Spring Fling #3. . 5 start and 4 finish. . uh oh!

Spring Fling #3 was shaping up to be a great day. . . It was about 70 degrees with light wind and sun. We had 5 guys from the team there including myself and we were ready to defend the Yellow Jersey. We welcomed Dale to his first race ever and tried to give him some pointers on staying upright and finishing. . . things don't always work out like you mean for them to.

Picture of all of us waiting for the 34 and younger CAT 5 guys to get done. . .. From left to right.
Me, Eric, Dale, Dave, Randy

The race started off as normal, it seems the warmer weather brings out more guys, but not too many. . . I sat in the middle to watch any attacks that might come with teammates behind me ready to help out if they had to. You will notice that two guys back from me is Dale. I think he crashed shortly after this picture. I guess a guy from Bike Shack came across and hit his wheel. . Dale went down pretty hard and had some road rash and pretty good cut on his elbow that needed stitches. I hear he is doing good, but probably a little sore and stiff.

The sprint lap on the race was number 6. . . man. . that almost threw off my entire day. It took me 2 weeks to understand that the first sprint points were on lap 5 and now they are telling me lap 6!!!! I figured I would just listen for the bell this time. The next picture is after the sprint lap. . I am leading the front group. . I wanted to put a little extra hurt on some of the guys. I might not have the raw power that some of the bigger guys have, but I can sustain what I do have for a longer period of time. I got 3rd or 4th on the first sprint points. Randy got First!!

Here I am looking to see who has come with me. .shortly after I pull over and let someone else do the work. . .

With the sprint lap being on lap 6 and the final lap being lap 10, it didn't leave much time in between till we had to rev up and sprint for the line. . ..

Here I am trying to chase down the two guys in front of me on the final lap. . . Dave got me to this point and the rest was up to me. Eric and Randy helped me out earlier in the race by pulling and taking sprint points away from the other teams.

Coming off the final turn, I knew that I wouldn't catch the two that were in front of me. With about 30 yards to go I caught the second place guy and had my eye on the guy in first, but again I ran out of real estate and ended up getting second on the final lap and Second overall for the day. I do retain the overall lead thoug for the series. . but since I can't race this upcoming weekend, I need my team to all place so they eat up points so the other teams can't get them. . . .

Kloden at the Spring Fling. . in 10 years he will be able to race juniors. . . :)