Westlake Zipp Night

I realized at sign in this was my 2nd WW of the year. Thats even less than last season. Been at a wedding drinking and having a good old time the last week. Came back anything but rested after a 15 hour drive, but got on the bike Monday for about 2 hours and lined up for WW Zipp NIght.

I went in thinking about being non aggressive and sitting in till the end and go for it if it was a bunch sprint. Well........that lasted a neautral lap and I was off chasing breaks and even trying one myself. Chasing down guys who were bridging to team mates already in breaks.

I got tired after riding pretty hard for a long time and faded to the back for a few laps to recover then moved back up after Tris was in a few decent moves that came back and bridged to Rudy, Jeff Braumberger and Andy Clark. I tried to launch with everything I had to not drag anyone with me. We 4 stayed clear which actually was alright because non of the regular top 3 guys in points made the move. So that was good for Tom Frueh. At first I was bummed afterwards that I made the break instead of him, but in the end it worked out. I was pulling a bit too long, but I didnt want to get caught so that was fine with me. And it made for a better workout.

Impressively Tom Dominic who was sitting in most of the race (like I was supposed to do) bridged up solo with 1 or 2 to go and then the games began. Rudy had been in a lot of breaks today and 4 of the top 5 were all good sprinters so he decided what the heck, he'll lead it out. I tried my best to stay on Jeff's wheel and thought, hey maybe I can get in the top 3 if I can come around, but I sat down as we hit the 200m mark when I had some momentum (dumb) and then didnt have the speed for the last 150 and came in on Rudy's wheel. Like I have been saying, my sprint has improved dramatically in one year!!! But it still sucks.

Tom had the best legs and beat us all to the line. Laughing because he felt kind of dumb winning after not doing much in the race and ending up bridging and winning. But thats racing!! By contrast my legs are sore and his feel fresh hours later. But my legs needed a wake-up call and they got it today thats for sure.

And I finally got a top 5 at Westlake. Yahoo!! I'll keep working on my sprint and maybe try to get to WW more than 2 to 5 times a year to boot. Overall I felt slow tonight, but I hope I made up for it by being aggressive when I could.

Next stop is the Tour of the Valley Stage Race. I hope to race all 4 stages, but I may end up only doing one or two if the team needs my help. Hope to see you there racing or at least spectating.