Farmersville

My goal at Farmersville was to keep the pace high and drop the weaker riders at the start line so at the gun I jumped into the pace line. The early races are always good for a stupid crash. I'd say 4 or 5 of us were working together pretty well. Each taking short pulls and rotating back. There were a few that just wanted to hang out in the front and we let them burn up. Then back to short pulls. I did this for the first 3 or 4 laps and then drifted back to see what was left of the group. I estimated we were down to about 40 of the 60+ starters. Not bad.

I worked my way back to the front for some more work. I was feeling strong. My power was there. My heart rate was managed. The course was easy. A little too easy but it is a long season so I will take an easy one every now and then.

I'd say on lap 6 (of 8) my heart rate started screaming. I'm not really sure why but I slowly drifted back in the pack trying to get it to calm down. I slipped behind Shawn. I let him know that I thought I was about to pop. I got all the way back to the back and it finally calmed down. I'm not really sure what happened but I recovered in time to move back up to the front half of the group.

The finish was a bit interesting. There was a 10-12% hill (very short) and a hard 90 degree turn into the finishing straight (probably a 2-3% uphill). Coming into the final turn I was in a fairly good position so I thought I might go for the sprint but as we were rounding the final turn the guys in front of me slammed the brakes. I was forced to scrub all my speed. I knew that my chances were over so I just rode the slipstreams to the finish line. Shawn and I both finished (guessing) top 20. I do know that we crossed the line at 31 or 32 mph and we weren't even sprinting. It was a fast race at over 24 mph.

I was pleased with the race since my goal was to not get caught in a stupid crash and to make the others hurt a little.

Here's to small steps.