The Explosion

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This was my first race with the Armed Forces Cycling Team, and the support is great. We got here 4 days early, I rode the course a million times, and I got to use a sweet set of wheels. I almost got a Cervelo, I heard, but guys on the team keep breaking theirs and I am the last guy on the totem poll. Needless to say, they ran out - so my trusty old Cannondale won't have to get dust and stuff.

My Aunt took the picture above, I need to call her soon because we are going to get dinner, but I am fried from the race.

The U-23 race exploded on the first lap, so we figured we would expect that in ours too. I marked EVERYTHING the first lap, and even bridged across to a couple of promising looking groups. I am not that great of a climber, but every lap I somehow made the separation. The first half of the race, I made sure Armed Forces was represented in every group. After one of the climbs, Ian Holt (on my team) made a split of about 7 that included the very dominate Cal Giant team. I was relieved, the climbs were starting to kick my but.

With one lap top go (17 miles) there was about 25 of us left out of 200. We were flying up the first climb and the break was coming back fast. We made contact with the break on the 2nd and final climb of the lap and I exploded. My faking I could climb had come to an end. God made my pedals start magically pedaling squares, and if I were not suffering so bad I may have thought it was cool.

I recovered at the top of the climb and was joined by about 7 other dudes. We rotated in to finish.