When I got to the rider registration, It was well put together. Ample space for bikes, riders, guests, people on rollers, and a great display of all the prizes. It was cold as fuck out, so it was nice to have a roof and warmth to prepare for the race.
I rode 3 practice laps on the track. It felt so fast. Nice long straights, and some really technical turns. The wind was definitely a factor on half of it, and the cold was numbing at times until you warmed up.
Then comes the start...
The national anthem was sung as was Happy Birthday To Dave Trimble as the riders shivered their balls off. I was in a good position after the callups. The race started, I went to clip in and missed my pedal. I started riding unclipped. I "felt" clipped for a second, but somehow only got the back of my shoe in. I watched as the last guy in the whole pack made distance from me until I finally got clipped. Such a fucking retarded mistake on my part.
At this point, I knew I had blew everything so I just rode my best and passed the back 1/3 of the pack. I caught up to Frankie Flaco and we held our positions until being called out. Frankie fell victim to a crash earlier in the race and wiped out by being pushed into a curb.
I was pretty bummed. I wasn't expecting to win despite the field of riders and my lack of experience, but I know I could have done a lot better. I feel I'm better prepared for the next in so many ways. Experience is what you make of it and take from it.
All in all I really enjoyed myself. Hearing the crowd while riding through the spectator area was awesome. Big thanks to Dave Trimble for putting on such a well executed event, and a big congrats to Dan Chabanov and all the winners!
I'm sure there will be plenty of coverage popping up in the next few days, but for now you can get race result info HERE. There's a bunch of photos from the race HERE. I'll post up more photos as they come along.
Photo © Donalrey
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