Still at it...

Winthrop

Another stage race. I raced in Walla Walla last weekend, and this weekend I'm in another small Washington town, this one squeezed in a mountain valley. One thing I like about bike racing is all the places you travel, if it wasn't for racing I would never visit small towns like this. When I first started racing back in Kansas, I always loved heading to small towns, which often combined a city celebration of some kind with either a mountain bike race or a criterium.
Although maybe I don't do much sightseeing or lounging around that fully immersing into the town would require, oh well

This was a new race this year, unfortunately the turnout was very low. The low turnout I believe was a combination of weeks of back to back racing, the two stage races the previous weekend.. and the local racing that could be enjoyed without having to do the 4.5 hour drive both ways, and get back home 10pm or later Sunday night. Too bad though because it tuned out to be some great racing with nice weather.

We started with a 10mile TT. It was a good rolling course with some hard hills, well in a TT after going full speed they were hard. I felt better and more comfortable on my TT bike then I have in a while, so that was good news. I still would like to be a bit faster. don't we all though. I managed to mentally stay pretty focused throughout.. still room for some killer instinct though, that I believe I had when I first started and have somehow lost. Time trials are determined so much by attitude and focus and less by strength and aerodynamics. Nathan took 3ed.. with an excellent TT, Jason and I were in the top 10.

The Crit in Twisp was a windy one, with dust everywhere. The biggest trouble of the night as trying to find some coffee, as all the stores closed at 3pm, we finally found a bakery/coffee shop with a London trained pastry maker, although tempted, I resisted to get anything before the race.
The small field and blustery wind made this an extremely hard crit, the first 25min were just about as hard as any crit I've ever done gaps opened up everywhere, every lap it seamed like I had to jump around riders to get across the pack. Jason got in the winning break pretty early and ended up 5th. For pride more then anything I jumped with two corners to go, but could not make it hold and got passed by two rides right at the line for 10th. Next time maybe this will be for the win I can't sprint with the best, so this is my best chance.
That night we were treated to a dinner at Kevin Ruf's dad house were we staying. We were very happy to see food, as we stumbled in with soar legs.

The road the following morning race was on a rolling loop that we would do six times.
It was a good course, but once again the small field make it impossible to hide. The fireworks started early and by the 3ed lap the main break was established, 6rides from 3teams. Jason and Nathan both made it. I missed out as I hesitated, why I don't know, for a second. I didn't was to pull the other riders up, so I sat on an rivalry rider and wouldn't pull though for the next few miles. Nikos and I than started to roll though, but not really helping the chase. I was hoping we would stay kind of close, and then at the opportune moment try and bridge acrossÂ…. It never really appeared.
The next few laps I tried to analyze the situation, two of the riders in this group where ahead of me in the overall standing. I need to beat them at the finish. I was feeling great and noticed that just about all the other riders looked like they were suffering a bit. With slightly more then one lap to go I went hard up the first hill, settled down slightly to look were everybody was. I saw that I had a gap and the riders were all strung out with big gaps, so I surged again and took of. Half way though the last lap I passed Nathan who was riding with a front flat. I though about stopping and giving him my front but we were essentially on the same points after the two first stages, and stopping would only result in loosing the lead I had on the group behind me. I was going flat out. I came screaming down though town for the last time, started up the last hill with about 1mile to go, I didn't let up until I was at 100m to go. I crossed the line for what tuned out to be 6th place. 5 min later Nikos came in taking the sprint for 6th,perfect, he had been able to sit on while the other had tried to chase me down; this is one way teammates help in a individual sport like cycling.
Jason ended up 5th overall, I was 7th, Nikos 8th, Nathan who had started the weekend so good was unlucky again, and ended up 11th in the RR and overall