Well this race certainly didn't go as I was hoping but it was still a good time and I met alot of really cool people. Saturday started with the road race at 2:03pm just 3 minutes after the 1,2,3 field took off over the same course. I was in the 3,4 race and was doing pretty well for the first two laps and then the bad stuff happened. There was a wreck in the middle of the road and I got stuck behind it. I almost got caught up to the group but just couldn't quite latch on and I was spent. Then I spent the remainder of the race just riding tempo around the course just because to continue with racing on Sunday you had to finish on Saturday. I ended up 71 out of 85 finishers and countless DNFer's. It was sad to finish like that considering how well the race had started but I survived to race another day.
On Sunday morning more bad luck started early. My TT start time was 9:42am and it was only 42*. Here is my picture of me warming up on the trainer and gasping for air while having an asthma attack just doing an easy spin before my actual TT warm up routine.
It was a fun course, starting with 5.5 flat miles before you really started to go up. I knew I was in trouble from the start when I couldn't breathe and my speeds on the flat terrain were low. Then once I got to the mountain part of the course I really began to struggle. I still could barely breathe and now I was trying to mash away up the climb in a 42x27 gear. I put on the biggest cassette i own but didn't want to bother changing my chain rings for this one race. My time put me mid-pack, even with all that working against me. So I had to be a little happy.
The crit. in the afternoon didn't start until 2:25pm so I had a while to wait. I went and got something to eat and then went to the race venue to see all of the earlier races. This whole time I was very tired from the combination of the two previous races, having to wake up early the previous two mornings (Saturday to get up and drive to the race and Sunday to get up for the TT), and lastly I was tired from the 4 1/2 drive to the race venue on Saturday. The crit. was 25 laps long or about 23 miles. I started with no snap in my legs and dangled near the back for about 5 laps at which point I decided that I wasn't moving up any and I just kept falling further behind out of corners so I decided to pull the plug on the weekend's racing a little early.
It was a good time and a wonderfully organized race. The competition at this race far superseded any at any other 3,4 race I've ever been a part of. I'm really glad I got to experience this event but only wish I could have had a better showing for Ag3r/Indianacycling.com.
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