Road Racing? Ehhhh....

Did the Cherry Pie road race on Sunday. 52 Miles about 90 minutes south of PDX. The weather was amazing; bright sun and 60F degrees!

The race was two laps of a 25.5 mile loop. One climb at the start/finish line. The first lap was a snoozer. Very slow, with lots of grab-the-brake moments. One guy broke away and got a decent gap, but the field just sort of sat there.

It was a pretty big group; maybe 50-60 guys. We only had one lane to work with, so it was hard to move up. On the plus side, people were friendly and polite in the field. No uptight roadie 'hold your line' jabber.

After doing the start/finish climb on the first lap, the pace picked up a bit. The second lap seemed to go by faster, althought I don't think it did from an objective point of view. My plan was to get near the front with a couple of miles to go and make my best effort up the hill.

Well, that didn't work out so well. I could not get to the front; the traffic was just too tight, and I ride with safety and politness fist in mind. I guess that will have to change if I want to win; you need elbows to get to the front!

The final hill was really two hills, one after the other. I was mid-pack at the bottom of the first hill. The race split in two; I was at the front of the back half. I gave it everything I had, and caught on to the tail of the lead group as we started the second climb. I pretty much had nothing left, and just held on to the finish. I might be in the top 20, but I might now. I didn't wait around for results to post.

Overall, not a bad day. More like a training ride than a race. I'd think hard about doing another road race. Without a team, it seems hard to make anything happen. And let's face it, even in a Cat 4 field I'm not gonna tear the legs off anyone. At least in a crit, something is always happening...

That's about it. Full set of rides on tap this week, assuming I don't have a repeat of the stomach issue. Just another happy day in bike pardise...