After another poor night’s sleep last night I wasn’t feeling too great this morning, but I figured entering the master’s race should be too bad. We drove down to “old town” Pocatello and found the course. There’s a lot of construction going on downtown, with whole sections of the road completely torn up. Being that it was Sunday morning, there weren’t too many people about so it kind of felt like a ghost town. The course was a rectangle, with a long start/finish stretch that had a stiff headwind. The backside had somewhat bumpy pavement and a little chicane we had to negotiate.

In the Master’s 35+ race there were only about 9 riders. Some of them had just raced the 45+ race just minutes before. I hammered from the gun and went to the front for a lap. My legs were really fatigued and it felt like I had nothing in the tank. Yesterday’s race took a lot out of me, probably since I’m still recovering. So I just raced conservatively.

There was a break of two up the road. I was working with a couple other guys to reel them in, but decided to give one big effort, on my own. So with about five laps to go, I started pushing it through the first turn. I knew that if I chose my own line, I would be able to pedal through every corner. So that’s what I did and coming out of turn two I had a bit of a gap. Then I came to the chicane…

Since my speed was greater this time around, I ended up taking a different line. So on the second turn of the chicane, I had to tighten up the radius of my turn top avoid hitting the sidewalk. The only problem was I forgot to put my outside pedal down!?! So I clipped my inside pedal pretty hard and it threw me and the bike up in the air! I had an “Oh S#$!” moment, then I realized I still had my hands on the bars on could control the bike. When I landed, I flicked the handlebars and was able to regain my balance. It was actually a confidence-inspiring feeling since during last week’s wreck, I felt totally helpless.

I could tell this freaked out the other riders as I heard gasps coming from behind, so I stood up and sprinted like mad. I later coined this the “Shock and Awe” method of attacking! By the time I came around the next two turns, I had established a decent-sized gap.

Over the next few laps, I managed to hold or increase the gap. But then with one lap to go, they put on the chase and the gap fell. One of the local guys bridged up to me just before the last two corners. He had another rider on his wheel, who sprinted hard out of the last corner. I hesitated for a moment, thinking that the line was still a ways away, but then I realized I needed to sprint now! I gave it all I had and was gaining on the other rider, but the finish line came sooner than I expected. Going solo into the headwind that stretch seemed really long but when you’re sprinting at top speed, it all of a sudden becomes a lot shorter! So I ended up 4th.

Heather’s race was fun to watch and I got to take lots of pictures. She covered some attacks and attacked herself, but it wasn’t until 20 minutes to go that she put in a fierce attack and went solo. I could tell she was feeling good and she was putting time on the field with every lap. With 5-laps to go, she had good-sized gap and I knew she had it. A few minutes later she soloed in for the win. She says she’s finally starting to feel better and it’s obvious her power is coming up. So things are looking good for her.