Ohio State Race

Well the weekend sort of sucked. After snow and sleet came down all day on Friday the Ohio State Cycling team decided to cancel Saturdays crit. More then likely it was a very smart choice because I do not think that we wanted to have another Depauw situation on our hands from last year.

So instead of deciding to stay in a hotel Saturday night we decided to pack up the bus and head out of Indianapolis Sunday morning at 5am. After about a 3-4 hour drive we arrived to the race with some faces/eye stares with expressions. The ladies raced first in the morning and we decided to walk to the course from the parking lot. Mistake number 1. They told us it was not far. Well 20 minuet walk later we started to regret not riding.

After watching the girls ride by a few times it was time to start getting ready. After a quick warm up we went over race plans with Dean and rode over to the start to find that we would be starting in the rear of the pack. Not the ideal place but oh well, it was better then a ditch I guess. The race was rather fast with attacks one after the other. After about 3 and a half laps I ran into some serious breathing problems. Hills and cold air just dont match when it comes to just getting over the flu. To the orders of Dean I kept riding off the back of the pack with an IU/Pista rider Matt Kain. After a few laps of solo riding at effort I had just had enough and decided to pull my self out of the race. I know that I did not finish the race but at the same time I am looking at this as a step forward. Knowing that I can at least hold with the field for a good 50 minuets right now should give me a good boost of confidence going into the first crit of the season at Depauw next weekend.