Saturday: As expected the pace was fast in the 2/3 field. After four laps I (
Jacob) was averaging 250 watts but I felt as though I was still able to move through the pack fairly easily and was maintaining my position in the top twenty....until the importance of a millimeter here and a millimeter there struck without warning. My hips got super tight from my bike fit being changed this past week and in less than a mile I went from the front to off the back. When you spend as much time on the bike as we do it's amazing how even the slightest changes can make such a great impact. So we changed up the fit up a little that evening and they were slightly better for Sundays race, but I'll still have to fine tune them. Unfortunately for
Erin, his luck wasn't much better and he flatted five miles in and with the pace as fast as it was he wasn't able to chase back on. It wasn't the start to the weekend we had hoped for but we still had Sunday to look forward to.
Sunday: We opted to race the 3/4 race on Sunday. With nearly 100 registered it was a stacked field. It started fast and stayed that way the whole 9 laps. Erin and I were both at the front making an impact for the whole race, going with breaks, attacking, chasing down breaks, and just having a constant presence at the front. The field got shredded everytime up the climb. And the last time up it was probably the hardest. Two were guys were able to get away on that last time up. They stayed away through the finish. The plan was for me to lead Erin out, so as we started the long decent I pulled him up to the front and sat about 6-10th wheel. Several attacks came fast and furious but we held on to our position and nobody got away and Erin held my wheel. With 500 meters to go he got cut off and lost my wheel and then the chaos of the sprint started and ended up with Erin in the ditch and me in 7th in the field sprint. With the two off the front I ended up in 9th and Erin in 18th.
Overall, this weekend didn't post the results we were hoping for but it was still a great weekend of racing. Lago promoters are top notch and this year with running the Sunday course reversed it made the weekend even more exciting. We learned some very valuable lessons over the weekend that we hope to build on over the course of the next few weeks and on into the season. Each race builds confidence and teaches new lessons, so we'll chalk it up as a win in that department and get ready for the next one.
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Thanks to KGS Bikes for the great work behind the lense!
