Spring Road Racing with Team WHAYNE

So we're two races into the road season and I am having a ton of fun already. The group is very cool and we're already starting to work together.

Our first race was at Long Run Park in Louisville. Being the first race of the season we were understandably over anxious. Several of us made the mistake of being way too active on the front and tried to control everything that moved. We cooked ourselves in the process and by the time we hit the last lap we couldn't organize enough people for the lead-out, plus the train was a little slow since our legs weren't too fresh.

I still managed to take over on the last lap and led for 2/3 of a mile, I was fading fast over the hill when Joe shot out from the rear of the pack and took over. Andrew jumped out from behind me and took Joe's wheel, and since we were headed downhill I dug deep and got on Andrew's wheel. 

Andrew was telling Joe to"Go!"  but he misunderstood and pulled off. Andrew was left with an 800 yard sprint, so he jumped and I faded off his wheel; completely spent. I watched as he opened up a 10 bike-length lead, which he held until about 10 yards from the finish line where four guys edged him out and off the podium.

So Andrew narrowly missed a win, but still held on for 5th. Not bad for our first race, but there were many things for us to work on.

Next up was another circuit race in Lexington. This course, at Coldstream, was like a Nascar race - wide open, fast, and only one easy corner. Our plan was to be less active early in this race and save ourselves for the sprint. Only problem was the other teams had the opposite in mind and went for the early break. I didn't chase it down this time and sat in while others did the work.

A break did form with Greg in it, but he did a lot of work to get in it and didn't last long before he fell back to the pack. The break included some strong riders so I decided to try and bridge up to them before it got too far away. I brought them to within a few seconds, but it was windy and they didn't want me in the mix. So every time I'd get close they'd hit the gas and I'd lose the ground I had gained. I tried for about 10 mins before conceding and I fell back to the pack to recover for while. Three laps in the wind had hurt, so it forced me to regroup and loose track of what was happening at the front.

Joe made a good attempt and got away with a few others for a lap before they were also brought back. At this point there was a lot of confusion, one break had been brought back, but everyone lost track of the original group that was still slogging it out off the front. So the pack stopped chasing and we focused on grouping up for the final laps.

Sean made a great flier in the final laps putting in a strong effort and taking the pressure off us as a team to set the pace. We moved to the front with three to go, turned up the pace with two to go and by one to go we had a nice train organized with six riders setting the pace.

With half a lap to go Greg rolled off, having done a lot of the work to hold our position. I pulled us through about 400 out, Andrew took over with Steve H., Doug, and David Rose on his wheel and they were flying at this point. He dropped them off giving Doug the field sprint and had enough steam left to cross the line right behind him. It was beautiful, the field was strung out and there wasn't much the other teams could do about it. We took first, second, and fourth in the field sprint.

Doug thought he'd won, but we really got 5th - not a good feeling. It's funny how long it takes to sink in when you're on a high like that. We didn't win, but we were really excited about how the lead-out worked, and about our progress from last week. The process was great, the product will come.