Short Movie

GTS #4 - March 2

Sunday was race #4 in the Greenville Training Series. Frank and I both felt like 80 year olds that arthritis and today we would have no Andre or Calum. We agreed that we would sit in for the first couple of laps and see how are legs would respond. I felt like I was going to get shelled after the first hard effort. Many of the questionable riders from yesterday were not in today's field, and it showed. The first lap was relatively smooth, some hard efforts, but nothing too bad. I felt pretty good with all of the accelerations with no signs off falling off. I was moving around the field pretty well and I was feeling pretty good. I wasn't sure where Frank was, but I caught a glimpse of him every once in a while, so all was good. He looked relaxed and I felt relaxed, maybe the day would be OK. Towards the backside of the third lap someone went clear, there was no chase and I was comfortable sitting 3rd wheel, the one of the Greenville Spinner guys opened a gap to chase him down, I figured that if I was going to go, he would be the one to go with since he had a few teammates in the field to hopefully slow things down. I caught him and we worked together to catch the leader, two more guys caught on and I thought we were working together well. My wife became my cheerleader, along with Stephen and Erica as I went by and gave a little more motivation, but apparently the field didn't let the last two guys get too far, and all of us got caught. I sat back in the field and worked my way up until the last lap, I was 2nd wheel and trying to see exactly where I wanted to be. Then the field sped up and the guy in front of me didn't, I was boxed in and losing spots, I couldn't find a hole to duck into and ended up at almost the very back of the field, I saw Frank go by on the other side of field, and I thought "oh no, my race is over". Then some on "Frank's side" popped with 500m to go and "my side" began to move up. I was on the left side, because I thought I would have more room after we passed the 200 m mark and the road opened up. Everyone kept accelerating and I was going with them, when "the sprint" began, I found that I had more people to work through than I thought (I felt like I was sprinting through a pinball machine) and only got back up to 24th.

Overall, it was a good day, Frank and I both did OK, and made it through the race with the lead

group.

Race #3 at GTS on March 1st

They said there were 189 riders to start this race (seems like a high number) for the Cat 4's. Our goal today was to get Andre in a good finishing position and ultimately, a win. At the end of lap 2 Frank informed me that Andre said his back was hurting and he was behind us. The beginning of lap 3 saw the field start to come apart on the 2nd hill, Frank and I were beside each other and both had to maneuver around slower riders and close a gap to get back to the front group. The pace didn't ease at all as we topped the hill and headed for the turn, the pace stayed high for another mile or so, until we hit another hill and again riders starting coming off of the back. I could still see Frank (this added to my motivation even though I was tapping my red line) and decided I was going to move towards the front and stick close to him. Two guys went off of the front and then two more, I was not in a postion to go, so I hoped the group had some gas left. Eventually I was on the front and I didn't really want to work, but I didn't want to give the race away either, so I did my pulls and tried to catch the group with one other guy during the long stretch before we turned into the last hilly section. We did not get away, but now the four up the road were closer, I fell back into the group to regain some strength for the uphill finish. The pace started ramping up and now the gap to the four riders was very small, I was working my way back up to get a good position to up the last hill, I was in 6th or 7th in the main group as we made the turn, but I was fading, I decided to go to the slow side of the road and regroup for a few seconds so that I could catch a wheel and give it a go for the line. As I was catching my breath, someone decided to make a terrible move across the road (no reason, we had the entire road) and he slammed into my handlebars, now my rest would be on the ground, on my back. I got up quickly, did all prelim checks and pedaled in with my crooked seat across the line. I was very frustrated because of all of the hard work it took just to get into position and then get taken out when there was tons of room and nobody had to fight for a position. Oh well, I am walking and the bike is OK.