Race Ave.

Saturday Shawn and I took the long trek (maybe a mile) to the Race Ave Crit. It was a very standard 4 corner, .7 mile rectangle course. Basically, you went 2 blocks, turned right for one block, turned right...

Shawn did pretty well in his race. He finished in the top 10 (6th if I counted correctly). He looked strong too. Getting late in the season that can be hard to do.

As for me, it was a struggle to hang on to the group. My legs just never felt powerful. I knew a sprint finish was a bad thing for me so with about three to go I put in the most feeble attempt at a breakaway (like I said I had no power). I made it to the front only to be immediately caught and spit out the back. I tried to hang on but I couldn't close the 10 feet of gap in front of me. Eventually I was all alone so I nailed it for the last two laps just trying to not get lapped. I even caught up to some other riders that fell off the back after me. The end result was still not very good. I didn't stick around to see the official results but I'm guessing between 15th-20th. It was hard to tell because so many riders were dropped earlier and I don't know how many were in the peloton when I fell out.

Ben was there lending support. He also snapped a few shots. Here's the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21124578@N08/.

Next weekend there are two races I'd like to do but there probably won't happen.

There's the Laurel Mountain Classic in Wellsboro and a new road race called the Cheyney Challenge in the West Chester area.

The grand finale for MASS is coming up. 9-21 at Bear Creek a double points XC race (they also hand out season awards which a few Allied Milk riders should get). This course is probably the hardest of any race in the series. One year it was a 4.5 miles lap that took about 40-50 minutes to go around (do that three times). Compare that with something like Sewell where we went 22 miles in about 1:30-1:45. I've heard they changed the course this year to take some of the abuse out of it but the singletrack there is about the hardest I've ever ridden. Should be fun...