On lap 2 or 3 the rider in front of me came in super hot on turn 2 and clipped the barrier. I went a bit wide into the clear and he made it out alright, but there was a ton of carbon slapping the pavement behind us. The race was neutralized for about 20 minutes where we roasted under the sun and all cramped up.
The race resumed and I missed my pedal 3 times as usual. Each miss results in about a lap of work to move back up, which is why I switched to Speedplays this week. My misses were actually intentional and meant to create a gap off the line, but I think people are onto the strategy.
I raced around the course for several laps that had no discernable strategic pattern. The usual flow of random attacks came and went with people pretending like it all made some kind of sense. The front straight was either fast and strung out, or oddly slow. I moved up to the front of the pack by taking a sketchy pull in the gutter only to witness more carnage in turn 2. A rider in front of me took the turn a bit wide and came in hot to the huge potholes at somewhat of an angle. There was enough time for me to hear him yelp 'whoa no' and witness him slam pretty hard on the cheese grater pavement. I was forced to try to bunny hop over his front wheel, which I somehow succeeded in doing.
The rest of the laps were uneventful, but I was told that only 39 of us finished and that there were 7 crashes. I got to the front with 4 to go and saw the lone HPC rider off the front, looked around and decided that there was no point in bridging because it would surely finish in a pack sprint. It did not and therein lies my regret. I'm used to trying seemingly stupid stuff, but my newfound logic impeded any chances for success. I was in the middle of the pack with 1 to go when someone decided to pull a slider on the 180 and created a really fun gap. Rolled in pretty far back for another result that didn't reflect the effort put forth or the great feelings. Dominated some Cold Stone and moved on with my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment