Georgia Games Races

Last weekend was the Georgia Games. On Saturday was the road race. The course was described as gently rolling hills, but I think that was an understatement. There didn't seem to be a flat section on the course at all. I felt like I was either going up or down the entire race. The Cat 5 race was said to be 35 miles, 2 laps of the course. I was with the pack the first part of the first lap and when we hit the turn around point, the peleton was stretched out. I was towards the back of the peleton, and tried my best to catch them. I was doing 35+ mph trying to catch them with no luck. My main goal was to stay with the pack & seeing as that wasn't going to happen, I just wanted to finish. I settled into my own rhythym and caught a rider from the MACC club in Atlanta. We worked together very well, each of us taking turns up front. We caught another rider from his club and told him to catch on, but he couldn't stay with us. We just kept up our pace, working well together. We did catch another rider on the second lap just before the turn and he joined us. He didn't want to seem to take any turns up front, don't know if he was that tired or just tagging along until the finish, waiting to pounce and leave us. The other rider with me noticed this also & we made this third rider take some pulls in the front. On the back part of the last lap, we caught a rider from the University of TN. He joined us for a bit then on the second to last climb, he went off the front. The finish was an uphill one & he wasn't that far ahead of us as we headed towards the finish line. I decided to give it a go & see if I could catch him. I figured the worst I could do was not catch him & get passed by the other riders with me. I surprised myself and I think I really surprised the UT rider, because he didn't have any kind of reaction to me when I passed him. The rider from MACC gave it a go with me in a sprint, but I was able to hold him off at the line. I know I was well down in the placings, but it felt good to race again. On Sunday was the criterium. Last year it poured the entire race. I woke up that morning to dry weather. Great I thought, no rain this year. I get to the venue, register, and start warming up when guess what started to happen? If you guessed rain, your a winner!!!!! Before the race started I was already soaked, but I was ok with that. Once the race started, it was fast from the get go. It was much faster than the pace last year. I was shelled off the back of the pack before the first lap was over with. I was joined by 3 other riders & we worked well together on each lap, each of us taking a pull up front. We were coming towards the start finish line when I noticed my rear wheel feeling a bit soft. I was hoping to use the free lap after changing the wheel, but when I looked at the lap counter it said 2 laps to go, so no free lap, my race was done. All in all I had a good weekend racing, it felt good to get in a peleton & give it a go. I'm looking foward to my next race.