P/1/2 Bariani RR
Saturday morning was beautiful. I slept in a little bit, rode to the Port for some openers, got coffee and made breakfast after. The rest of the day was pretty chill. Hung with the fam and got to bed at a pretty reasonably time. Sunday morning 445...ugh breakfast, bike rack and bike on car, swoop Walt and Taylor. We got to Bariani right at 7ish. Our race was posted for an 8am start, but the officials started a couple minutes before 8. Which meant some homies either missed the start or chased to catch on which Taylor successfully did. TO THE RACE! It was mostly flat with maybe two dinky rollers. I stayed mostly in the back but moved up towards the middle/front. Just to get some time in the pack and getting more comfy riding elbow to elbow with dudes. Thinking I'm doing really good drafting and conserving energy! The field had split in a blink of an eye (to me atleast) with 30 dudes up the road. I was in a good position when Dean Pogni (muscle milk/specialized) Decided to go for the break. I quickly jumped on his wheel. He began to accelerate and I just don't know where that power was. And in my power block Walton, Halloway, Mikes Bike dude break off from my lame effort. They eventually caught up with the split. Dean fell back into the group as I eventually did too. Another lap went by hanging out middle/back of the group trying to regain some watts so I could complete the last two laps at a descent placing. But something was spent in my legs or maybe not eating enough got to me. So the pace had picked up and I didn't get onto a wheel fast enough. Off the back watched the group take off. I stumbled on Stephen Mckaw (Fremont bank) and then Don Chapin (Don Chapin Racing) so we pace lined til we met up with Naveen Malloy (coretechs) and Miles Frank (Hammer nutrition) we road the last lap and a half together. Pace lining seeing the chase group every straight away or so. Haha I kept thinking to myself "Maybe we can get them!" But our small crew was trucking at our own pace. We dropped Don and eventually Stephen went but he wasn't to far from us at the finish. 300 meters I took off from Naveen and Miles. But Miles had enough in the tank. Grabbed my wheel and blew past me with 100 meters left. I was spent and was sprinting for 53rd outta 79? Racers. Ha! Atleast I finished. I'm happy about that. Not so happy I got dropped. But I learned NOT TO TRY TO CATCH a 30 man split unless you know you can dig that deep and hang on with three of the fastest dudes in the nation. Anyways! Still learning with each one of these races. It's brutal to be able to be in this category. I am getting there slowly. Just need to keep positive. Thanks for reading and also for all the support.
