Brevoort at Vandervort

The forcast looked forboding, with lots of rain on the radar but luckely, Derek Beasley doesn't know what he's talking about. Shannon, Mike and myself rolled-up to Vandervort's corner for the third Spring Series race of the year. Props to Shannon for being the only DH to race all three.

We all expected wet conditions but surprisingly, the rain never came. There was a good turn out too, which was nice to see. I still feel like an underclassmen in the 3's, and in some ways, I feel like I'm learning how to race all over again. It's been a long winter and the faster pace of the 3's is making my poor training quite evident.

Anyway, the pace was brisk but slowed considerably on the back half of the course. The head and crosswinds in the back half of the loop were simply demoralizing. The tailwinds on the front half the course were welcome but kept the speeds high and by lap 3 of 7, I think it our avg. was hovering on the high-end of 24 mph.

There were many attacks, at least that's what I heard; because I was in pretty much in the back of the pack trying to figure out how inthe heck to move-up without blowing-up. On lap 5, I was feeling better and actually saw the front half of the pack. That's were Dan Lock tried to solicite my help in a break. I told him that I didn't look likely, but I thanked him for the warning.

The break was likely no more than 3 to 5 min off the front and if a second strong group got away, they'd surely catch them. As predicited, as we came out the tailwind-straight-away and banked a right into the hellish crosswind, those that were able to, took off, shattering the field in what look liked to me as several smaller groups...a cycling "trail of tears."

I had nothing but was able to stay with a group of about 8 men that were still holding there own and chasing. Long story short, after the hill, the course turned right into a strong tailwind. Myself and two other riders got gapped coming out of the turn. I pulled through the "S" turn and back into the tailwind. I pulled through and a rider from Dayton sprinted past me, taking another rider (I think from Ohio University) with him, bridging to the group.

I chased them in vain, only to watch the Dayton rider successfully pull himself and the Ohio U. guy back to the pack, at which point he sat-up. I passed him in a matter of seconds and I didn't see him for the remainder of the race, which turned out to be a two lap solo effort.

I probably finished near dead-last but that's okay. I had a blast, and hey, it didn't rain.