The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. I am behind in everything. Work, bikes, riding, the house, etc.
A quick recap of Sterling and Palmer before the PDX report.
Sterling
I got my head on right for this race. I started hard, rode in the top 10/15 for the first few laps and faded as my lack of riding and lack of fitness caught up with me. But it gave me great hope for next year. It was fun going that fast for 20 minutes or so. I did what I could to hang on for a top 30, and 29th is where I landed.
Palmer
Super fun course, as it always was all those years in the past. A few of us racked our brains trying to remember the last race there. I was pretty tired from the day before and started pretty conservatively. I got into a groove and started going by a few people. On the last run up I just tagged onto the back wheel of the guy who won the 4 race the day before in Sterling. I gave him a little run for his money but he had some good tactics to keep me behind him at the line. I didn't feel like going straight into the cone at the line, so I backed off. No need to get hurt over 6th place. 7th was fine with me.
I am working on some photos from PDX. All I can say is it was fun, muddy, and well worth the trip out. Portland is an amazing cycling city. Some of the things they have done there to incorporate cycling and bicycles into the daily culture simply blew me away. New Holland? Yeah, I'll take some shit for that one, I'm sure of that.
Preview pictures from last Sundays course after it rained a few inches the night before.
