Saturday, February 18, 2012

Mineral Wells day 1 wrap-up

Today was soggy and cold. The weather report last night said it would clear up by 10 am, but it was still raining at 6 pm.

Joey and I waited until the last minute to take our jackets off and ended up getting to the start line after everyone was already lined up. I got a bad start and it teally dictated the rest of my race. I race better from the front, and I spent the day sitting in the back. Joey moved up quick , which is what I should have done, but I slowly picked off riders as they were getting popped. Tail gunning like that isn't a great idea in a crit, and it is even worse in the rain. It means you are behind all the wrecks. I got behind one that I couldn't get around and ended up going down and flatting. I got Back out after the repairs and stayed there until 3 to go. Joey was in front of me with 3 laps to go as the pace was gettin pretty quick and he slid out. The main field gapped us good and we couldn't catch back on so late in the game, but we ended up 19th and 20th out of 60 starters.

It wasn't the finish I wanted, but I raced pretty stupid so I got what I deserved. It was nice to get my first race of the year, first crash of the year, first rain crit of the year, and first flat of the year all taken care of within one hour of racing. I don't count the mountain bike flat from 2 weeks ago.

Brian played it safe in the rain today, and I think that was a wise move. With his bad luck here last year, there was no reason to risk it. Tomorrow is another day and he's riding so well. It would be a shame to have a wreck today mess him up mentally for the road race.

The time trial was a bit better. I didn't warm up at all really. It was really cold and raining harder than earlier, so Joey and I just hung out in the car. I rolled around for about 10 minutes and headed to the line. I started 3rd. I rode well within myself for the first half and never got out of my aero position, even on the climbs. The bike felt great. I caught my 30 second guy and started picking it up as I got closer to my minute man. Going into the last climb I heard a weird noise and noticed the non-drive side of my disc cover was no longer attached to my rim and was floating around. I reached down and opened the rear brake up so the cover wouldn't get stuck. I tried to throw it down on the last climb and averaged 440 watts for the last minute. I ended up with a 335 watt average power, and figured it would have been top 10.

It was actually good enough for 5th, which pretty pleased with. 4th was less than a second ahead. In a time trial, every second counts. Joey beat 2 guys by less than a second. Tires, tubes, helmets, bike fit, etc all make a difference in these kinds of races, especially points based stage races like this.

Our cat 3 team and cat 4 teams did well too. Our two 3s got caught up in the 2nd group and never stopped trying to catch the leaders. They pulled some guys around that out sprinted them at the end, but they were both top 20.

Our 4 team is second in the points standings right now.

Our 5 team would have been strong today, but their races were cancelled
Because the rain made the course so bad late in the day when they were supposed to start. Se with the women's 4 race.

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