Michelob Ultra Circuit Race

After getting my my Cat 2 upgrade, I had to skip out on Vance Creek (would've just been too long of a day), so I made the Michelob Ultra circuit race in Glenwood my first race in the 1/2 field.

I didn't really know what to expect from this at all - didn't know if I'd get dropped, hang in okay, crash out, take corners too slowly, or whatever. It seems like such a big jump from the Cat 3 race to the 1/2's that I didn't know what to expect.

I managed to make myself nervous enough that I figured I should just hang out at the back for the first few laps, which turned out to feel pretty fast. Not sure if they were actually fast or not, but I was wondering how I'd feel around the 8th lap if the pace kept up. Part of the problem was that people were getting popped, and I had to come around gaps to get back to the field. At 28-30, this ends up tough-ish for me right now. After 3 laps, however, I started to feel quite a bit better. I noticed that I seemed to be hurting up the small climbs a lot less than most of the people around me, which is a good sign, and I was able to move up pretty easily.

I really enjoyed the race - people where way, way more aggressive in trying to take spots, jump around folks, etc, but better bike handlers too. I felt very comfortable fitness-wise, and am pretty eager to mix it up in the upcoming races, at least a little bit. Everything about the race went pretty well for me, except the finishing sprint.

With 1K to go, I was near the back, and knew I didn't really have any shot at getting to the front in time, but I felt pretty fresh and wanted to at least put in a little kick for fun. Unfortunately, I decided to go up the wide, smooth shoulder, where we a guy the peloton just caught was going about 20 mph (we were going a bit over 40). I had to stand, grab two fistfuls of brake, and swerve to narrowly avoid missing him. Another guy jumped in front of me and cut me off when I was going about 5 mph faster than him. Fistfuls of brake again, and I shut it down to stay upright. So I'm still a bit nervous about field sprints, but I do think I can at least be up there, given that my problem was running into the back of other racers. I'm sure it's a totally different game in the top 10 though.