Race report 4/9/11

Its been awhile since I have posted one of these, but it feels like not much has changed. The big story of the day was the fact that the district line had a partial closure, and I had to ride most of the way out to Redbridge. Everything was going great until I happened to see some of the women's team in front of me and decided to follow them out the rest of the way. Soon found out that they had taken three two hours to cover just over half the journey that should have taken about one. About 10 wrong turns, and at one point two full circles of a roundabout, we covered the last 5 or so miles (5 if we would have known the way, we rode 8 to get there) in just under 45 minutes. I had exactly 12 minutes to check in, stash my bag, pin my numbers on and get to the start. Didn't get a chance to eat my pre-race sandwich, and rolled up to the very back of the group just as they blew the whistle. And it was a BIG group.

Racing today wasn't much different than it has been most of the spring. Except for the fact that I did it without arm or leg warmers! Still a bit chilly at around 70 degrees, but the locals were discussing how hot it was. I laughed. Big field of not much really going on. They ran the ladies open race at the same time, so that made about out on the course at the same time. It was madness everytime we lapped the ladies. If one or two guys tried to make a break they would let it go, but as soon as 3 or more went up the road at all the group would shut it down and then just stare at everyone. The last 3 laps or so were pretty amped up and things thinned out quite a bit, but we really came to the finish as a pretty big group. If the race would have been that difficult throughout the result would have been much better, but that just wasn't the case. Ended up of the the big group so not a total failure, but not much to brag about. 24.2 mph 26miles in 1 hr 5 min.

Those legs could use some more sun!!