Original Merced Crit P/1/2
SO! I woke up this morning feeling in a neutral mood. Not thinking about today's race. At all! I'm usually trying to focus on who's gonna be there, what and when I need to eat. And about a hundred other things. Miss Erica Ashley (MetroMint hopefully) and Marc Marino (SquadraSF) had their races before mine. Marc's was first with a descent size field for the 3s. Marc had won the same race last season as a 4. I told him to just repeat! I walked the course and tried help marc with positioning in the pack. But our boy was a natural and killed it. Final lap he sat second wheel and open the Gates of hell to the sprint after the last corner. Came in third. On a side note Marc had three one dollar bills in his skinsuit pocket pre race! Very epic that the gods worked that out. Erica's race was next. She had 16 ladies including herself in the women's 4 field. She started off pacing herself and just seeing what the other ladies were going to do. But not even five laps in and there was a break. A very slow paced break that the peloton could've caught SOO easily. Erica noticed this and jumped to the front. Instantaneously the other women in the field threw their hands up and didn't give a fuck about chasing the weak ass break. And slowly the break got away. That's all she wrote. I yelled at one point to Erica/the group. "Go get them! Work together!" And this was THEE best part of the whole day. Erica yelled back "NO ONE WANTS TO WORK!" I laughed so hard and yelled back. "Kill umm gurl!" Haha i wish I would've recorded this moment. There were two other attempts during the race that our girl started. The first didn't last because of the "active support" from the other ladies. The second move stuck and Erica had pulled another lady with her out of the group. But of course the girl didn't want to work. So Erica had to pull this lady the last couple laps. And the stowaway out sprinted Erica. Lame. Erica placed 5th. Still a really great way to start off her season. She placed 2nd at Cherry Pie a couple weeks ago also! The main event. I'll keep this short n' sweet. It was a 35 racer field for the P/1/2s. Mikes Bikes, Marcpro-strava, and Cliff Bar came out with some strong riders and also numbers. Eric Davis and myself were the only dudes from SquadraSF. Better than none in my opinion! I had been hanging out in the back at the start. Took a dumb attack with a Cliffbar dude for a quarter of a lap. Got caught. Hung out in the back trying to regain some strength. About a quarter way through the race I latched onto a MarcPro riders wheel that was quickly making his way from the back to the front. So there i saw myself in a five/six man break that I thought woulda stuck (Mikes,Marcpro +2, and Cliff had one dude) But it was caught and the rest of the time I hung out in the middle and rear of the group. Final sprint I felt like I still had some gas in my tank but couldn't get a good position. I passed maybe ten dudes for a mid field finish. Just gonna write it but any P/1/2 race I successfully finish is so fucking awesome in my book. And also a gold star for being in that break with those fast dudes! I'm getting there slowly. It'll be a long season and a really awesome year for bike racing for your boy. Thank you again for the peeps that have been following me thus far. I hope some of this novice material is entertaining for you as it is for me! Thanks again for all the support! AND! Pics will be up in a couple days.
