Tysons 3/4

It's been a while since I last posted. Before I go into the race recap at Tysons some quick review of last weekend to today:

- Rented an RV with a bunch of the college buddies and spent the weekend going to Blacksburg and Martinsville, VA to hand out at the old school and watch the Craftsman Truck series race (awesome).
- Drank A LOT of beer.
- Had a couple of good rides this week but was concerned about "wasting" the weekend (bike wise).

Now, back to bike racing:

The 3/4 race at Tyson's was a deep field with lots of the teams
having deep entries. Joel, Carlos, Cernich and I toed the line for us
with the intention of having Joel and I putting in the major efforts
early and trying to keep Carlos and Scott fresh for getting into a
break or setting up for the finish. The race wasn't too memorable
except that anytime anyone went up the road the entire pack surged
after them. We all took a couple of flyers early on, but none lasted
more than a lap.

With about 7 to go we realized that nothing was going to get away
from the group (surprising with the amount of people the other teams
had). Scott, Carlos, and I started making our way to the front and
were sitting about 6 or 7 back going into the last lap. A DC Velo
flyer looked promising at turn 1 and for a second I though the
suicide move was going to stick for him and that we were all racing
for second...then out of nowhere Joel comes flying up the right side
and starts the run in. This move turned out to be a good one as a
couple of the heavy hitters were sitting 2nd and 3rd wheel and were
forced to chase down the back stretch. I was sitting 7th and was
hoping Scott and Carlos were behind me. The group dived into the
last turn at speed and about 6 wide (scary). We held the outside
line and ended up squeaking by the DC Velo rider right out of the
turn and started the sprint from way out. I think I was sitting 3rd
at this point.

I gave everything knowing that it was way to far out, caught one, got
passed by three...actually sat and gave up at one point thinking my
leadout was done (I know, I know...need to work on mental toughness)
but nobody came around so I got back out of the saddle and kept
going. Crossed the line 5th leading out Carlos for 4th. A Bike
Doctor rider (Josh Kaney) actually got penalized for sprinting
outside the cones so we ended up getting 3rd and 4th...in the money,
and two R1Vs in the top 5...not bad.

Plus I got a pair of sweet cotton t-shirts at Gap afterwards...so
pretty much a perfect weekend. ;)

Jose got first in the 4 race today and Brooke took first in the 4 race at Walkersville yesterday too...impressive wins for both of them and I can't wait for them to cat up and start mixing it up with us.

More on the race and my thoughts on it later....

Cheers.