Racing is hard!!

Well it has been a while since i have updated anything and i was told to stop writing about Zach and start writing more about racing so here you go.



I have done 2 "real" races since we move to Eugene but there are "training" races every Tuesday night in which I also participate. I am still trying to find out why they call them "training" races because these guys go like hell from the gun. It is a 1,2,3 race and there are mostly 1,2 that do the races which makes them extremely hard for guys like me that are lucky to get out once a week. The course is about 1K and is shaped like a D. I have only finished one race and got 11th. the rest I have been completely shelled. lets take last week for example. we started at a nice comfortable pace of 27+mph for the first 3 laps then the attacks went. That forced the pace up to the 30mph range with accelerations up in the mid 30's. i did mention that we are less than 5 minutes into the hour long race, right. It did not surprise me since the cascade classic, a pro race, was staring in Bend on Thursday so the pros were in Eugene to kill us, and they did. I would like to say that last Tuesday was a rare exception but it is not, the Tuesday night races are harder than anything I have done in a long time, but they make 3's only races seem pretty easy.

Now for the first real race. The first was up in Salem, and was a circuit race. The course had a substantial climb every lap and a wicked descent into a 90* right hand corner followed by another 90* corner that led you on to the finishing straight and back to the climb. The climb was a little over half a mile and ascended 80' each lap. The total ascension for the whole race was 880' in 24 miles OUCH!!! The race started pretty smooth and the first time up the climb I was wishing I had put my 23 on, but the faster we went up the hill the better and my 21 was fine. The race stayed together for a while then a 5 man break went off. I watched it go thinking ,"if I go with that I am going to blow." Oh I forgot to mention it was about 95* outside. So after the break went I settled in and thought about the field sprint for 6th. The last time up the climb there were a bunch of attacks and I was on the rivet but managed to hold on and got into the place I wanted for the descent. As we came around for the finish the lead out started to slow so I jumped down the gutter side with about 400m to go hoping nobody decided to do the same because I would have been eating curb for lunch. One guy got the jump on me so I finished second in the field sprint and ended up getting 5th. apparently at some point 2 guys got dropped from the break, good thing I was paying attention. so fifth in my first race I Oregon not to bad , I got 2 cliff bars and a bottle of sparking apple juice for my troubles.

Scott