Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Weekend of Racing


To start the weekend of racing off we started at the Sportplex in Virginia beach. I did the Cat 4 race only since the masters race was right before the Cat 4 race. The race started off slow which was a good thing. Then after a few laps the speed increased. There were a few attacks here and there but nothing stuck. The race came down to a field sprint. I was in pretty good position coming into the final turn. Then started my sprint. I got up to a pretty fast speed and was reeling guys in til I had to hit my brakes and then restart up my sprint due to traffic in front of me. Still came out 9th place. Not a bad of racing.
Sunday came the rain and also the Casey Auto Crit. I was already signed up for the 30+ and the Cat 4. So off to Newport News I went. Got there and it was not raining bad yet. After warming up a little with Teammate Josh. We went to the start line. The rain started and did not stop during the race. Only 16 of us started the race. On the first lap the guys were hitting it pretty hard. I was holding my own. Until the attacks started. I belive 5 guys broke away and stayed away. Josh tried to pull me back up to the group but I just could not get on the wheel. So I just keep my pace up. After a while myself and a Natures Path rider were taking turns pulling each other around. Then it came down to the last lap. I was not sure who was who at that time and I know I need at least to be in the top 10. So I started my sprint and finished 9th over all. Thanks to Josh for keeping me going. Mission accomplished.
Teammate Kyle and I did the Cat 4 race The roads dried up and the rain stopped. Nice I was thinking. After the race started the attacks started again. I was not wanting to chase anything down since my legs were not really feeling it. Elliot Obrien attacked and stayed away. No one really wanted to chase him down. The race was going good til about 3 laps to go when there was a crash near the start/finish line. I heard it and just kept the pace the same. That threw me up in the top 10. Then on the back stretch of the course I made my was up to be 3rd wheel. I was like great position for the last lap. On the last turn we were really hitting it. I know my legs did not have alot of gas left. So I put the best sprint I had and ended up 8th over all. I was happy with that.
A great weekend over all I had 3 top 10 finished. No pictures on Sunday due to the weather. Thanks Kevin for the picture above.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Fat Frogs Langley Crit

Well I made it out to the Fat Frogs Langley Crit on Sunday for some speedway racing. I did the cat 4 and the 30 plus race. The cat 4 race was pretty smooth til the last few laps it started getting kinda crazy but everyone stayed up right. Being it was on a speedway the race was pretty fast. I had an average of 26.6mph for the entire race. Pretty fast for a cat 4 race. I made it up to the front and did some pulling, but after seeing nothing was going to stick I just decided to set up myself for the sprint. It was hard to hold back from going after the 100.oo prime not saying I would have got it but I still sat in and rode with the pack. When I saw the lap board read 5 laps to go I made it to the upper half of the pack. On the last lap I thought I was in good position but that was wrong I went into the last turn and and had a train pass me on the outside and that was the position to be in. So I gave it a little sprint knowing I was not going to take the win and came in 17th and teammate Kyle came in 12th.

Now after a little break and some lunch came the 30 plus race. This was my first masters race. I lined up on the track with teammate Jon Nisbet. After the false start with myself, Kevin and Danbo we regrouped. I started looking around and seen that the field was stacked with alot of fast guys. My whole goal was to stay with the group and finish with the group. Well after a few laps 4 guys broke away and stayed away. Then about 20 mins into the race 5or 6 guys were off the front of our pack and I decided to see if it was going to stick. So I went for the bridge and hit it pretty hard and gave it almost all I had to get up to them. They were about halfway down the back straight away and we were in the first and second turn. I made it just about the all the way to the guys when I looked back and seen that I brought the rest of the guys with me. That was cool to me since we were all back in the race together. The rest of the race was fast! Teammate Jon Nisbet was not feeling all that well. But he set himself up in the last few laps for the field sprint. I think he was like 4th in the field sprint. I finished 22nd out of 36 riders. Not bad for me. I downloaded my power tap after getting home and it showed that it was a fast race. The race average was 27.8mph for 50 mins.

Well see you guys this weekend at the Sportsplex!