Eugene Roubaix

I came away with a win and some serious tan lines. Sunshine, beautiful scenery, and a good dose of gravel. This is one of my favorite races, I felt relaxed going in, just knowing that it was a fun race. I kept thinking when I was done that it was surprising I pulled off a win...Going into that final gravel stretch I wasn't sure at all that I would have a good finish. I had spent most of the race being fairly aggressive about position, but it had sort of fallen apart as people made moves on the gravel. I had been towards the front most of the race without doing too much work. It was a 4/5 field so whenever I found myself more mid pack I noticed the riding was a little more squirrely than I liked and worked my way back towards the front. The race itself was fairly uneventful. There were a few crashes, mostly rookie moves. We went at a reasonable pace most of the time, and even though we pushed it on the hill during the second lap, we never bothered to work the small gap we had created. Going into the gravel on the final lap people were getting anxious. I rode aggressively and made sure to maintain a good position going in. Once we got going though, people started going wide around me on the left and filling in (it was supposed to be centerline rule still, but there was no centerline). I did my best to keep in a good spot and was sitting at the back of about 10 riders as we neared the end of the gravel. I worked over to the right just before we were given both lanes. I saw a lane up the right side of the road past the group of ten and just took a hard pull. My plan was just to get into better position, however once I pulled through I had a little gap and saw the 200m sign, I decided to sprint from there, not sure if it would hold. I put my head down and pushed as hard as I could. I didn't dare look back. It worked. I pulled through the finish a bike length or two ahead of 2nd place. By my calculations enough points for an upgrade...Don put it well, it's been like groundhog day for me...the past couple road seasons I do a few races, do well, and then leave for the summer...not quite getting enough points, then I start all over the next road season, and the story repeats. It seems like most races I see friends or old teammates and they are all asking why I am not racing 3's and I go through the same story. So I made it a point this spring to do some more road racing. It's been good, and I feel like I have some of the best fitness I have had going into mt bike season.

I don't know if I'll do much more road racing this spring. It looks like the mt bike schedule is pretty full and we leave for Thailand right after school gets out.

Looking forward to riding some dirt. Bear springs this weekend. It's supposed to be in the 80's for the next couple days, then snow towards the end of the week. Lovely.