Left Arm Bandit

Cherry Pie was a blast for me. The only thing marring the day was Tim getting mixed up in one of the 3 wrecks. He went down not even 1/2 a lap in then had to wait for us to finish. He's ok although his bike needs some work including new bars and wheels.

I car pooled with Michael and Tim up to Woodland and got there really early so we signed in then went to Safeway for some food. After getting all ready we warmed up some and pre road the last 2k or so. The course is flat as a pancake and supper windy. The three of us mad it back to the start line just before our race started so I stripped off the warm-up jacket and left it next to the wheel pit hoping that it would be there when I got back.

The Field was pretty big (51 Riders) and the roads out there are very, very narrow. Plus we had to start at the back. During the roll out I was literally the last rider. Kind of a different experience. I spend most of the first few miles trying to make my way to the front. Finally a gap opened on the right hand side and I was able to really move up. Tim followed me but not close enough and someone jump out then went down taking Tim and 6 others down with him. (Sucky)

The rest of the lap was uneventful a few attempts to break away, none sticking, until about 2k from the finish where 1 guy went, I wanted to bridge up to him but was boxed in. 2 others joined the break away and by the time I got out they were too far up the road to bridge too.

The peleton made a half hearted effort to pull them back but eventually let them go. When the time came to chase we had a really hard time organizing the chase. No one would rotate, we would get a pace line going then some one would get in the rotation but not pull through totally screwing up the chase. Eventually I got on the front and took a monster 5 min pull. We turned the corner into a cross wind and I knew that I needed a rest so I fell back, 10-15 riders went by and I was going to let a few more go before I jumped back in but I looked back and there was no one there, I totally shattered the field. 51 riders had become 15. Once I realized this I didn't have enough left to jump back on the group.

I finished off the last 5 miles with a guy from Capital Velo. The chase group caught 2 of the 3 riders in the break with 400m to go and my teammate finished 10th in the field sprint. I'm pretty sure that they would have never caught the break without my big pull on the back stretch to get the pack really moving but yet again I did way to much work to finish 16th. I need to learn to ride smarter. Oh well next time.

Next week is de Ronde Portlandia (50 miles with 8000+ feet of climbing) Its not a race but a fun ride I'm looking forward to it.