SIR

I haven’t raced at the Pacific raceways(SIR) in a while, so I thought I’d give it a try on Tuesday.
I was still really tired from last weekend, still need to catch up on my sleep and rest my legs.
The weather was great, good course that tuned out to me my favorite direction and still plenty of time to rest up for the weekend…why wouldn’t I?
Since I moved up north, the drive down there is a major hassle, I have to get though the worst traffic clog of the region, taking anywhere from 1h to 1:30h at best. I used to live 20min away, and it was a standard Tuesday night ride, now it involves planning and dedication.
I got there late and didn’t have tome for a warm up, except roll around for 5min…well the first lap would take care of that. I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I went hard the first two laps, a bit too hard maybe..I just wanted to get it going and make sure people were hurting in the back. It’s a bit different basically doing a road race in an hour. It plays out like the first hour of an aggressive road race with a final sprint before you know it…fun fun.
I stayed up front all race and made sure I got in all the front splits that looked even remotely dangerous. Pruit was really aggressive and probably started most of those…
My legs were not feeling especially good all, heavy and very slow, I didn’t have much of acceleration and I could swear that my back wheel was rubbing, I actually had to check twice…it was just too heavy. I guess this why I probably should have rested…oh well…as long as I rest the remainder of the week I’ll be ok….. I hope. I wanted to try and help my teammate Patrick to get some points and told him to stay on my wheel and do no work the last two laps. I tried to stay smooth and glued on Richter’s wheel.
½ lap to go I had to accelerate though a gap and lost Patrick. I was certain he could get back up, there was still plenty time, especially going down the S-curves. As we were exciting the bottom turn, Patrick come flying by and goes to the front, hmmm, not the best idea with ¼ to go…He keeps going and now I know he’s not going to make it and switch plans to go for it myself…maybe next time…don’t panic, stay focused and follow wheels. The finish line is about 200m on a false flat after cresting the small hill. You can’t afford to loose any positions going up, but it’s a bit too early to start sprinting. Just as we are about to crest, I’m still on Richter’s wheel, the sprint starts, two riders get a slight jump on the right and manage to stay ahead all the way to the line. I finish fourth,,, a bit disappointed… I should have done better…I just waited a bit too long , and my legs were just a bit too heavy to accelerate on that kind of finish..
Maybe next time I won’t go so hard in the beginning.
It was a fun night, I haven’t done that course in nearly 2 years… I forgot how much fun it can be.