Great day today. I left early because my ride back home had some family commitments. Missed the end of M2 / E3 race. Looks like everyone made it through the day intact. Except Michael, couldn't find him on the results. Saw him on the second lap looking strong. Let me know how he finished.
Congrats to Aryton Dick, competing in his first race ever. Even crashing, and getting back up, and rejoining the peloton.
Well done Thea, crashing two years in a row and never hitting pavement. She just finds a lady to land on top of. Nice move!
Thanks to Jean for his team support. And Kudos to Barry for his excellent commissar work. I was tempted to fake a mechanical and enjoy the sweet ride, but remembered, that would involve, sitting in a car with Barry.
Last week after the Steaming Nostril, we had several riders write a race report. I enjoyed reading them, especially Miro's. So in the interest of keeping it going, here's mine. I'd like to read yours.
Good Friday 2014
I raced good Friday last year and spent most of my time in the back 1/3 of the peloton. It was a day of hard braking, crash avoidance maneuvers, hard accelerations and plenty of fear and apprehension. I spent the whole race telling myself this was stupid thing to be doing, it's time to pull over and stop the madness. I finished the race, but promised to skip it in 2015.
Good Friday 2015
So this year, it was stay @ the front, avoid danger and try to join any break away that formed. The race started, the peloton decided I should break away alone. It was not my decision. No matter what I did the gap remained about 50 yards. So I rode at a reasonable pace for about 12km. I then, applied the brakes and forced my way back into the pack
Anyways... the race continued, I stayed at the front, using a lot of energy, covered every move, bridged any gaps (usually alone or with Tim) rode in the wind to avoid getting sucked back into the pack. I basically rode a stupid energy sapping race, that was also a very safe race. When I did get sucked back into the peloton, it was 2014 all over again. So I got out as fast and safely as I could.
Tried to break away with one other rider, with for 4km to go. Fun, but a big failure, and that, was race over for me. Did recover enough to finish with the pack and more importantly close enough to the front to avoid a five bike pileup with 2k to go.
Special Thanks to Tim Griffin who rode with me the whole day, taking a lot of wind being safe and still managing an 8th place in the end.
Steven Hart - LapDogs Race Team, 2015