Ahh the first chance at a uscf race of 2010. The day was great with lots of sunshine, it was about 50 degrees out and there were plenty of racers making the haul to South Beloit for a chance to see where they were at after the always long off season we endure in Chicago. For me as a 3 I had the rare opportunity to race twice first a 50(?) minute cat 3 race and then a 75 minute cat 1/2/3.
The first race was pretty simple tactically. I'm not in great shape but hey its March neither are most other people so I said to myself be extremely aggressive. There were 2 big teams represented and for anyone that knows the scene you probably dont even need me to tell you, XxX and Burnham. My plan was go with every single move that was represented by these two teams and dont chase if any other combination presented itself. This worked well. I got a little tired because nothing stuck so all race long there were a lot of attempts and then we got to 4 laps left with a burnham guy up the road and i said to myself what the heck ive been sitting in for a lap or so and now is as good of time as any to go for it. So I did, and reached the burnham guy pretty quick... he was pretty spent. I asked him "do you want to work?" he said "no man im toast". i didnt take that as an answer and said "come on its only a few laps we can do it". We worked together and the next time accross the line I saw 3 laps to go. Every so often I looked back and saw the pack to see the gap and it was encouraging at one point there were two chasers. These guys would have been perfect because more firepower in the break with less pulling time meant more rest for the sprint. They never caught us but all of the sudden I look back and see my friend Liam from XxX whom I had just spent 5 days in georgia with last month. Within no time he was up to the two of us just a little before we cross the s/f line with one to go. I take a pull and move off, the burnham guy is next up and he pretty much stops (turns out he thought the race was over a lap earlier than it was) and so Liam goes for it leaving me in the dust trying with every ounce of energy and adreniline and everything else I've got to just grab his wheel... no dice. Liam held the ensuing pack to take the beautiful solo victory while I, about 300 meters behind him on the finishing straight was swallowed up by the pack, watching what could have been a first or even a second turn into nothing close. Oh well, it was fun seeing the race from a different point of view. Sitting in to take 5 isnt very rewarding anymore.
In the 1/2/3 race i lined up exhausted. Goal numero uno, stick it out, the whole way, dont do any work... it didnt matter that wouldnt be an option. I did end up sticking it out just fine somehow and with just under one lap to go my rear tire flatted and i usually wouldnt do this but what the hell, i decided to keep going so at 13 miles an hour i rolled around the rest of the lap with a flat and finished the race. March racing in my eyes are for two things, training and to gauge fitness. These races did both quite well.
