The Banana Belt series Race#2.

My first good result! I finish 9th in my race.

The day started pretty much the same as my other races. Except Steff was worn out from all the baby shower stuff so she stayed home. I carpooled with a teammate, which was cool. This was the second race of the 3 race Banana Belt series.

When we got there, I decided to skip the trainer and just spin around the course instead. It was nice, but I think I will use the trainer next week. Its nice not to have to worry about running into others and just visualize the race while relaxing.

The first lap of the race was much slower than last week. A couple breakaways tried to get away, but were pulled back in fairly easily. I spent most of the first 2 laps in the middle of the pack trying to concentrate on not spending to much energy on the climbs. Its really hard for me not to jump on the front and push the pace, but that is not the smart thing to do.

At the end of the second lap, a two man breakaway got away. One of the members of the break is a Portland Velo team member. They are one of the larger teams in the Portland area so they have 5 or 6 guys in the peloton. So they were sitting on the front of the pack trying to keep the pace slow. Me and my teammate were trying to get everyone to start speeding up, but no one wanted to work. So we decided to start working for 3rd place, because the break was already 1 min up the road, and we were not going to catch them by ourselves with 3/4 of a lap left.

As we begin up the last climb, I am at the front of the chase pack. I shift down to lower gears and realize my chain is stuck on my big ring. So as I fiddle with it and finally get it to shift down, I slip back into the pack. I work my way back into the the top 20 and start setting up the for the sprint. At about 500 meters I start moving up the outside. When he hit the 200m mark, I see an inside line and get of the saddle and start sprinting. I pass about 10 people and finish 7th in pack (9th overall w/ the breakaway). It was a wonderful day! I am very happy with the result and I am so looking foward to next week. The team had a great showing also, which makes it even sweeter.