Pace Bend

Hey this was one of the best race courses that I have encountered. Pace Bend Park is a jewel located just west of A-town on Lake Travis. The hills are rolling and the pavement is amazing. Austin if you don't watch out you might get another resident. This is the first course that I have raced that is built for me with one exception. I love extremely steep short hills that rip your legs off. I should recant that statement. I don't love them I just manage them better that most of the guys I race against.

That said it was my first race of the year and not just that my first race since October 05. I have pics that eventually will be added to a photo section but bear with me for the time being. My form(for all my non-cycling buddies = race fitness) seems pretty good but I have not worked the grinding rides where one powers the flats in a really hard gear for hours to work your muscles under a high stress low cadence. These for me are essential for racing because I spin an extremely high cadence (pedal revolutions). Mistake number one don't do that. I am doing grinding rides starting tomorrow.

So the race starts and it was quite fast. We were averaging ~ 26-28 on the second lap with hills. That is rolling for a large Cat 3 field (~ 100). On lap 4/10 I could not tell whether I had picked up a piece of tape or possibly slashed the casing of my tire. So I stopped and found that it was a bandage. This f)(&ing bandage was the most tenacious bit of sticky stuff that I have ever come across. It lasted through two power descents at 43 MPH with my hand rubbing the tire to dislodge the object. So I stopped and found that this band aid had ruined my day. It was time to chase back to the peleton (main group of riders).

NOT OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!! Just as I stopped I slowed down before the hills on each of the 6.2 mile laps. I restarted to see the one person that the group was marking a rider from A&M launch an attack. SHIT!!! The group responded and started to chase him down. This left me chasing, which was fine with me because I was catching them on the hills. However, soon enough they made it back to the power descents and I had not made it back into the group. As a complete UNIT they can descend far faster than one person. I could not get above 32 by myself and they were going 43+. Guess whose race had just been blown out of the water? MEEEEEE. I rode Tempo for the rest of the race and ended up getting lapped. Which was fine by me because the peleton caught me just before the bell lap (final lap)? I hop back into the mix and do so just in time to see one guy ride clear off the road and catch his front wheel on a chain fence about knee high and catapult him over the bars. Shortly there after in the sprint some poor schmutz (the foamy brown crust found in septic tanks when the top is removed) crashed and here I am behind him my front wheel cruising at his neck at 30+. I had to lock the brakes up to not do serious damage to him.

GAME OVER.