I got my 1st win and it was a great race with lots of excitement. My group (cat 5) has had a full field since last Sunday, the rest of the groups where pretty full, so there were 300-400 riders present at the race. The course had several rises, but to most it would be considered fairly flat, and not significantly demanding. Well the wind had something else in mind, with 18-20mph sustained winds and gust up to 30mph, it was a challenge, especially considering most of the 8 mile course was into the wind or cross wind.
My race was 5 laps (40 miles). As always my strategy is to get close to the front ASAP, away from trouble. Right away I picked out trouble. This guy was absolutely delusional, ridiculous, and worse dangerous. 1st lap he came by me on a slight decent with a tail wind at 35 mph, and went into a corner hitting the yellow line at the apex, as soon as he hit that line his back tire let loose. I have never seen anyone so out of shape that did not go down, he recovered the severe low side only to almost high side. You would think that such a close call would calm him down a bit, but no. He then completely came across me in a corner almost taking my front wheel off, luckily I had my eye on him and reacted quick enough. I kindly responded by asking him what the f**** he was doing and told him to chill out, it is just the 1st lap. Well 2 laps in and he is still hanging around the front, I am feeling just fine with a nice steady HR, and this guy is on the rivet, completely maxed out just trying to hang on. This makes his bike handling skills that much worse. It got to the point where I was telling other competitors to watch out for this guy. Well he must have overheard me because he moved behind me. It wasn't to much longer and I heard that sound that sends chills down all cyclists spine of wheels rubbing and brakes locking up right behind me. And like that the field goes from 50 down to 30ish, with a hand full going down and the rest getting cut off from the group.
It was then pretty uneventful until mile 28, at which point I ended up in the front on a downwind section and noticed that I was making a slight gap and thought "what the heck" and just went for it. I ended up in a solo break with a pretty decent gap for about 4 miles. It was honestly the best part of the whole race, as I alone was being led by the pace car past other fields in a solo break. Once I got clear of the field I was careful to get into a TT pace and not exert myself anymore than needed. Well with about 8 miles left the wind won out and I was caught, the good thing was that in the process of catching me the field shelled at least 10 riders.
So I went into conserve mode and did everything I could to save energy, but stay towards the front. With hard efforts the last stretch we ended up down to 5-8 heading into the home stretch and I was 2 back. There was a slight hill just before the finish and I used this as an opportunity for my final attack and I went out hard, not looking back. As the 200m sign came into sight, and my lungs were exploding I knew that I went way to early. I blew up, let off and looked back quick enough to see at least one person behind me, as he went around I managed to grab his wheel and recharge for a split second for the final sprint. I had no idea who else was behind me, so I went as hard as I possibly could go, and managed to hold out in a sprint for the win!!
My race was 5 laps (40 miles). As always my strategy is to get close to the front ASAP, away from trouble. Right away I picked out trouble. This guy was absolutely delusional, ridiculous, and worse dangerous. 1st lap he came by me on a slight decent with a tail wind at 35 mph, and went into a corner hitting the yellow line at the apex, as soon as he hit that line his back tire let loose. I have never seen anyone so out of shape that did not go down, he recovered the severe low side only to almost high side. You would think that such a close call would calm him down a bit, but no. He then completely came across me in a corner almost taking my front wheel off, luckily I had my eye on him and reacted quick enough. I kindly responded by asking him what the f**** he was doing and told him to chill out, it is just the 1st lap. Well 2 laps in and he is still hanging around the front, I am feeling just fine with a nice steady HR, and this guy is on the rivet, completely maxed out just trying to hang on. This makes his bike handling skills that much worse. It got to the point where I was telling other competitors to watch out for this guy. Well he must have overheard me because he moved behind me. It wasn't to much longer and I heard that sound that sends chills down all cyclists spine of wheels rubbing and brakes locking up right behind me. And like that the field goes from 50 down to 30ish, with a hand full going down and the rest getting cut off from the group.
It was then pretty uneventful until mile 28, at which point I ended up in the front on a downwind section and noticed that I was making a slight gap and thought "what the heck" and just went for it. I ended up in a solo break with a pretty decent gap for about 4 miles. It was honestly the best part of the whole race, as I alone was being led by the pace car past other fields in a solo break. Once I got clear of the field I was careful to get into a TT pace and not exert myself anymore than needed. Well with about 8 miles left the wind won out and I was caught, the good thing was that in the process of catching me the field shelled at least 10 riders.
So I went into conserve mode and did everything I could to save energy, but stay towards the front. With hard efforts the last stretch we ended up down to 5-8 heading into the home stretch and I was 2 back. There was a slight hill just before the finish and I used this as an opportunity for my final attack and I went out hard, not looking back. As the 200m sign came into sight, and my lungs were exploding I knew that I went way to early. I blew up, let off and looked back quick enough to see at least one person behind me, as he went around I managed to grab his wheel and recharge for a split second for the final sprint. I had no idea who else was behind me, so I went as hard as I possibly could go, and managed to hold out in a sprint for the win!!