Galisteo Classic
As everyone knows, i am not a great Roadracer and have yet to win a road race. I was a little worried about if i would be able to stay with the c-race today, so naturally i jumped into the B's. Here i was Cat 5 Bill Jumping into a race with some sandbagging cat 3's. I guess if that is not a good indication of whether i am ready for Tour of the Gila, then nothing is.

After a little while in the field heading North to the first turnaround, my legs started loosening up and i got relaxed. The pace stayed pretty mellow out to the turnaround, and then some idiot decided to attack into the corner. I was sitting behind Glenn Golrad pretty comfortably, and then all of a sudden i saw his tires start smoking and i heard metal on metal contact. I had my hands on the tops and really couldn't do anything but shoot off to the side. i chose the left, and thankfully he went down on the right. Amazingly, that wreck and crash avoidance drill really didn't even get my heart rate up. I guess i am getting used to road racing. I knew the pace would jack after the turnaround, so i went to the inside and actually initiated the attack before the guy in front started it. I really am learning how to race my bike.

We just basically cruised on without incident south through the start finish line and started heading out to the second turnaround. it was reallitively uneventful with the exception of some useless scetchy attacks. For some reason i thought the B's would be ifferent than the c's, nope, just faster. We hit the first short steep hill and everyone dropped down to the small ring. i was looking around wondering why i was the only one in my bigring, but then it occured to me that i didn't care. At the top there was a couple more attacks and then it settled down. at that time we picked up a couple A racers that had been dropped and people imediately started bitching because they were A racers. yep, it is for sure just a fast cat 4 race. I didn't care that there were A racers in our field, obviously they are not going to be a threat to a B racer's position, and they were actually pretty big so i could get a good draft. Jeff Collins flatted and that was the last i saw of him. though i felt bad, i also knew that it was a big competitor out of the race. To my surprise i made it to the second turnaround with the pack and actually felt pretty good. I anticipated the acceleration and didn't get gapped after the turnaround. With ten miles to go i felt a thumping and looked down, i had a flat. Crap. I put my hand up and yelled at the wheel car that i needed a 9 speed. He started counting the gears on the back, so i just shouted and told him to give me a damn wheel. I apologized to him later. in fact, it was a very good wheelchange and i lost only about 20 seconds. I started my insanely fast 10 mile bridge to the pack, and closed it down to maybe about 10 seconds. I was spinning out on all the downhills and just couldn't catch up with them. to make matters worse, i dropped my bottle when i was trying to put it in the cage and had no water. i couldn't close the gap and finished about 20 seconds back from the field.

Overall it was a great race for me. i confirmed that i have the fitness for tour of the Gila, but was still pissed about the flat. I realized after the flat, that i would have had the legs to get something done at the finish, but instead, had to use all my energy to try to get back on.
I didn't even get my bottle back.