Eden road race report

I raced my bicycle again today, this time in Great Falls, MT. My dad was nice enough to come with to go play golf with a friend so I didn't have to drive or pay for gas. Score! The course was also fully paved, it was sunny and 70, and there was barely any wind, which is rare for that part of the country.

The field was a little smaller and they grouped the cat 4s and 5s together, which meant I was racing with more people and faster riders. Scores were still calculated separately so it would not have mattered if every cat 4 had just ridden ahead of every cat 5, but obviously we all wanted to hang with the group so it made the racing harder, and more fun.

The pace picked up at about mile 10 (out of 45) when two cat 4s made a break for it. I was hanging out in the middle of the pack not really paying attention, but still tried to go with. It didn't quite work out and I ended up in no-man's land for a couple miles before I decided I was better off letting the 3 guys behind me catch up so we could work together. That was two other 5s and a 4 who was trying to get us all to bridge the gap. We did make up ground for awhile, but I didn't really have a lot of motivation to kill myself trying to catch those two 4s and we were comfortably ahead of everyone else.

The course was out and back and out and back again, which started with a gradual climb up 1200ft over 10 miles. Then we went down a steep hill, turned around and climbed back up 500ft, went down the other side, turned around and did it again. By the time we hit the top the 2nd time for the home stretch it was three of us and the other two guys were pretty far ahead. Then at about mile 37 I found myself with a small gap on them going up a roller and decided to go for it.

My initial thought was "gee, this is stupid, you'll never stay out front all the way back," but I got down low in the drops, stuck my head down and kept going. Lots of doubt those first few miles but then I looked back to see I was pulling away, and I still felt good with something like 5 to go. I kept at it, and finished pretty far ahead. That race was about the hardest I've ever worked and by the end my sunglasses were so covered in dried sweat that I could barely see out of them.

So I won another race and ended up 3rd overall in the 4/5 pack. Unfortunately I got no prizes. And didn't take any pictures. Here's the strava:
http://app.strava.com/activities/52608229#

And here's elevation, speed, and cadence for the last 10 miles. You can see where it turned into a time trial: