Ravensdale Road Race

The day didn't start out very well, as I woke up with a surprisingly painful case of patellar tendonitis. I've never had that before, so I was a bit surprised. Didn't hurt too much to pedal though, so I decided to race anyway.

Ravensdale is only 40 minutes away, so I felt like I had to go. Forecast was for rain, but it started off sunny and nice. Also got to race with Erik Turner again, whom I used to race with at Penn State. Good times.

The race was pretty fun - there were some wide roads, and a couple of small climbs (big ring). As we started, I felt pretty bad - my legs felt heavy, and I wasn't climbing as easily as I was the day before. I just hung around the back for the first lap (the race was 2 laps of 30 miles apiece) or so, trying to feel better. The race developed just like I had hoped it would - Adam K got off the front with another rider, Wes, from Starbucks (I broke away with him for the win at the state championships last year). I thought they could hold a gap (Adam is really strong), so we went to the front to disrupt the chasing, and soon they were out of sight. I hung around the back for the next 1/2 lap, and a lot of people fell off the pace on one of the climbs (there was a windy section afterwards that made it difficult to catch back on).

I started to move to the front at this point, because I was starting to get worried about a last minute breakaway. Good thing too, because attacks started coming constantly in the last 10 miles. And by constantly, I mean every 1/2 mile for the last 10 miles. A few moves got a decent way up the road, and I chased quite a few down. Then Mike Brown got off the front with another guy for 30 seconds, and I got in a lot of chases to help him stay off the front. And then the rain started to come down reasonably hard.

After a while, it looked like the move wasn't going to stay away, so I moved to the front, and did a lot of work to stay there. Stayed near the front on the climb to the finish, and ended up on the front. Not where I wanted to be, but I set a tempo paced, and hoped that I'd still have enough for the finish. About 800m from the line, we caught the breakaway, and a couple of people jumped early. I didn't go, since the sprint was so long. So I waited on the front, and no one came around. 500 to go, still nobody coming around. At 400m, 2 people came around, and I couldn't wait anymore. I felt like I was going slow, and kept expecting to get swarmed. I must not have been though, since no one came around after that.
I jumped on the early fliers' wheels, and at 150m to go, I went as hard as I could. I caught all but one of them, and would've caught the other with 30-40m more to go, I think.

Turns out, I should've gone early, but I didn't think they'd be able to hold it to the line. 2nd's not a bad result though, and I've got all the upgrade points I need for my Cat 2 upgrade (not sure if/when I'll take it though), which is exciting, and I was able to get into another sprint. I'm starting to feel pretty good about tougher sprints at least. Fun. Unfortunately, I don't have a good sense of when things are hard for other riders. This sprint felt ridiculously slow/easy, but no one came around, so they must've been at least a bit tired. If I had known that I was feeling that good comparatively, I would've known to go early. Not sure how I'll figure that out, but I definitely need to get smarter in the finishes.

Race data here