristan on the front, so I knew I needed to get up there. With four laps to go, I was on the front, but ended up in the back quickly because I was not willing to take some of the chances the guys who remained up there in the corners. It was good to see that I had the power to get up there when I needed to. Staying up there is my new challenge on the technical courses. Unfortunately, I was stuck too far back going into the sprint finish, so I had to just drop in the biggest gear I could spin at a high revolution and pick off as many as I could. I was able to climb back into 28th position, passing a bunch of guys on my way to the line, and Chris took 38th. Better results for me than Thiensville, but still not quite where I need to be.

One positive is that I have felt ready to race each day, but I did not quite have the pop at Grafton that I had at Thiensville. I tweeked my recovery last night to see if I could get my pop back for today in Waukesha. Kari will be racing the Cat 3/4 Women, Chris and I will be mixing it up in the Cat 4/5 Men and Brent will be mixing it up in the Masters Cat 1/2 Men.

Happy Racing!