Ciociaro Thursday Series Race #3

Tonight was the debut of the new Courtesy Bicycles team! For our debut night, we did well with all of us finishing and we helped to push the pace when the other teams were trying to hold back the chase group. Saylo and I pushed hard at the front and Saylo managed to finish in the top 10 at number 7. Overall, it was a very good race for our team.
It must have been an unusual night for me as I actually arrived a little early and had plenty of time for a warm up. I think I was excited to actually ride with a team, even a local team, as it has been a number of years since I had teammates riding in the same race. The closest has been Team Vegan riders in Michigan but they've always been in different races over the last 3 years.

The race started off fairly typical with the different teams rallying for position. Tonight there were 3 other teams with us having large groups and a 5th team with 3 guys.

I think that about 15 minutes into the race, there was a breakaway and 5 riders managed to split off from the main group. I wasn't paying too much attention and just thinking about how the race should play out. The breakaway quickly managed to get about 30 seconds on the main group and it stayed that way until about 10 minutes left in the race. Saylo and I jumped up to the front with about 30 minutes left and kept pushing the pace hard and we were finally able to drive the group back to the breakaway. It was hard especially as 2 teams with members in the breakaway kept jumping and slowing. So, I just got to the grindstone and pulled hard as much as I could to get us back together. I fell back a couple of times to regroup but managed to work myself back up to the front.

When the bell lap was rung, I was at the front and the first over the line. One lap to go, and I felt strong crossing the line. I started to hammer as I went around the corner and thought, maybe hopefully, that I could go the entire lap at the front. I kept hammering but noticed that my speed was about 4kph slower than our typical speed coming up to the little big bump. I hit it hard but fell off the front as others kept pushing past. Well, that was it for me at the front and unfortunately, it was the 2 other teams on my wheel coming into the last 1/2 of the lap. The result is one for the local record books....

Full results at: Ciociaro Thursday Series