2012 NWA Spring Classic

I'm not sure how many times I've done this race. Maybe 5 or 6? One thing I do know for sure is that it seems like it's always been either really cold or rainy or a combination of both. Last year was one of the coldest races I've ever done. This year was about as different as it gets. Driving to the race as the sun was coming up, the temperature was already in the upper 60's. When we were driving home, the temperature was in the 90's, so it was in the upper 80's most of the time we were racing. Not that it was too hot, it was just kind of a shock to the system as the first hot race of the year.

Driving to the race. Lots of bugs on the windshield and getting warm already.

The turnout for the race was huge. It seems like so many races now are pre-register only. This is one of the last races where you still have the ability to register the day of the event. I'm sure if you're the one hosting a race, it's a lot less work to do a pre-register only event, but it seems like it may hurt overall attendance. Anyway. I think there was around 50 riders in the cat 1/2 field. There were a bunch of unknown riders (to me at least), so it was a little different trying to read the race early on. As soon as we took off, we started pretty fast. A Dogfish guy attacked form the gun and within a few miles, he had already established a pretty good time gap. At the time it seemed pretty crazy to me because we weren't going slow. I had my joule still set up to display current and ave. speed and watts, ride time and distance. I think the first lap we were averaging over 26 mph, which is pretty fast for a hilly, curvy road course.

When we started our 2nd lap, I wasn't really feeling it. I'm not sure if it was the double time trial the day before and having to get up super early both days of the weekend, or the fact that this was the last day in another hard 3 week block. Probably a combination of all. I got caught kind of towards the back of the field, and there was one point where I thought I might get dropped. I gradually started feeling better. I think the turning point was when we hit the big hill the second time. I actually felt pretty good going up it this go around, and I'm not sure how fast the group went up it, but I got to the top first. I knew some kind of move was going to get away soon as it seemed like the racing was still really aggressive and it seemed like a lot of guys were starting to get tired.

Brady rolled off the front and had a little gap. I wasn't willing to let it go, so I took off after him. Raton Parmain went with me, and we caught Brady with a nice little gap on the field. A little while later we were joined by a group of 6 other riders. The problem was 3 of them were OKC Velo riders, and that was a little too much for me to keep driving the break. The next move went shortly afterwards, and it was the one that stuck. Rob managed to get in it. There were probably 15 guys in it, but I knew Rob would do ok.

The last lap was by far the slowest. I missed out on a move that a couple of guys made about midway through the lap. It ended up good for them as they finished 5th and 6th.. Rob did good with another top 10 by getting 7th. I won the field sprint of what was left of the main group for a wicked 18th place finish. It was well out of the money, but I think you should finish every race strong. You have to get used to it that way because that's how it's going to be if you finish well.

Going all the way to the line

So, another race report that's taken me almost a week to post, but it's been a busy week. Not so much riding wise. I'm taking an extreme recovery week to try to get rid of all the fatigue that's been in my legs for a while. I'm still working on a post about what I'm trying to do training wise this year. I also finally got my race wheels. Better late than never I guess.