Greenbelt Training Series, Part III

Last night was another training race at Greenbelt which turned out only myself and Roy to represent the Union. We were supposed to have all four of our Cat 5's for the C race, however the other two had to bail at the last minute due to work conflicts (damn jobs getting in the way of our hobbies!) Anyway, the race was good although a lot of the riders seemed a bit shkey in the pack. I include myself in this assessment as well though I can feel myself getting better at my pack handling and I'm finding myself more confidently watching the back of the rider in front of me instead of their wheel so these training races are certainly paying dividends in that regard.

There was little action throughout the race and the total riding time was cut a bit short to more like 24 or 25 minutes as opposed to the 30 scheduled. I jumped one breakaway, though it was bad timing coming over the top of the hill and of course it didn't last there. We wanted to attempt another but the next thing I knew they were calling for two laps to go so I stayed in the pack and watched what went on.

Caught a wheel coming up the hill on the final lap and managed to hang on until just past the entrance to the parking lot where I stood up and sprinted past my lead out guy and held off the rest for the win. The ride felt good despite my body feeling a bit crappy and my calves still being sore from Saturday's beach run and winning was definitely a nice thing. Not too sure what happened with the crash other then the two guys came together back and too my right and rolled into the grass together before laying it out. I think other then a tacoed wheel though everyone came out alright.

Hopefully next week we'll get some more Union guys out for the race and we can come up with some similar results. This weekend is my sisters wedding so I may not get much time to ride, though I'm bringing both my mountain bike and road bike with me when I head up to Columbia. Fingers are crossed that with a couple of early rises I'll manage to get out for some decent rides out in some of the more rural areas in Howard County. I'll just have to hope I don't run into this a-hole Chip from WBAL radio.

Oh and as soon as I get the pics from Roy I'll throw some of them up as well. I think there are a couple of good ones showing the finish and the second to last lap with me reaching down to show off my dt shifters. This weekend I'm stopping by performance to look at a relativey cheap bike with STI that I wouldn't be too upset about crashing. I'm leaning more towards that route at the moment on the new bike front.