This weekend was the Willamette/Portland State race. The first day featured a very cool crit around the Oregon Capitol Building and a TTT. The crit went pretty well for me. I didn't quite accelerate quickly enough to get on with the winning move, but I jumped the field shortly after and was in a two-man chase for about 20 minutes. That got reeled in. I was hurting, but I knew that the race was up the road and I wouldn't do well in a field sprint. So I hung on for a few laps and recovered. Then I attacked again. Small gap established. Got caught again. Tried again. No gap established. Sat on and waited to get killed in the sprint. Got killed in the sprint. I didn't get the result I was hoping for, but I felt good and I am getting closer to the tipping point from pack fodder to race contender.
The team time trial was interesting, to say the least. Our Men's A team consisted of Beth Kobza (Women's B), Dustin Sharpe (Men's D), and myself. This is also known as our entire team this weekend. We knew going into it that we weren't going to win or even come close to not being last, so we relaxed and took home the 58 team points for finishing. I had to "assert my dominance" on the hills though. I would spin up them, the other two would lag behind, then we'd all get back together until the next one. We finished a slight 10 minutes, 26 seconds off of 4th and 14:25 away from winning.
We stayed with Brandon Archibald this weekend. Brandon used to race for Bob's and came with us for my first ever collegiate race. We were talking about things over a beer that night when the story of the TTT for that race came up. Our team was Brandon (Cat. 1), Chris Stuart (Cat. 1), Kai (at the time Cat. 2, upgraded shortly after), and myself (Cat. 5 at the time). It takes 3 riders across the line to stop the clock. I took one pull at the front, got dropped like a rock, turned around and loaded up the van. I learned a ton that weekend, mainly from watching those guys and listening them talk from Boise to Corvallis and back. Now I'm the one dropping the new riders, thanks to help from the more experienced riders.
Sunday was the PSU Hagg Lake RR. I was feeling good again and just waiting for the right move to head up the road when I felt that horrible bumping sensation coming from my bike. It was slight at first, then quickly became apparent that I had a flat. I pulled off, raised my hand, and got a new wheel. The flat came at the worst time. Riders were starting to attack and the race was picking up just as it happened. As a result, I couldn't catch on. When the B field caught up to me, I jumped on the back and cruised in with those guys. I once again found myself as the voice of experience as I dished out advice, encouragement, and peach rings to the stragglers in the back.
This is why I love collegiate cycling so much. There is such a fantastic spectrum of racers from first timers to potential professionals. The knowledge sharing is amazing as riders discuss the race from team to team, then the teammates get to talk it out all the way back home. There is no way that I would be at the point I'm at now without connecting with Kai, Brandon, and Stu. Now I'm just trying to race at their level and help as much as they did for me.
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