One of my cycling goals for this year was to accomplish a pack finish in the race without being dropped. Well, I did it last weekend at Mason Lake #3 in Shelton, WA. I decided to race Masters C category which is beginners 35+ instead of Category 5 which is also a beginner category, but, well, less old. 🙂
I started with a group of 75 riders and ended up finishing 41st after a grimacing sprint to the finish. The bigger story of the day was all of the work that our team accomplished up in front of the pack as they did a lot of pace setting up there. I hid in the pack behind others and did my work to hang on.
My favorite part of that race was the thrill of using my head to keep myself focused on where I was in the pack. What I was doing there, and whether I needed to be somewhere else doing something else. That was WAY different from other races where all I could do was hang on until the team took off ahead of me and I waved goodbye for the day.
Next week… Independence Valley Road Race. Big hills in our own backyard!!
Cheers, Andy
