Gwinnett Road Race

I woke up at 5 this morning, yesterday morning by the time this is posted, so I could meet Rodney for the 3 hour drive to Ga.  I ended up driving his Audi S4 for a few hours; that is a sweet ride!  We set off with high hopes and matching spirits.  We discussed the fact that every race has some tragedy and we speculated that our minor detour was the tragedy of the day.  We arrived and registered with plenty of time and got ready to race.  

This was my first race as a Cat4, but the fields were split 4/5 35+ and 4/5 34-.  Rodney and I did not race together since he is over 35 and I am 22.  The race got under way and I was working on getting warmed up.  We went down a screaming 50mph descent into a series of nice hills, real hills.  By the end of the first 7 mile lap my legs were beginning to get warmed up and find a rythme.  The pace was faster than the Cat5 Road Races I have done this year, it wasn't really easy, which was nice.  I felt like I was actually working.  10 miles into the race I hit a large rock with my front wheel at nearly 40mph.  I thought my tire would flat and then I thought I got lucky, so I kept pedaling.  Then the handling strated to get sketchy and I knew I had a flat.  I slowed and signaled to the wheel truck.  They gave me a neutral wheel and I chased furiously but it was not enough.  

I earned a big fat DNF in my first race as a 4.  It was my second DNF in 4 races, neither of which was a fitness problem.  It just sucks to travel to a race you are prepared for only to find yourself out due to some uncontrolable circumstance.  That's racing.  

Rodney was crashed in the last 400 meters of the race.  It was a pretty quiet ride home, neither of us felt like talking much.

I'm racing a 60 mile Road Race next weekend.