Swan Island Race Report

Well things went pretty good at the race yesterday. I took 4th in my race. I think I could have done a little better, but I got a little bit unlucky.

The race was 15 mi. around a mile course; so there were alot of corners. At the start of the race I was a little shocked. The race started off pretty fast and people were flying into the corners. I quickly realized that i was definitely outmatched as far as bike handling. I just wasn't comfortable throwing myself through the corners, i guess my recent string of crashes was still too fresh in my mind. So I was constantly coming out of the corners way wide and having to fight back to the pack in the wind. This obviously got very tiring since we were cornering ever 45 seconds or so.

Well as soon as I had resigned myself to simply holding on and finishing with the pack, people started to drop like flys. I guess there were a lot of guys who were pushing it way to hard and they couldn't keep the pace. This is where i got unlucky.

Since I couldn't get though the corners as fast i was pretty much last in the pack. Well 3 guys at the front decided to break away and no one was chasing them down. After a couple laps, with the lead hovering around 20 seconds, i decided to try and bridge up to them. So I bridged up from last to about 5th, and watched the pack disintegrate around me. Everyone was totally stringed out and racing in pairs and threesomes, not good for chasing down leaders! I tried to get up to the lead group of three but just couldn't do it by myself. So I talked this kid into working with me to try and catch. We made a try at it but with 5 laps left I knew I was racing for 4th and only had the kid i was working with to beat.

We were switching on and off leading about every lap or so. I knew I was stronger because we would slow down considerable when he was leading, and i was practically coasting behind him. I timed it so that he would lead the 2nd to last lap. I decided that I had a better chance winning going for a long break instead of letting it come down to a sprint. So when it was my turn to lead i swung out way wide so he couldn't get on my wheel and put the hammer down. I opened up about 15 seconds in less than a mile; coasting in for 4th.
I still had pretty good legs at the end. Especially considering that i was by myself in the wind for at least 70% of the race. I know i could have at least sprinted for third if i had gotten in the break. Ohwell, lesson learned.

All in all it was a succesfull race. I got a good idea of where i stand compared to my competition, I earned some valuable upgrade points to move up to the next category, and I learned that I need to work on my bike handling skills not just my fitnese.

Race Results
Men's Cat 5