I'm quite happy now... it's racing season. The Virginia Cycling Association (formerly known as D42) kicked off the season with the first of two Snowball Crits yesterday. They have altered the categories a bit from last year; which I assume is from increased demand.
I did the Cat 3/4 race with quite a few teammates. It was windy, with a huge headwind coming down the Executive Dr. straightaway; I knew a break wouldn't have a chance in this race unless it was a big break. As seems to be the norm with the Snowball Crit, everybody flew down the start/finish stretch, while on the back straight of the course everybody sat up, causing swarm after swarm. I was very happy with my positioning throughout the race, despite the swarming, I was able to stay within striking distance at all times. A few guys tried to break away solo, or a couple at a time... but quickly found their efforts futile. Rick Young spent a little too much time at the front early on, he is flying for this time of year, and definately should've been there in the end. I kept myself out of the wind until the last lap, where I had to stick my nose into the breeze on the last headwind stretch (it was REALLY windy). The guy that won, shot hard out of the 2nd turn, opening a huge insurmountable gap. As the sprint started I lacked my explosiveness, but made up for it with a diesel-like effort to finish in 3rd. I'm satisfied with my result, it's early in the season, I just finished base mileage, and there were a lot of guys already flying. I'll be flying soon enough, I've learned to be very patient with my training this year.
Saturday I did the BikeBeat shop ride... a heavenly flat rout profile. It was a pretty good size group considering the windchill. Nevertheless, David Wilson was in hurt mode... although I hate to admit, soon enough just a handful of us were trading pulls... and it hurt.
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