Mike's Bike Blog

By all indications the course favored the climbers and all the chatter on the TXBRA.org Forum reinforced this. The storyline was that the fields would get strung out in the first 10 miles on the hills. However, this was not the story that was written on Saturday. The only field to get any break up was the P12. All the other races stayed together.

As I was getting ready I talked with Scott Dalhover (AT&T Brain and Spine) about the Cat 4 race and he said nothing was getting away and for me to just sit in. If I felt good I might be able to give a go about 7 miles out at the Iraqi village. He kept telling me to sit in and not to do any work, the same exact insider info I got from Peter). He said if he heard that I was up front doing any pulling he would punch me.

On the way out we had a small headwind, enough to keep everything together. In anticipation for the hills I switched out to a 11x26, but at the rate we went up the hills it was not needed.  In the race the pack climbed the hills at a slow and steady pace. In fact the entire race was this way, there was really no part where there was an all out effort, nobody went up the road and with the downhills anything that did get up the road was easily brought back.

With about 13-15 miles to go there were 2 up the road, #529 and a UT rider. Since I had been sitting in all day I felt really good and thought this would be a good time to see if I could bridge up to them and see if we could get a break going. Me and the Sun and Ski rider made a go of it, but as we were closing in on the 2 I looked back and saw that we were just pulling the entire pack along so I shut down my effort.

I'm not sure how many were in the final group, but it was big at least 30 guys, we started with 60+ I believe. This made for a jam packed field sprint. My second plan was to go on the hill leading up to the finish. I found myself third or fourth row back in the middle and I couldn't maneuver to the right or left so I was at the mercy of those in front of me to clear a way for the final sprint. The winning lead out came up from the left but I was still boxed in. At the 200 meter flag the rider to my left lost control and went right into me. I had to bend over and with my shoulder protect my  handle bars. With the guy leaning against me I bumped into the rider on my right a little as I was still holding up the other guy. Luckily there was a little crack of daylight that opened up to the right. I shot through it just as the guy on my left hit the ground.

There was still chaos and carnage in the lead out group as I tried to close the gap to them. Not sure exactly what happened but after the fact I heard one rider was pushed and he ended up doing a face plant into the dirt. His teammate was yelling as we wound up the sprint for the line.

In the end I placed 10th and was able to stay upright, by far my best placing in a race this year. Andy Webb (Simpler-Webb) who rode up to Copperas Cove with me placed 13th in the race. It was a great finish to my inagural season of racing. Now I can't wait till February when the season starts again.