The funny thing is that we all seemed to agree on the one thing that was on everyone's mind: the weather just sucks and the cold and rain needs to give way to some summer weather. I think we'd all take some decent spring weather so that we could leave the tights, winter jackets and all the extra clothes at home.
Don't know how I did tonight, and it really doesn't matter, but I finished the race with the group. I'm pretty sure that I finished 23rd and the group really got spread out on the last lap so the sprint wasn't even something I got to watch.
The race was good overall with the 2 main teams seeming to dominate the spirited effort. I managed to do quite a bit of pulling out there tonight because I had a feeling that I wouldn't be sprinting for the finish line and it just seemed that it was what I needed to do. Didn't mind it too much although it did make my tired legs that much more tired.
There was a few upset riders, myself included, with some unpredictable riding. I think that this caused the one crash in the race. I was on the wheel of the third rider into the crash, with only about 3 inches between his rear wheel and my front wheel. Well, I think I got lucky but I can't really say what happened in the crash. The rider in front of me started to go over his bars and, with the little space between our bikes, I veered out right and barely got around. The bad news is that I headed straight off the course into the ditch!!!! And, it was full of at least a foot of water and a lot of mud.
Thinking I was back at the P2A race, I just pedalled through the muck until I got back onto the course.I turned around to make sure the other racers, the A group, didn't ride right into the crash by waving my arms. No need though as the Ambulance was quickly on the course and blocked the downed riders. Seems like the riders were good although I heard that at least 2 bikes were badly damaged. And, all I could think about was that I would have to clean my bike because it was now caked in mud. Truth being told, I was shaking because somehow I managed to avoid crashing within mere milimetres and didn't land in a big pool of water, mud and stones.
Because there was a heavy wind into the little hill on the front of the course, there was almost a guarantee of a sprint at the end. There was one point before the crash that a group of about 8 riders broke away from the group and I thought that this was a threat. And, that's when I started to do the pulling....Well, didn't matter much as it came down to the last lap and to whomever had the legs and left over energy to get across the line first....and it wasn't me this week....
Full results at: Ciociaro Thursday Series