Tonight I was feeling tired and didn't want to race before the race (this seems to be an easy excuse to me so I decided to race anyway). Katrina wanted to race again in the kids' race so I was at the Ciociaro at 4:30 and ended up there until the finish of the A race around 9:00pm. Katrina did great finishing 4th among her group, pretty good considering the 3 in front of her had 24" road bikes and she is using a 20" mountain bike. A long night with some great racing finishes
but not so great racing at least in the B group....The short story is that I had thought I was sprinting for 10th place. I was able to get past a few riders to finish 10th but I had actually finished 11th. It was the same thing as the last Ciociaro race. I missed out on the single point that comes with 10th place!!!! Oh well, it's not like I'll win the series or get called up for the grand tours anyhow.
There was a lot of wicked riding in the B group tonight. One rider actually cut me off and hit my front tire and skewer with his rear wheel. This happened as I was leading out on the final stretch of the prime lap although I was not in contention of winning the prime (riders were starting to pass me on the left and were moving very fast). I had figured I would just push the pace and see if the group would hold my wheel--which they did of course. I don't know how but I managed to not crash but I was swearing and could hear other people disgusted by what they saw. I actually caught up to the rider and shared a few choice, but by no means polite, words. The worst thing is that I don't think he understood what had happened.
And, not that that was bad, but I was shaking about it until after the race, I ended up a victim of another crash. It was a minor crash with a little damage but one rider hit the deck. I swerved right, off the track and into the ditch full of mud and water. Another rider also hit the ditch to my right although the rider hit it a lot harder than me--I just couldn't clip-out and fell over sideways as my wheels stuck in the mud. I think I was more embarrassed than anything as another rider even came over and unclipped my other foot as I laid on my side on the grass and mud. Wish I had a picture of that one (well maybe not).
I don't know if this fall or the wheel incident did some damage to my bike but I ended up changing both wheels before the race restarted. Aside from the fact that my race wheels were covered in muck and grass, both wheels had a strange wobble that will have to be investigated later. I put on my spare wheels and they served me well.
I wanted to get into a good position on the start of the last lap and tried to move up on the left side. I had the legs and knew that I could do a good lead out for our team's best riders to grab a win. But, the rider from the wheel incident and another rider had inadvertently boxed me in and I couldn't go anywhere. Worse, they were riding squirrelly and I actually started to get a little worried. This slowed me down a lot and, after I finally got away from them, there just wasn't enough road left to get into a better position. So, the rest is history as they say.....11th for the second time in a row.
Now, I have to admit that I'm not disappointed with my race, just the last lap. And that was my own fault for getting stuck where I was--I knew better or at least should have. I managed to ride strong and clean. And, I managed to avoid a crash even though I could only say is that I didn't think about it but just kept riding--kinda like knowing that I needed to stay in a straight line or there would be a crash and I just held my line although my front wheel wanted to go in a different direction.I was in one break-away with 6 other riders but a crash happened which nullified the advantage we had. I think that that would have turned into something but we'll never know. The crash looked very serious at one point, even with an ambulance, but I think everyone is okay for the most part.
More images from Alan Henderson.
Full results at: Ciociaro Thursday Series