Pinellas Park Circuit and St. Joseph Road Race

Well after a long period of hard training after nationals, Florida racing has finally started up again. We kicked the fall season off with a circuit race and a road race.

Saturday's circuit race was late in the afternoon. I was really excited to finally get out and race again. The women pro,1,2,3 raced with the women cat 4 and the masters 55+. It was a 40 minute race and it was promising to be fast. The course was flat with only 3 sharp corners and mostly wide bends. After the first corner was a long straight-away with a tailwind.

After a good warm up I was ready to race. My legs felt good and I was just excited to be there.

I got a good start. I excelled to the front. I didn't want to be on the front so I started to slide back into the field. oops, to far. I found myself near the back. We had a solid yellow line rule the entire course and with our field I found it difficult to move up.

The race was basically the same for the entire race. It was fast but the group stayed together.

On the last lap a masters rider broke away and held it to the line. The field got antsy and very sketch. Riders were bumping and swerving everywhere. I think we had like 5 near crashes in the last mile. I had bad positioning and got boxed in during the sprint. I felt bad about how I had finished but during the race I had great legs and I was looking forward to the road race the next day.

After a good nights sleep and a nap in the car, I was ready for the race.

The course was kind of in the middle of no-where. It was a rolling course and the only "big" hill was 200 meters before the start/finish. We did 2 laps on the 16.5 mi course.

I warmed up with Jackie Kurth (a close friend of mine and a really strong rider). We rode the finishing hill a couple times and did some hard efforts.

They staged us right behind the stage and when they said go half of the field stopped at the line when they were not supposed to. I made it around and up to the lead riders but soon the field was all together.

For most of the first lap we just kept a steady tempo. There were a couple of attacks but nothing stuck. As we came around to go up the finishing hill the first time I moved to the front. My legs had felt good so far but I wasn't sure how I would do on the hill.

I was setting the pace up the hill with 2 other riders so we blocked the entire right lane. Jackie Crowell slid through a little gap and attacked (she is u23 rider and Jackie Kurths Teammate). I slid over blocking the only route up to the front. After we crested the hill I was very happy. My legs had felt great and I was still at the front of the field.

For the next 3 mi Jackie stayed off the front. She was eventually pulled back by a couple masters riders.

Then the games started. Some masters started attacking but they were pulled back. I tried to stay near the front. About 7 mi from the finish I did a little attack. I brought along a masters rider but we weren't working together and went back to the field (go figure he went on to win the entire race).

I settle back into the field and prepped for the sprint. I was sitting on Jackie Kurths wheel and felt good. A 55+ rider started to move up through the field and I used him as a free ride to the front.

1 1/2 mi from the line. The men were controlling the front and I was about 5th wheel. As we made the final descent I was swarmed as the guy in front of me sat up. I got gapped and came in a little behind the main field in 9th place.

I felt really good about my racing. I had great legs and fairly solid racing. I need a little tune up in my race skills but all in all I had a great weekend of racing.

This upcoming weekend I have a crit and road race and the weekend after is the final race weekend of the year. I'm totally stoked and cant wait for the last races.

ciao