Independence Valley Road Race

This was the first race this year where the weather was nice enough to race in just shorts and a short sleeve jersey. It's hard not to enjoy a race when the weather is this nice.

IVRR is a pretty flat course, with a 2k hill and a 1k hill, neither of which are too hard. Not really enough to drop the big sprinters, without a serious attack.

At the beginning of the race, an Apex and Second Ascent guy rolled off the front. The field just let them go, and they didn't come back. Bummer that 1st and 2nd rolled off so early, without serious challenge.

The rest of the day was quite a bit of fun - felt pretty comfortable moving up in the field, felt great on the climbs, and put in a few small feeler attacks.

The last time up the big climb, a Hagens rider put in an attack, and I went with him. We ended up gapping the rest of the field, and picked up another couple from an earlier break. We worked together okay, but I ended up gapping them on the descent. It just wasn't going to work out - the location just wasn't going to work. The chasers were getting a bit tired, however, so I knew something would roll out - sure enough, it did, but we weren't in it. Looks like the right place to attack was the crosswinds. Ah well - I'm learning a bit.

I was totally boxed in in the sprint - it was super slow, and rather dangerous, so I didn't try to force it.

All in all, I got in a great day of racing, but I'm a bit bummed I missed out on the two important moves of the day.

Race data here.

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