banana belt number 2

another sunday morning up at 6 am to get ready to head to the race. to add to the feeling of earlyness, day light savings started that morning at 2 am. ouch. daniel and i were supposed to drive out together to conserve a little energy as apposed to riding the 17 miles to the race from the light rail in hillsboro. felt too easy to just jump in the truck and drive out but i can’t say i didn’t like the ease of drinking coffee at 7 am in a heated truck cab. daniel over slept and didn’t answer so i ended up going solo. passing a couple riders on the way out sparked a little guilt for not being a “tough guy” but also for driving to a race alone. the morning was cold and clear. knickers, booties and gloves. the race started with a crash in the staging area and we were off. the race was punchier with attacks and counter attacks. everyone was a little more willing to use team tactics this week. a break of 5 got away in the first couple laps and everyone just wrote it off as a passing attack. the gap opened and held steady at 30 seconds. kevin hulick, some guy with sideburns and argyle socks and i spent a lot of time trying to work to bring in the gap but the teammates of eventual winner worked against us. frustrating. the group stayed together and in the last lap, there were a bunch of stupid pile ups and crashes. i stayed out of all of them and worked up towards the front for the 500 meter mark. nothing worst than having to break in the sprint. argg. i finished in the group but refused to sprint for 20th place. after all it is a cat 3 race in march. i am not breaking my neck for an amateur race. it was a good race and i had a blast working for the gentle lovers and veloshop. next week is 66 miles and the last of the series.

monday morning and i am off to the shop to crank out frames. i am happy with the balance of racing, frame building and drinking coffee.