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Today Andrea and I went out to North Little Rock to race the flat 26 mile loops of the Crosswind Classic. Memphis Velo had a good representation with 4 of us racing Cat3 (in the 123 field), 4-5 racing Cat4, and some masters. Andrea raced Women’s 123 mixed in with the Cat4’s. She ended up finishing in the middle of the Cat4 field and was the first woman. I am sure she will blog this soon….

As for my race, the turnout was a good one for the 3 lap race (78 miles). At the start they gave the rundown: 16 Cat1/2’s and about 40-45 Cat3’s. The first lap started out pretty slow on the narrow course. Despite the yellow-line rule, the field frequently swelled across the road as riders tried to get into position. About half-way through the first lap, David Jones was up in a break of about 10, John was up near the front, and Jarret and I were trapped near the back. I know I wasn’t willing to ride over the yellow line to advance despite most of the field. So it was difficult to move up as you were quickly overwelmed by people passing over the yellow line. There just wasn’t any enforcement of the rule.

In any case, all was well near the back of the field until about 22-24 miles in when the some vicious surges put me in difficulty (a.k.a. a spot of bother). The first, I recovered from but it weakened me, the next one a little bit later out of a corner did me in. I chased like hell for a mile or so, but I was steadily losing time and had to pack it in.  I ended up riding the 2nd lap and withdrew without doing the final lap.

Back up in the race during the 2nd lap, there was a bad crash caused by a truck cutting off the field after he grew impatient behind the peleton for mile after mile of the field swollen across the road. In the end, David’s break came back.

As for me, I am disappointed that I couldn’t hang on through the surges…the course was board flat, but the wind was tough out there alone. I hadn’t really planned to race until April given my ‘cross racing through the end of January… I really shouldn’t be surprised.

I probably will race in 3 weeks (Ride to Live race in Birmingham - Cat123 field) and then 6 weeks out (Chattanooga Georgia Cup race - Cat3 field). Time to get ready!