Circuito de Evesham

I always liked this course, especially when they run it counter clockwise. The small power hill into the last 90 degree turn usually weeds out some riders that shouldn't be up front during the sprint. Today was a Cat 3 only race and Tom, Eric and myself lined up at the start. 27 laps for ~27 miles.

The first 15 minutes was rather fast (~28mph average). We did a good job of covering anything that looked dangerous. I remember thinking at these speeds, a break usually doesn't stay away. Things settle in and I decide to mark a couple more breaks but to mainly stay up front and conserve and hope for a field sprint. Sure enough, it looks like it is coming down to a sprint. I try to stay in the top 10 for the last 4 laps. With 3/4 of a lap to go I find myself in ~15th with Tom in front of me. I yell to Tom to take me up front and he does it very nicely. I wanted to slot in to 3rd spot or so and yell at Tom, 'that's good for now, wait up'. Tom thought I said to go harder and he takes off and gets a gap on the field. We catch Tom right before the hill and I get caught up a minor swarm and have to quickly hit my brakes. I restart my sprint right after the turn and pick off most of the riders that passed me in the surge. I end up in 6th place. I ran out of real estate (which just showed what I already knew, I had to start my sprint way to late). Even though this was a decent result, I still felt like I wasted a great chance as I was firing on all cylinders.

PowerTAP file from today. The race is from minute 45:00 - ~1:48:00.

They posted the results from yesterday. I ended up in 18th and Mike was 26th. I was happy to have not only finished but finish in mid-pack.