William and Mary Road Race- Cat 3 Race Report

I'm a little late on reporting this race but here it goes.  Mike Tamayo and myself made the short trip to Williamsburg to race the Cat 3 William and Mary Road Race Winter Classic.  We both discussed our goals and race plan on the drive up and they were pretty simple.

1. Stay up right.  Regain confidence riding in a pack (no pack riding for me during the winter).
2. Be able to keep an eye on the race.  Know who is up the road and what teams are represented.
3. Mix it up in the pack sprint.

Basically I was using this race as a skills training.  I am pretty confident with my fitness level but I did do a lot of base building since I needed to reestablish my endurance after the last several years of dealing with my back issue.  Therefore I haven't really had the chance to work on high level efforts and I was not confident with being able to survive in a break.

Things were going exactly how I had thought they would.  First time up the KOA hill a rider from Careytown went up the road.  We didn't go hard up the hill and he just rode off the front.  Josh Moore and a VT rider followed.  No problem, if they wanted to exhaust themselves for the next 35 miles, go ahead.  However, the VT rider was dropped and the other two stayed out.  Within a lap they had 2:00 on the field.  As much as I wanted to chase, and Mike even asked if I was planning on it, I wanted to stick with my initial plan.  Not all races have to be about the results.  Sometimes you need to just ride some of them in order to race others.

At times the race did open up, gaps were created and we got strung out.  I was able to sit in, ride at the front when I needed to and keep an eye on the activity, close gaps as they formed and rode what I thought was smart riding.  Mike was able to do the same, I did feel the need to be on the front a little more than me in the final lap.  Especially when a small group got off the front after the final turn before entering the park.  The rest of the race seemed content to let it go, so was I.

In the final stretch I figured I would work to stay near the front and sprint, even if it was for 7th place.  I was on the outside as the picture above shows.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking but as I attempted to go around, the rider in front also was moving up.  I ran out of road and the grass was really wet and soft.  I went from near the front to the back instantly and just rode in, no sprint.

Overall it was a good race, good way to start the season.  Now I'm ready for Richmond Raceway.