Friday we took a look at the course and road part of the road course to get the legs loosened up from the four hour drive. I was feeling amazing! There was pop, speed, and I also fet the Snake was nowhere near as hard as I remembered it. I told the guys I was going to have a good day.
This morning we took our time getting ready and reached the race around 11am. We went on a long warm up riding for about and hour and a half. My legs took longer to break in today but my everything looked good by the time we lined up for the start. I was 210 putting me on the second row, as they have call ups for this weekend's races. I had a great starting position on the left of the road and the rider in front of me left a wide gap for me to get through at the gun. I was in 3rd or 4th when we hit the snake and I knew if I took the short route around all the turns I would move up fast. It didn't make a lot of the other racers too happy, but I got there first, and rubbin is racing right....? When we hit the top I sprinted for a few meters and then got aero taking time on everyone else. I actually slowed down to let everyone catch me as I didn't want to battle through the flats on my own. The next few laps went well and I help my position comfortably. I was alway trying to remember to downshift in the small ring before even hitting the start finish so that if I had any issues I could fix them before the hill. About 4 or 5 laps in I forgot however. About halfway up the Snake I felt like my legs had turned to shit and I needed about 5 more gears. I look down and I'm big ringing it and I am losing spots fast as well as energy. By the next time up the hill I was done, I had nothing left having put it all on getting up the last bit of the Snake. I pulled over on one of the switchbacks and I couldn't see straight, couldn't talk, breath, even think. After a few minutes I walked the rest of the way up and a nice man helped my with water and ice. That was really nice as I didn't even realize how overheated I was until I started cooling down.
I watched a little bit of the rest of the race trying to cheer on my teammates who powered through placing 17th and 25th. It was a hard, hot day, and just about everyone suffered a lot.
The only positive I can take from today is that I have two shots tomorrow. I tend to push myself harder after a bad race as well. I don't like to quit and I have been able to dig a little deeper after a bad day. Tomorrow is Melon City, not an easy race by any means, but something I can handle a little better. I'll let you know how it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment