I was optimistic for the weekend and took it as an opportunity to see how my body would respond to the increased loads. Surprisingly enough, Saturday went well. During the crit I rode strong, at the front on a few occasions, and even brought the field back up to catch a rider who had gone off the front. As I made that move to bridge the field up (was never intending to bridge up in an attempt to make it a two man break) one of my team mates immediately responded with, "go Boz, I'll block for you." Saturday's race also gave me my closest glimpse at life during a crash. I was very slightly caught up in a big crash in the first turn. I saw everything going on in slow motion and while I did my best to steer clear of it, I began running out of room as the portable fence barricades pinned me in. After taking an extremely quick inventory of myself and my bike, I was left with a handful of riders who had suffered no damage and were forced to race to catch the back of the pack. Bridge on we did, but the effort took just a little bit out of my 'bank account' for the weekend. The rest of the race unfolded well, and at the final lap I was at the front with 3 other team mates, but our acceleration was timed a little early and we were caught by the masses at the end. Fine with me, we are starting to ride well together and we're having fun doing it.
Saturday's TT went as expected. I had hoped to post a time of 22mins or less and I posted a time of 21:46. That was good enough for 12th in the Cat 4's. I caught my 2 minute man (had a ghost rider as my 1 minute man) by the 5th mile and was chugging for home when I felt a twinge in my left hip flexor. That caused me to shift gears a little in an attempt to work out what I thought was the start of a cramp. About 1 1/2 miles from the finish, I was able to bring the speed back up and I finished strong. Overall, I was pleased with my effort.Sunday's crit was fun, but very tough for me. I never really felt good the entire race. I had warmed-up on the trainer with the guys from our team, but once we got on the course, I never felt comfortable. I moved around the pack looking for the right lines (I'd never ridden the course before) and once I had my feel for it, I settled in. The race was to be 35 mins + 5 laps. At the 25 min mark, the final prime bell was rung and it was also about the time that I wanted to start sliding towards the front. As we arrived on the backside of the course, I found myself on the front of the pack and decided to slow the pace down a little. That worked for 1/4 a lap and then a team mate, Todd Harris, came up with 2 or 3 other riders. As I felt a little recovered at that point, I simply mentioned to him that I was on his wheel. We were 4th wheel at this point and Todd decided to ride me to the front in the final corner and turn me loose.
As I left Todd's wheel I was on top of the gear pretty good and decided to give it a go. I knew I had at least 1-2 other riders on my wheel but kept spinning madly. As I neared the line and decided to stand and sprint, my left hip flexor again signaled enough and I responded in submission. I was beaten at the line by 1/2 bike by Ryan Michaels. He rode the sprint to perfection and deserved to win it. After that, I was spent and my leg was sore. I soft pedaled as the pack caught us and then fought to stay on. I bridged back up once with the help of a team mate, Mike McKee, but just couldn't maintain tempo. I bagged the results, but finished the race as I hate to quit. I did 3 solo laps with another rider and finished as the latern rouge runner-up.Overall, the weekend was fun and a great effort for me. I learned a lot more and was humbled at the same time. God has blessed me with gifts that I'm trying to use wisely and a fantastic group of racers who are extremely helpful to me. I'm proud to wear their colors and hope I do nothing but bring glory to God and to them.
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