There's a lot I could say about the race but I'll try to condense the best I can. I started the day of with 2 hard boiled eggs and some steel cut oats with banana dates and honey. Good energy food. Got the car all paced and headed out. Arrived at Mansfield at around 10:30 and chilled out for a while. Went around and talked to some people and checked out some of the early races. The course was still bone dry and dusty. I guess that rain didn't show up. 11:00 got dressed and started lightly spinning around. My legs were feeling pretty fresh despite the 3hr ride on Saturday. I was a bit worried about that but I've learned to trust Peter's training methods. 12:30 I got on the trainer and did a good warm up. Skipping ahead to the start line. Got a pretty bad spot but didn't let it bother me because I knew there would be time to make up some ground. But I also knew that I had no chance of riding with the lead group because of my start position. But with the Trek squad and Raph there I'm not sure i would have been in that group anyway.
Of the the start line and I was feeling good. But I wasn't able to move up at all on the first climb because the trail was just packed. Maybe I need to be more aggressive? Once we got to the top it opened up and I was able to move up a bit but I was still way back. Rode in a long line of guys through the single track. Long story short my first lap was spent passing guys in the double track and following in the single track. By the end of lap 1 I could see some familiar kits up ahead. Norco, Jet power and EMD. Got by Zack and he picked it up and got on my wheel to pass Mike G and Ryan Atkins. We got a gap on them and I was still feeling good. About half way into the lap a stick came up and knocked my front derailleur into my chain rings. A little frustrated but keeping calm I got off and pulled the out multi tool. Not a super fast fix but I got it working. Got back into chase mode. I had to chase down Mike, Ryan and Zack again. They were out of sight but I was able to get time gaps from different people around the course.
Lap 3 I started getting glimpses of Mike and that helped to get me going a bit. Caught him and could see the other 2 up ahead. Got up to Zack half way through the lap and Ryan next. I rode with Ryan for the next few laps and had a good battle with him and me trading the lead through different sections. We did that until the last lap were I made had a stupid crash and he got away again. It was getting close to the finish so I knew it would be hard to close the gap again. Especially after burning all those matches earlier. I ended up 7th 4 seconds behind Ryan.
All things considered I'm happy with my race. I have a few things I need to work on but I think it was a solid way to open the season. There's 2 weeks till the next race so I think I can improve on what I've learned by then. And hopefully it will be enough to get me on the Canada Cup project.
That's all for now. I'll keep updating on training and all that leading up to Albion.
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