Turkey Day Race

The second to last race weekend of the year went as smoothly as any Team Traveller adventure will.  We got off to a solid start after waiting 15 minutes for Elliott, which is actually right on time for those of us on Elliott Mean Time.  This aside, the team van was packed full with Dave at the helm, Ken riding shotgun, and Elliott, myself, Brian, and new club member Reilly filling in the rest of the room in the back. 

We navigated through DC with the help of Dave's trusty GPS and arrived at the home of our gracious host, W&L alumnus Bill Schieken, a little before dark.  Eager to get the lactic acid out of our legs from all that strenuous sitting, Bill offered to take us for a spin.  We spent a fun 2 hours in the saddle on a rout that took us up past Arrow Bicycles, the sponsor shop of Bill's team, Route 1 Velo.  It was interesting for all of us to experience some city biking.  Ken was quick to voice his preference for the stoplightless country, however.  We continued on to a park in which many of the area crits are hosted and then dabbled in some night riding on our way home.  Passers by cheered us (most likely sarcastically), but we'll take cheer leaders when we can get them.

Back at base camp Elliott and Ken usurped the throne of master chef extrordinare from the illustrious Dave and whipped up a 5 star pasta, garlic bread, broccoli, and avocado dinner to power us to victory the next day.  Settled down for bed, we had to endure constant jabber from Elliott before we could set sail for dreamland (thats our captain for you...).  He did, however, provide some helpfull insight for me.  As I was lying in bed he told me to visualize my race tomorrow, and my mind went to work.  I was leading going into the final lap (naturally), and to my surprise beautiful maidens clothed in a strange mist of primary colors were pushing me along, making my incredible speed seem effortless.  Whats more, they fed me bananas as I seemingly flew towards the finish...  In the midst of my musings, I was rudely interrupted by Elliott asking if I had ever actually raced the course.  When I answered, "no", Our captain wisely told me, "it's through an industrial park and has four turns" (much less exciting than what I had envisioned, apparently there were not going to be any maidens).  At this we all went to bed.

The next morning we woke bright and early and headed for the race.  Brian was first to race and we all went out for a warm up ride with him after setting up camp.  It was a little brisk so I opted for arm warmers.  The course was well set up, although very flat.  With a nice wake up ride under our belts we were ready for the racing to begin.  Brian's race went well.  Not quite the finish he was expecting but nothing to scoff at.  He hung in with the peloton until it split into three parts with two laps to go.  Brian crossed the finish line with the third group not far back from the leaders.

Next up was Ken in the Masters 40+ race.  He raced a tactically sound race but was thwarted by a few unexpected sprinters coming off the final turn.  Nevertheless a strong peloton finish in a fast field.  He also walked away with a prime win.  Not shabby Ken.  During Ken's race I took some crazy pills and decided that it would be a great idea to do two races instead of one so I registered for the cat 3-4 race to supplement the cat 4 race that I was already registered for.  Prior to the start of my 3-4 race, we all suited up in full traveller gear and did some pace lining so that our all star photographer, Reilly could get some professional shots of the zebra armada cranking.  

My 3-4 race came next, and it was a rush.  This was by far the fastest and most intense race that I have yet experienced.  It was very tight the whole way through, at one point I found myself literally sandwiched between two riders, with the handlebars of each pressing against the left and right side of mine, a very tense moment.  Although the race was fast, I was able to hang near the front of the peloton and race for some of the primes that seemed to be given at  every single lap.  I won one, but later found out that the reason for the rampant bell ringing was that a fan had brought a bell, stood by the finish line, and rang it at every lap.  Unfortunately the bell lap that I won was a false alarm.  This aside, I finished 12th out of 78 and was very pleased with myself despite finishing just out of the money.

When I got back to the Traveller camp, we refueled with some Subway sandwiches and got ready to continue our crusade on the rest of the cycling world.  Ken and I were up next with our cat 4 race.  Both a little tired from our first races, we spent some time at the front and did our fair share of pulling.  I snuck in for a prime victory of a cool mountain biking jersey and Ken and I battled quivering quad syndrome while sprinting out of turns in the final laps.  Two solid riders held off the peloton in a commendable breakaway from the early laps of the race.  Ken and I sprinted in with the peloton and found ourselves 28th and 29th.  Respectable, we thought, for our second race of the day.

Waiting for Elliott as usual, we cooled down before the start of the Pro 1-2-3 race.  In typical Kiwi style, Elliott went for a break away in the early portion of the race with a few other riders.  Unfortunately, however, they were swallowed back into the pack.  On the sidelines, we were worried about how well Elliott's legs would hold up in his first race since leaving for Peru all summer.  We were all wowed in the end as he came in with the lead group for a thirteenth place finish.  Nice job Elliott.  With that, we put all five bikes back on the van and headed for home.  In the car, we took a look at the pictures that Reilly snapped.  They were quite professional.  Dave would be in for a field day putting them up on the site.

It wasn't that easy though, as luck would have it, we made a giant backtracking circle in search of food and finally stumbled upon Brian's favorite dining establishment, Baja Fresh.  We wound with a double bonus as right next to the restaurant was a Coldstone.  We enjoyed some frozen delicacies and found ourselves back in Lexington in no time.  Great weekend Team!