Oxford, Bike Jam, and RSR

The past 3 weeks were supposed to be used as training races for the big goals of my season- the string of road races that end with Page Valley in late August. After taking 9 days off of training and only doing boring 30 to 45 minute rides in the little ring I was a bit curious to see where I stood in terms of harder race efforts. After consulting Coach Puppet extensively, I figured out several mistakes I had made earlier in the season and set about to correct them. Here's how it went:

Oxford: Front lap on lap 4 of 8. Passed by the wheel car and sat at a corner for the better part of 20 minutes.

Bike Jam: Rear flat 30 minutes into the race. Felt quite a bit better and had a good position early on. Got caught behind someone who couldn't figure out how to tighten their quick release and another rider who decided to grab a handful of break and skid his tire while on the inside of the sweeping right hand just inches away from the cheese grater fence. At 6 feet 1 I'm just tall enough to catch a spike to the jugular if shit went awry.

Ride Sally Ride: I rode the front too much and things felt how they should be at this point in my training. After 32 laps of swarming and inside-line-cutting I found myself behind a rider that unfortunately rolled their tubular right at the apex of turn two. I wouldn't have been in contention for the win anyways since I wasted far too much energy experimenting with dumb stuff early on, but it was still unfortunate nonetheless.

After three weeks of training and racing and group riding its time for a nice rest week. My block of crash training was finalized with a nice low speed crash on the Bike Place ride this morning (making a u turn over a double yellow at 5 mph), which left me with a bloody hip and a pedal that was bent back into place just to get me home. Mt. Nebo and Crystal City next weekend and hopefully some better luck.