Racing at Bryan Park

It really felt good to race again this weekend. The last race I had done was the Casey Auto Crit. So me and John Gray loaded up in the morning to drive to Richmond. I was excited about racing and had plans to be aggressive but that morning the plans changed. I was a little sleepy from the night before (worked at the fire station and had a pretty busy night). Also my training had been a little off for the last few weeks.

When the race started John got good positioning near the front and I hung out near center pack (I think). I felt like I was in good position to see what was going on but not have to do much work. I wasn't feeling great but it wasn't that bad either. At one point I got a tickle in my throat that caused a cough that lasted for like 3 laps. I did try to go with two breaks. The first was a two man break that didn't have much chance for survival but it was a good attempt. We lasted for about 1 lap out front.

Then with only a handful to go I had noticed a break that consisted of 2 Nature's Path riders and 2 Van Desiel riders (and one other I think). A DC racer made a move to bridge and I thought that was a good move so I went with it. By the time I had caught him we were with the break. It was a pretty big effort for me and I didn't have anything to contribute to the break. Plus at this time there were three teams with two riders each in the break so why should I work.

Unfortunately for us we were caught after a few laps. There were only 3 laps remaining at this time. So I set near the back for a lap to recover then started to move up. On the final lap I was moving up to put myself in good position for the finish. This kind of finish suits me if I'm in good position. As I was moving up someone went down. The rider who crashed was on the front and so naturally it caused a lot of swirving and breaking. After successfully avoiding the crash the front group was starting to seperate. I actually chose at that point that is wasn't worth chasing and trying to sprint so I just sat up and finished outside the top 20. John was with the front group and was able to finish in 11th. Pretty good.