Today was the Black Hills Circuit Race. I signed up for the Cat4/5 race instead of the 5 because I wanted a bit of extra competition to try out my strength. This was a 10 lap, 15 mile race, with a 750m 10% grade climb on every lap (including the finishing sprint.) After the first lap I realized this was going to be a tough finish, not because of the hill, but because of the way my body was feeling. I felt nauseous for the entire race and it didn't help at all.
I pulled quite a few times during this race and brought the pack with me to catch a couple solo attacks. I was pretty worn out but I wanted to win. I decided to jump off the front with 600m left and try to go solo to the line. It was working as I gapped the group with about 30 or 40m of road. As I got to the base of the climb I was dead but had only 200m left. I picked entirely the wrong gear for this hill sprint finish and it cost me the race. I couldn't get enough rpm's up the hill to move my self fast enough to hold off the two riders that past me in the last 20m. It was a devastating finish and I am still angry with myself about how amateur of a mistake that was to be in the wrong gear. 3rd place isn't bad for almost an 80 man group...but its not what I wanted.
any more pictures from tim kelley
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's just a friend of mine. He took about 10 of me, I was up front the entire race so if you were up there too you might be in em'.
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