Another fine spring evening–windy, cloudy, cool, drizzly. Another 20 or so riders showed up, with Iron City missing two of their motors, which could be Good Thing for the rest of us. The pace was reasonable at first, with a couple of different people going off the front at various points, but the group was never terribly interested in reeling them back. Later, a small group slipped away, and this seemed to animate the pack a bit, and, just like last week, people were caught being inattentive and the pack completely splintered, which led to a few high efforts to bridge to the main chase group. Shortly thereafter, the break was caught, and though another Iron City rider sped off, the pack didn’t accelerate hard, instead simply cranking the pace up a notch or two.

With about 8 laps to go, I noticed the bike felt a bit loose in the corners. At first I thought it was rear tire slipping a bit, but then realized I must be slowly losing air. I kept going, sitting near the back. With three laps to go, turn two felt downright frightening, and I looked to see that the tire was definitely deflating. Deciding that 20th place in a training race was not worth the chance of rolling a tire in a corner at 28mph, I pulled up and watched the finishing laps while I replaced the tube. Oh well. Next week. I am 2 for 4 as far as actually finishing a race goes. I need to work on that percentage a bit.

Tonight felt pretty good, which actually surprised me since I’ve been fighting a chest cold for a week. My legs still have absolutely no pop in them when I’m trying to work in the wind. Hopefully more intervals will help that, lest I spend most of the year as pack fodder.

Posted on 15 April 2009