Jeremy on Biking

catching up on the blogging… this was written earlier in the week but not posted. Oops! And sorry, no photos since it’s late getting up to begin with!

Providence was another early morning for the cat 4 race since our start time was 8 am and it’s just over an hour away. Was able to swing car pooling so headed down with Justin leaving at 530. Made it to the venue and finding parking was the predictable pain - there isn’t enough and the signage wasn’t great at that point. But parked, registered, pinned up, etc and went out to pre-ride the course. Felt pretty good about things - very similar to last year’s course where I did fairly well and legs seemed to feel good.

Lined up on the right hand side of the fourth row and waited for the start. When it came, I managed to clip in and get going fast moving up a bit through the pavement which was good. Hit the grass probably around 20th and settled in to try to have a clean race. A few guys passed me early in the grass but I knew I was just getting going so didn’t let it bother me and kept them in sight through the first turns. Hitting the section after the pit, there was the predictable wipeout (grass was a little slippery, easy to take it too hard) and I avoided the mess moving up a little

Most of the rest of the race was pretty much the same. Was in a little group of about five guys for the most part and was pretty strong and staying near the front of it. I’d over cook a corner and get passed but then make it up on a power section. Then on the next to the last lap, I had mostly broken free and was working towards the next group when I managed to overshift and drop my chain. Couldn’t get it back on so had to dismount and fix it too slowly watching the guys from my group pass me. Got back on the bike and pedaled hard and was close by the time we made it back around but I was kind of toasted from the effort and skittish of making the same mistake twice so they got away on the last little technical section

Still pushed hard and held a guy off to end up 22nd of the 94 starters which I was pretty damned happy with. Chilled for a while, checked out the veloswap, watched some racing and then headed home.

Unfortunately the ride home was accompanied with some wheezing and an increasingly worse cough which meant that I bailed on the Sunday race and haven’t ridden at all this week as I tried to get over it followed by just enough cold rain that I didn’t want to risk it returning.