Poolesville was a first for me and I really enjoyed it. I grew up having a long gravel driveway at the homestead so the gravel section didn’t really freak me out. Strangely, it brought back a lot of memories of riding my little bike during my youth. My brother’s and I used to have skid contests in the pea gravel circle which went around in front of our house. We’d measure whose skid was the longest. Lots of memories.
The day just wasn’t my day. I never felt absolutely horrible, but I never felt great either. I was due for some rest and it just so happened that the preceding week fell in line for that to happen. I was either going to feel superb or I was going to be a bit flat. Well, flat it was.
So, I pretty much just worked enough to stay with the chasing group, but I just couldn’t do more to help with the number of guy’s working to bring the break back. In a strange way, I felt pretty bad about my lack of enthusiasm to help, but it just wasn’t happening for me. I managed to stay upright and finish the race with a lackluster 19th placing. Afterward, I was a little down, but on reflection it was still a fun day to be out racing. This is supposed to be fun after all.
There was one hair raising moment during our last or second to last time through the gravel section when some guy (not a racer) was riding his bike down the gravel section. I was on the front in right tire track and Matt Braughler was on the front in the left tire track. We both started yelling at the guy to get off the road, Matt more so since he was barreling toward. I think he got over just in time, but holy cow that could have been horrendous. I remember us looking at each afterward and exchanging a few comments like, “What the f—k was that?!!!”
I was a little surprised to feel pretty good when I woke up Sunday. Igda and Leo were going to travel down with me to Leonardtown Maryland for the 35+ crit race at 12:15. This was a great race (with the exception of some kids or adults that decided it would be great to put tacks down on the course throughout the day.) There were some awful crashes caused by this it appears. A real shame that tarnished this event.
The hosting town and setting was pretty much ideal, a downtown setting with a lot of charm. Plenty of room for roaming around and viewing the race with café’s lining the start/finish straight. An MC giving blow by blow details on each race with loudspeakers mounted on the electrical poles around the town square. The weather was perfect, too.
I made sure to get in a good warm up before this one as this is pretty technical course and I’m sure everyone knew it would be fast from the get go. The legs felt alive today, unlike before Poolseville, so I was hoping for some redemption. It was great to see Harrell lining up with me as well. Really, it’s just way more fun to have teammates in the race.
I got lined up right at the front. Had a perfect clip in at the gun and was positioned perfectly going in to turn 1 when blamo…a ride punctured (see tack note above) and slid out. The poor fellow in front of me endoed right over his bike and landed right on his head. Somehow I managed to grab a handful of brakes and veer off the road without going down. Not good. The Kelly rider went down hard. I motioned to the moto ref to get someone down here. You just never know with head injuries. Thankfully, everyone walked away ok.
So, roll around to the S/F line and now I’m at the very back for the restart which was about 10-15mins afterward. The plan now became to move up as fast as possible without using huge matches to do it. Well, that is pretty much what I did for the first 7 laps. Being out of the top 10-15 riders going through the first turn sort of sucked. It was always a hard dig to stay in contact. Our race ended up being shortened a bit and we were told to pay close attention to the lap counter. After that, I just settled in. In typical crit fashion, there were plenty of attacks, hard pulls, regrouping, etc. The field was being whittled down slowly but surely. Nobody was getting much room off the front, but you could sense the chases were getting a little slower to respond over time. I guess I was doing a pretty good job of just staying invisible. I knew I’d have one good hard move in me, so I was just trying to find the right moment.
The challenging turn 1- 120 degree right after a short downhill:
At 3 to go, there was a prime. I just moved up a bit b/c I thought there would be lull after this. At 2 to go, the pace stayed hot through turn 1 naturally, but everyone fanned out after the little rise. Something clicked and I decided to attack. I looked back after 15 secs and I was solo with a pretty healthy gap. I just tried to drill it as hard as I could and pray I could hold it to the line. SO CLOSE. I got caught just after the final corner with about 100m to go. Just rolled in after I was caught...exhausted. It was pretty exhilarating laying it all out there. Just came up a little short this time. It was nice to hear a few rider's compliment me on the move afterward. Adding some excitement to the race is sometimes more fun than the result. I have no regrets. I guess sometimes you can’t be afraid to lose in order to win.
Yep, I'm in pain (Thanks again Jenn for taking and sharing these photos):
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