I signed up for the 4 race hoping for some "rolling hills" and an "uphill" finish. Well, the course turned out to be quite flat and the unphill finish wasn't more then a slight riser in the last 300 meters.
Counter to my usual tendencies, I staged right at the front and decided that I'd work on keeping a good position. Right from the whistle some guy took off and got about a maximum of 45 seconds on the first lap. I took a few pulls at the front and felt pretty comfortable. After we caught him, I drifted towards the rear of the pack.
At one point we were really strung out and gaps started opening up so I put in a big effort to move up, soon we came around with 2 laps to go and I picked up the pace on the finishing stretch to get back to the front. That worked well, but it was hard to stay there, by the time we came back around with 1 to go, I was back at the rear of the group again. I tried moving back up, but everyone else had the same idea and I couldn't get anywhere. The last lap got pretty quick and by the time we hit the final kilometer guys were holding their spots pretty firmly and I couldn't get anywhere. We came around the final turn and sprints opened up with me starting at the back of the group. I rolled through in the very back, to finish 27th out of 51.
I had been secretly hoping for a good result, last year I had several finishes in the top 10-15 of Cat 4 races and I figured that I was much stronger this year. But it was not to be, my legs felt good, but they couldn't get me anywhere. It was really a race of positioning and that showed me that I have much to learn in that area.
That said, fighting for positions on a narrow country road with chicanes, doglegs, and rough gutters just isn't my ideal type of racing.
It's a good thing it was such a beautiful day for riding in Lancaster county.
I sat down by the finish after the race to just relax, soak in the beautiful day, enjoy the peace and quiet, and watch the Cat 5 and 2/3 races go.
I'll be looking for hillier races in the future, something that breaks up the field a little. However, this race makes me think that a Cat 3 upgrade is going to be very difficult this season. Up until recently, that goal had been a major motivation for training hard this season. I'm beginning to think that I'll take a shift in my racing goals for the season, maybe bring in some more running, find some duathlons, and try some adventure races. If the road races go well, and I get some upgrade points, that's great. If not, I'll still be having fun.
Nah, who am I kidding, I really want to get some good result in Cat 4 this season! It's time to do some real training, re-motivate myself, and pick up some races to really focus on.
One of the three ways to get to Cat 3 is earn 20 points in a 12 month period. That's going to take a lot of racing.
Marten
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