Only about 6 riders turned up for cat 4, so our race was shortened by one lap (10mi for a total of 41) and combined with the 5 field. I was ok with it because it meant a bigger field and riding with my teammates Jesse and Luke, plus a few other friends. Leaving frenchtown the pace was really relaxed and chatty, so on the climb up ninemile road I found myself on the front next to Jesse and we picked things up. I could here people grunting and breathing heavy, and cresting the hill I looked back to see a slightly smaller group. A good sign, I though, that my spring training had paid off. Then we started heading down toward the ranger station on dirt, and I felt a big rock bang off my rear rim. Sure enough, it went flat. I pulled off for the wheel car, swapped on a replacement, and was back rolling. Then I saw Jesse on the side of the road with a front flat. I waited for him to change wheels and we started rolling again. It was less than 10mi into the race and I figured we'd be able to catch back up as long as the group didn't really pick up the pace, which I wasn't expecting to happen until the second lap around.
Then, just as we started rolling again my front tire went flat. Jesse waited, I swapped on a new wheel, and then right as we get to the ranger station my rear goes flat again. I tell Jesse I'm done and he takes off on his own, now probably too far back after stopping for 3 wheel changes. Josh Tack is sitting at the intersection after double flatting, waiting for a ride back. I considered joining him, but had a tube and co2 in my back pocket so I fixed the flat and got moving. I still had a glimmer of hope of catching back up and started cranking down toward ninemile house. Along the way I noticed Myke Hermsmeyer taking pictures and found this one on facebook:
It sums up my race pretty well.
Catching the main group didn't happen, as it turns out I had lost about 6 minutes with all the flats. I did make up about 4 min so with one more lap I might have been close. I went by a few stragglers from our and other groups, and then spotted some familiar colors near the top of the last climb past the ranger station. It turns out Luke had also flatted, so not a good day for team MBW. We rode in together, at least finishing the race. I believe I ended up 4th in the cat 4 field due to two dnfs, with one of them taking a wrong turn somewhere (note to racers: learn the course ahead of time). Jesse managed to catch back up to the main field and ended up 3rd in cat 5.
So I'm pretty disappointed I didn't get to actually race against the other guys. I've gotten some good training in this spring and my legs were feeling fresh. I'm considering headed out to a similar race in eastern WA in a few weeks called Ronde Van Palouse but it is a pretty long drive. Then I have a few MTB races, then I will probably go out to Wolf Creek for the Cow Country Classic, a race I had a hard time at two years ago. Also, the UM cycling team is putting on a downtown crit Sunday 4/11, which I will be at but might not race.
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