Blue Island Pro/Am, 7/12/08 Cat 4/5
Race #10

5th of 40ish

One hour, 25 miles, lots of fruitless attacks and lots of bridging. There was little coordination until the last two laps where a few teams made very strategic and smart attacks to set up their mates for the podium.

I entered the race planning on attacking within the first few laps to stretch out the field and to carve a spot near the front. After the first few laps, I realized what a bad idea that was. I began to revise the plan when I saw the xXx coven at the start line conspiring and Beverly Vee Pack with a sizable group, Tati had a few along with Wild Card -- and there I am, alone, and feeling not so strong. Hmmm…why attack? Right. So the plan changed to a simple one: keep an eye on the stronger riders from each team and mark their position. I didn’t have extra juice to spare and it was still a hard race.

The last lap was interesting. The pace died on the back, and even around turn 3, this allowed us to bunch up and for me to gain position. This was super important because just going into the final lap there was a crash I was involved with. I was bumped from my left and went into the rider to my right, he touched the wheel in front of him and went down. I nearly gave up the race there because I nearly crashed too (my wheel also rubbed and I suppose my bumping that guy kept me upright.) After the crash I was pretty rattled, downshifted and didn’t think I’d be able to catch back on, but the field had been broke up by the crash and I was able to jump back onto the front group after turn two when the pace died. We all recovered for the sprint then after turn 4 we jumped up to pace.

Bunch sprint, I finished 5th. I nipped only one guy in the final 50 when I sprinted. I think I would have had a better chance if I jumped sooner and spun the 13 instead of mashing the 11.