The weather called for 50% chance of thunder storms. So we were winging it for the most part. It was sunny and ~70+ deg at the start line, so I wasn't complaining...yet.
(I don't ave any race photos yet so I'll throw up this pic of some flowers popping up in our yard)We got going and I could tell w/in about 10minutes that I was feeling really good. I decided that I was going to be aggressive and try to get something going in this race. My teammate Scott and another guy took off early on and stayed off for several minutes. I decided I was going to counter hard as soon as they were reeled in. The field was all together and I wanted to whittle it down. When they were caught, I went, but the group was on me so I sat up. We hadn't hit the big climb yet, so I figured I'd be better off conserving some and trying to split things up on the hill. Prior to the climb we descend (I know Issac Newton would think this is weird and I did too, but I guess we gained enough elevation rolling that we actually went down before going up) And the descent was long and fast (50+mph).Once we hit the climb I went to the front and rode a good solid tempo and split the field down to about half (it wasn't a big field to begin with, so it was about 8 of us left). hat was too many for my liking and while about 4 of us were working, we had way too many passenger's and baggage; I wanted to split it further. But w/ people sitting in and a few of us pushing the pace, I knew it wasn't going to happen until we hit the climb again.
Second time up the big climb I again went to the front, but this time it blew things apart. Only two others were present by the end and they seemed plenty strong, so we started working together and drove that breakaway of three of us to the finish. Once you complete the loops (we did 2) that contain the big climb/big descent you turn off the loop and have a 10mile section to the finish. This is where things got interesting. Almost the second we turned off of the loop the sky darkened and it starting spitting rain. Bummer, but no big deal. Then the wind starting picking up fiercely. Sucks, but whatever. Then it started to hail. Big hail. Like ping pong ball size hail. And it hurt when it hit you. Add to that trying to ride 25mph and things were getting nervous. The hail didn't last long, but it was enough to shake me up a bit. With all of that, the 10mile road to the finish line seemed to go on forever. Furthermore knowing my madd sprinting prowess, I knew that if I took these two guys to the line w/ me, I was very likely going to be third on the day. The finish was at the bottom of a small descent and I remember there was a cone at the top of it. As soon as I could make out that cone, I took off. But my break-mates were on me and as I expected (and possibly because I expected) I got third on the day. However, the "fun" wasn't over. The finish line was in front of a fire station and as we crossed the line people were yelling for us to get into the fire station ad against the back wall. Why? Oh, because there was a tornado warning.
So it ended up being a pretty epic day. Great racing, excellent course, I felt great and it was the first time I've ever needed my helmet to protect my head for hail!
I was reminded of one of the bummers of winning money at races: waiting around for 1-1.5hrs to get paid. That part sucks.
Pretty happy with my ride and the weekend though.
I think it's time to start some time trialling next weekend. Looking forward to racing the TT bike.
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