Ann Arbor Spring Training Series 4-21

With the collegiate season over now its time to start focusing on the summer USAC season. The season kind of got underway this last weekend with the Ann Arbor Velo Club's Spring Training Series. I say kind of since they were more of a training race than anything official, but it was nice to race with some non-collegiate guys.  To make things better my parents came down to watch.

The course for the day's events was a 1km-ish football shaped course with a little bit of elevation change just before the finish line. Strava gps overlay shown below. We traveled the course clockwise.

 

The plan was to race twice on Sunday with a category 4/5 race immediately followed by a 3/4 race. The 4/5 race was 20 mins + 3 laps and the 3/4 race was 30 mins + 5 laps. Unfortunately there was only about a 5 minute break between the races so I was feeling pretty tired as the second race got underway.

The 4/5's race was first and got underway shortly after the race director's spiel. My gameplan was to stay towards the front of the pack without necessarily being on the front. I did a pretty good job of that, taking a few short pulls here and there. Trying to start a break was frowned upon in this training race, so the pack stayed together right up until the final sprint. I made sure I was in good position while going down the back stretch so I could be positioned well for the turn and final sprint to come.  

As we came out of the turn I was up towards the front with only a few guys in front of me. It was sprinting time with the finish line in sight just on top of the hill. I really started going hard and moved my way to the front. Eventually there was no one in front of me and it was just a matter of making it to the finish line without getting caught from behind. Eventually I crossed the line and took home my second race of the season.

  

I had a limited amount of time before the 3/4 race started so I did the best I could to recover. I didn't have long though, so I scarfed down a gel and lined up for the next race. Eventually we were off racing again.

I was feeling pretty tired as we started out so my goal was to just sit in for a while and try to get my legs back. After a while I had recovered enough to feel comfortable cruising around the course at race pace. I was feeling pretty good actually until the last lap came around. 

We kicked the pace up a bit, which I didn't think was much of a problem as I was hanging in the pack just fine. However, after we took the final turn the legs went full zub-zub. I was in decent position for the sprint, but my legs just said "NO!" as I tried to make them go. Oh well, I was satisfied with winning the 4/5 race and staying in the pack for the 3/4 race. I sat up, got passed by everyone in the main field, and crossed the line in 21st.