The First 2 Races
February 22, 2010
The weather we had were the first two races this season were pretty much complete opposites of each other. Our first race was on a course just south of Chapel Hill, NC and was put on by the NC State Cycling club. The second race was the Donaldson Center race that was part of the Greenville training series. At the State race weekend a snow storm rolled in the Friday night of the race weekend. It did not bring very much snow, about 2-3 inches, but it was enough to stick to the roads and caused the race on Saturday to get cancelled. The roads were clear enough to race on Sunday, however at the start it was in the neighborhood of 22 degrees. And to make things even more exciting there were small patches of ice on the roads that were in the shade. Due to the weather conditions and it being the first race of the season I don’t think people were in too much of a hurry to ride hard at the start. There were a few who wanted to so a small group went away near the start of the race and stayed away. Despite this the team worked well together and got a 7th place finish. Not too bad for the first race of the season.
The next weekend in Greenville, it seemed like summer time. We had temperatures in the 60’s and were able to race in shorts. It was nice to be able to start the tan lines in February. The race started out pretty smooth and the wind caused and field split near the beginning of the race. But the group came back together, and then a break of 4 went up the road. That group was brought back and then a group of 9 went up the road, and I was able to make the break. We worked well together and built up a pretty large gap that stuck to the finish. The attacks started on the last lap, and I was able to go with them until the group came down to 5 of us in the sprint. There was a good lead out for the sprint, and I went with just over 200 meters to go, but it just wasn’t to be and I was beat to the line by less than a bike length. But a 2nd place is a good result for the second race of the season.
I don’t think we will have many more races as cold as the NC State race with spring around the corner. A 7th and 2nd in the first two races are a good way to start the season.
