Winning bike races is tough, regardless of your category. Victories are few and far between for many cyclists. When you do win, there's nothing sweeter.
Well, I won my race on Sunday at Jeff Cup! An unbelievable feeling! I raced the Masters 35+ which started on at 2:30 p.m. on a chilly, wet day. Igda and Leo made the trip with me which made it even more special. She's put up with a lot of crap due to my training, so it was great to have her with me to celebrate.
I won't bore you with all of the gory details so I'll just give you the highlights. I jumped hard up the little climb on lap 4 to bridge up to a Dave Kirkpatrick (GamJams) and just stayed on the gas. 3 guys bridged up, Stephen Robinson (Coppi), Michael Runnals (JVS/Casey) and another guy who didn't last long with us. That's all she wrote. Four strong riders completely dedicated to sticking the break and an un-organized peleton in crappy weather...game over.
When we made the final turn, the Dave K took a hard pull. I took a good pull and then Stephen pulled through. I jumped on his wheel and was a little worried with Michael right on my wheel. He was riding really strong. Side note: Michael and I went 1-2 last year in the cat 5 race. He beat me! We didn't realize it until after the race when we were chatting. Stephen generously sacrificed his chance of winning by setting a solid pace from 1k to 200m. Right after the 200m sign I could see the finish tent. What the hell? Let’s do this!!! I jumped from Stephen’s wheel and went. Michael couldn’t close the gap or come around me. THE WIN!
Really exhilarating to say the least! Igda missed the finish to boot!
Congrats and thanks for working hard to everyone in the break! It's rare to get everyone in a break fully committed.
My prizes (coveted chocolate bunny, engrave cup and a medal):
Amazing way to start the year. Hopefully, I didn't use up all of my positive racing karma at the first road race of the year!
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