Watsonville E3 Race Report

After doing the M35+/45+ race, the legs were pretty toasted. I quickly put on the number for this race and lined up. I was just hoping to hang and see what would transpire.

With the longer distance compared to the 35+/45+ race it seemed like we didn't really start to ramp things up until a few laps into the race. The legs were feeling pretty tired, but at least siting in the pack felt pretty good. And there were some tall/big guys in the pack that could at least provide some relief.

About ten minutes into the race I was thinking, "Heck, I got the upgrade points I was seeking...why not just shut it down and find a nice burrito to eat?" Just then Matt rolls up to me and says, "You can win this." Matt, apparently you can't read my mind because it's not what you were thinking. Talk about a little peer pressure from a teammate.

Around this time a break goes up the road and dangles out there for the next 35 minutes. Thankfully I didn't have to do too much work to reel them in, but I will say there were some low horsepower'd riders that were having a hard time contributing to the paceline. At least I knew they wouldn't be a problem if things came down to a sprint.

With three laps to go the break was caught and I knew it would come down to a sprint finish. We had about 10 guys in our pack and coming into the last lap everybody was looking around to see what was going to happen. I found myself on the front with two corners remaining and a slight headwind. Not ideal, but better than being at the back.

Coming out of the last corner I sprinted as hard as I could. I wasn't able to get any separation from those behind and pretty much just gave a few other riders an awesome leadout. Three guys came around me, but getting back to back fourth places was very gratifying.