T-Bones Rare

Weekend at the Races 2010 Part I May 4, 2010

Well after a years hiatus it’s time to start writing again. I’ve made a major change in racing this year with my decision to move over to Juventus. The choice was a logical one for me as I felt I needed to join a club with more emphasis on racing. And I got what I was looking for. Riding with the more advanced riders in the club is going to be a good challenge for me this year and should help raise my overall fitness level which feels like it has been stagnating for about a year.

This weekend’s event is the Velocity Stage Race, back after a year’s break when Velocity only held a road race last year. As usual things started off with an ITT of just under 10 km. As I drove out from the city to the course it got increasingly foggier, which I thought was good sign as the last couple of ITT’s held out there have been rather windy. As I warmed the fog started to clear as was pretty much done by the time I started. The ITT went not too badly for me. My time was 00:15:17 for a 23rd or 24th place finish. Overall I didn’t feel like I was getting into the rhythm of the race until the last few KM’s. These short ones are always a bit hard to pace. But I felt good at the end of my ride and I was OK with the time for an early season race. I was passed by my 30 second and minute man but I did manage to catch my 30 second man. So it felt like a good effort overall on my part.

The crit went about as i expected, I got dropped from the main pack fairly quickly. However this time I was actually able to work with some other riders from Juventus and we put in a good effort. The only problem was at the end of the race when we got lapped by the leaders, also from our club. There was much confusion about what lap we were on and we ended up not racing the last lap as we thought we were done. I felt pretty good at the end of the race, my legs having that good feeling burn. It was great to see fellow club members taking the lead after the first two stages.

I was more than ready for the road race, unfortunately I was unable to participate due a a bit of a family emergency on Sunday. Well that was the weekend of racing. I’m looking forward the rest of the season.