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After starting 4 weeks ago ont he scorched plains of the greater Pendleton area, the Race to the Sun reached the sunny, verdent hills of Marilla on Sunday. With a warm breeze at our back, the pack rolled down the main street of Marilla, amid the cheers of various stary dogs and free range chickens. With some small hills and a decent selection of crosswinds, the course held the potential to break things up a bit and promote some more aggressive racing, maybe.<br><br>
The first move of the day found two riders off the front, gaining a couple minutes over the slumbering pack. My team mate was one of the two, so I was happy to just let it sit. I was uncertain why many of the other riders put no effort into chasing this one down, when it was clearly doing well. After maybe 20 miles, the two off the front cracked and it was all even, so a series of attacks started, but the hills were not quite steep or long enough to get the job done. I was making most of the splits, but we kept getting pegged back. After a while, only maybe 10 of us remained, so we were just kind of rolling through and a strong rider went off the front, where he would remain.<br><br>
On the last time up the rolling hills, I pu my head down and pushed it a bit and was happ to be able to ride right away, later joined by two strong guys. Our group had plenty of horsepower, but one guy wouldn't work as his temmate was up the road and the other guy was pulling pretty slow beacuse the other guy wouldn't work, so I didn't see any need to kill it either.<br><br>
With our dithering, we were caught by a clump of 5 or so with a few miles left. At this point the pace was really slow and a series of dumb attacks ensued. Finally, the sprint wound up with 200m to go into the crosswind. The guy I needed to beat to stay in third on points was taking the sprint out pretty early with the points leader on his wheel, but I was just dangling off his wheel maybe 10 feet back, whoops. With 50 to go the second rider tried to come over the top into the windy side, thought better of it, tried to shove his bike through on the gravel shoulder, thought better of that and finally rolled across in third, with me 4th.<br><br>
Time for the real racing to begin, I feel like my winter training left me in good enough shape without burning up too much time, so I'm positive enough about the bike, the run is another matter...<br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/giro003.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/giro005.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">
The first move of the day found two riders off the front, gaining a couple minutes over the slumbering pack. My team mate was one of the two, so I was happy to just let it sit. I was uncertain why many of the other riders put no effort into chasing this one down, when it was clearly doing well. After maybe 20 miles, the two off the front cracked and it was all even, so a series of attacks started, but the hills were not quite steep or long enough to get the job done. I was making most of the splits, but we kept getting pegged back. After a while, only maybe 10 of us remained, so we were just kind of rolling through and a strong rider went off the front, where he would remain.<br><br>
On the last time up the rolling hills, I pu my head down and pushed it a bit and was happ to be able to ride right away, later joined by two strong guys. Our group had plenty of horsepower, but one guy wouldn't work as his temmate was up the road and the other guy was pulling pretty slow beacuse the other guy wouldn't work, so I didn't see any need to kill it either.<br><br>
With our dithering, we were caught by a clump of 5 or so with a few miles left. At this point the pace was really slow and a series of dumb attacks ensued. Finally, the sprint wound up with 200m to go into the crosswind. The guy I needed to beat to stay in third on points was taking the sprint out pretty early with the points leader on his wheel, but I was just dangling off his wheel maybe 10 feet back, whoops. With 50 to go the second rider tried to come over the top into the windy side, thought better of it, tried to shove his bike through on the gravel shoulder, thought better of that and finally rolled across in third, with me 4th.<br><br>
Time for the real racing to begin, I feel like my winter training left me in good enough shape without burning up too much time, so I'm positive enough about the bike, the run is another matter...<br><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/giro003.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><img alt="" src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/jroden99/giro005.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">
