Week one is over and I'm leading in the 30 and 60 seconds. I'm not far behind in 10 second, 20 second, and 2 minutes. Will try them all again soon, or should I say 'zoon'?
Today's race was three laps of Richmond UCI. It is a tough course and I have never done three laps as much as I can remember. 22 entries led to a pack of ten at the front. I was determined to be in that group until I died. The first lap got really hard at the hills. I had to really dig in. We wound up with a group of 5 that would stick together until the final approach in lap 3.
On the downhill in lap 3, I opened up a gap and one rider came with me. We shared the front and kept 8 seconds or so ahead of the other three until the hill. From there, we extended the gap a bit, hitting both hills hard. The three behind us split up, which was the plan. Third place caught us on the last hill near the base. I was in the red as the other two riders opened a small gap and held it until the hill starts to level near the finish.
I was determined not to let them go. I held my ground at 3 seconds back. As soon as I hit the level, I gave it a burst, then thirty seconds from the finish I started my sprint. It wasn't too strong but I built a lot of speed as I caught them at 200 to go. I flew by and knew I had it with 100 to go. It was getting blurry right as I caught them. Don't think they were focused on me but rather were looking at each other. It was almost the best way to dump the sprinter. They just didn't gain enough ground as I had saved my aero power-up from the very first banner.
I only took two fourth place finishes last year. This felt really good, better than the two wins I got in the open races in Crit City this summer. This race was hard fought, even with going a bit slow on the flats. I thought I would have to settle for third place. So this win was a shocker, especially being over an hour long at 75 minutes.
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