Alabama Team TT and Crashfest

So, the plan was to run a fast flat 33 mile race. That part was easy to figure out. Heck, why not jump into my first Cat 4 BBC Race head first guns blazing. That I did friends... that I did.

Everything went to plan, just set a fast pace. Take pulls, work hard. Check and check. What we didn't plan on was catching the 1-3 field, which turned into an unfortunate nightmare for our group. Over half of the Cat 4 field and some of the 1-3 field got taken out in a group crash that started at the front of the pack. It sucked, everyone was riding so hard and it was a real fun challenging race up until that point.

We lost two guys in the race (unharmed) behind the crash and only one or two others made it out without being held up. At that point we just sat in and raced against the only two guys left with us. We sort've just worked a paceline to the finish. Rich and Ben each put in seperate and successful attacks to go off the front and get 1 and 2. Tom and I stayed with Dirk (from BikeBoy) and attempted to wear him out with multiple attacks on him in the last 1/2 lap. He got a good workout, but we still didn't tire him out for the finish and he got us. Fun though! I got 4th.

It's bittersweet, because I feel great about a 4th place in my first club 4 race, but we had about 3/4 of the peleton with us before that crash and I would've liked to have earned that result with some of those guys challenging me to do so along the way. We got a bit of a free ride and some luck on our side. Here's hoping for some smarter and overall safer racing in the future for all of us. It's no fun seeing friends get hurt for the love of a sport.

My favorite part of the race:

Me: "Ben I'm red lining"
Ben: "No you're not"
Me: "Oh, ok"

Some stats: Time 1:23, Avg Power: 238W, Avg Speed: 23.8mph

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