Let The Season Begin!

The season begins with a bang.  More of a thunk.  Well really, it's the hollow crunching of carbon over potholes yet to be repaired, and frost heaves which have still not come back to their un-heave-like state.

I traveled this weekend to Plymouth, MA to race the Myles Standish State Forest Road Race.  I'm sure you bikers are thinking to yourselves, why not Battenkill? Why not contest for the bragging rights to the East Coast Spring Classic rated to be among the hardest races in the Northeast?  My answer to this is simple; I didn't want to.  Myles Standish is a fantastic race.  The course is small, but interesting.  With full open roads running along ponds and through Myles Standish State Forest there is nothing boring or uninteresting about the race.  Rollers keep everything interesting through the whole course.  When it's not rolling, it's twisting, turning and climbing, all individually and at the same time.

To back up a little... the past few weeks have been spent training both indoors and out.  Weather has been limiting for the riding, and me being stubborn as a mule... I'm never willing to cooperate.  That said, I'm riding strong and think this season will look up... especially after today.

Myles Standish is a course built for me.  It twists and turn, climbs and falls.  My legs felt good and I was ready to go.  The race started off with an attack right from the line.  Teams all working together to get their guys up the road.  As soon as one attack fell, a counter would go.  There was no moment in the race where someone wasn't trying to fly off the front with their teammates blocking at the front.  It was a true race.  One I wish I had stuck in for longer than 2.5 laps.  Early into the 3rd lap, I (like many others) hit a massive pothole.  I had been lucky enough not to flat or go flying off my bike, but this time something mechanical happened that I still cannot fully explain.  Without my wheel coming out of the dropout, or loosening, or coming out of true, my brake began to rub and I could not pull my brake lever.  I was forced to stop and get off the bike to fix it.  Eventually I heard a click, the brake released and I was good to go.

By the time I got back on the bike, I had already been off for 5 minutes trying to fix the problem.  Once I got back on I was able to TT the remainder of the race.  While I did not ever catch the field, I was able to ride it out and finish the race. 39 out of 39 finishers.  Far from ideal, but the power is there.  We'll give 'em hell next time.

Arc hard, ride fast go plaid!