The newly formed Cycle Logic team was represented last weekend with entrants in the Juniors 10-12, Masters 35+, Cat 5, and Cat 4 races. Unfortunately, with Roger Montes winning the road race the week before, we were left with no place to go but down.There were 5 of us in the very fast, very aggressive 4's race. I was able to hold on, hang in and suffer for the entire race, but never did get a chance to get comfortable. I was in a perpetual fight to advance my position in the field and I'm pretty sure I lost that fight. On the downhill back-stretch where I should've moved up, sat in and relaxed...I was instead fighting to just stay on wheels as the group flew down the street in the near-30 mph-range!
The idea was to work for Roger in the sprint, but I couldn't even work myself into the front half of the field. With the realization that I was worthless to my team, I saw an opportunity to get to the front of the field while we were rolling up to the S/F line with three laps to go. I went up the left side pretty fast, frustrated from 30 minutes of fighting at the back. The group had slowed significantly, probably conserving for the inevitable bunch sprint to come in just a few laps. As I got towards the front, I made a split-second decision to jump off of the front and go solo in an attempt to pick the pace back up. Those of you that know me know that this was a futile decision, but 30 seconds off the front was better than withering at the back for the remaining laps.
In the end, I'm pretty sure nothing was really gained by my solo flyer other than the simple reassurance that I need to get a lot better before I can really be a factor in the race. The team got some great exposure with our new kits and we got plenty of questions about the team throughout the weekend. We still had a great time and we'll work out getting better results in the races to come.
1 comment:
Hey Paul,
We met briefly at the races (I was with Luis). Better luck next time and I'll see ya' on the road.
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