The real Carl Dolan post.

Well.. I coould have told you so. For Christ sake when will it stop raining during my races?!!!

Yep.. the race was sketchy. I almost got knocked down on the decent before the right turn. A big guy, I won't give you his name, apparently held too much speed down into the turn when everyone was starting to brake. Yes.. it is in the rain, so his brakes didn't work and gravity was definitely working against him. He came charging down through the pack, rubbing elbows with whoever he could to try to slow down. Luckily most of us, masters have enough experience beneath our belts not to panic. I just held my ground, not leaning into him much, just trying to stay straight and upright, as he continued to barrel forward. Good thing is that he didn't go down and held his position through the turn. Up the hill, he came back up to me and apologized for having no brakes. It's just part of racing in the rain.

Yep, there were attacks by the teams I had named earlier. The only thing I was wrong about was Paul Basler. It wasn't Paul who attacked with Ramon. Apparently there was a last minute registrar...Dave Fuentes of Battley Harley. I didn't notice him as I didn't remember seeing anyone from Battley register. Well, he and Ramon rode off without anyone trying to chase. Of course the Immediate Mortgage - Artemis Elite squad did their job of easing off the pedals letting Ramon roll away. There were a few guys who did some half-hearted chases, including myself. I came around towards the front and of course no one decided to come around me. Ugh. I went for another 50 yards or so and let the pack pass me. We're never going to catch them. The gap increased to about 30 seconds and I knew it was probably it. Just like my original post. I wasn't there and I was recovering from the Dave Osborne's attack. (you just don't know which one of them will be the break as they trade off attacks all of the time.) Funny thing though, was that Dave tried an attack after Ramon was long gone and he actually got away with about 5 other guys. The pack chased him pretty hard and eventually caught them, thanks in part to another Immediate Mortgage teammate and ABRT.

During the whole race it rained, sometimes harder than others. On a few laps, the rain felt like hail. Ouch!! Sometimes I could barely see a few bike lengths in front of me. I knew many times we rode through 5-6 inches of rain on the ground, as my whole wheel was completely underneath the water. I use the 50mm deep aero wheels. The splash sound it makes is pretty cool. WHOOSH with the carbon sound. At times I was wondering if the refs would neutralize us because of the rain. Not! It never happened. By the fourth to the last lap, my body was getting cold and my hands were cramping up. I had to stretch them, but the cramping was definitely coming on and I was worried about my legs as I couldn't really feel them. The 2nd to the last lap I was passed by Ray and I was falling back. I jumped on his wheel, hoping to get a pull up front. I knew by that time, I had to start moving forward or it would be too late. I saw Andrew Hong and immediately jumped on his wheel, he made some great moves moving forward and I tagged along. Well, who would have known, we got to Bo Lee's wheel. I took the train towards the front on the last turn and that's when Bo took off. Andrew apparently faltered a bit going up the hill and I was starting to fade as well. I got boxed in a bit then got around Andrew, however, I could only sprint a short distance before I got tired. I spun but couldn't increase my power. Three or four guys passed me at the line. Oh well. I placed 9th. Oh well. I found out that I took 3rd for the 40+ riders. So I'm not too sad about getting beat at the line as the riders who passed me were 30+ .
Well I quickly went to change to get out of my wet clothes. I was shivering. I finally started warming up a bit and went over to the registration table to find out when the CAT123 race was starting. Well, in about 50 minutes. A sucker for punishment and the fact that my family is away for the weekend, I decided to register. Plus the weather was clear and the roads were looking pretty dry!
The CAT3/4 race had a major crash and I found out that James Palo a fellow BPVC racer was involved. The CAT3/4 race was neutralized for about 20-30 minutes so that an ambulance could arrive. I spoke to James a little later and his bike is okay, he's just got a nice road rash on his hip.

The CAT123 race was finally about to start. As we were standing around waiting, I started feeling raindrops and of course there was a dark looming cloud in front of us. We started off , I made my way forward, expecting attacks to start happening pretty quickly. It was brisk, several teams attacked, the speed was pretty high. The rain started getting harder after a lap. Then there was the wind! A few times the wind almost knocked over the pack. We were having a hard time holding a good line as the wind would swirl. The rain started to downpour. Again the rain started to feel like sleet/hail. I stayed up in the front 20 as much as I could while trying to be protected from the wind. Several laps later, we were neutralized, as the ref said that there was lightening. I rode around trying to keep warm with some of the other riders, then since it seemed like that the race wouldn't start soon and the lightening was getting closer, I ducked under a covered entrance. A Kelly rider and I chatted a bit then he was told on his radio that the race was canceled. I guess that was good, as I was again getting cold.

So as you can see... this year the rain is following me around and I can't stand it! Funny thing is that I'm performing decently in the rain. Something I kept telling others that I wouldn't do. Ride in the rain. Even with my decent placings, I still hate riding in the rain.

I drained the seat tube, took off my headset and drained the downtube before the 2nd race. Now I have to do it all over again at home. I hate doing that. By the way.. What's with the Trek bikes which don't have a centralized way to drain the bike?

I don't know what my next races will be yet. I think I have Daddy duties on the weekend of May 3rd. (Poolesville) as my wife will be away playing with her friends.

I did get a good weekend of riding and racing (except for the rain)

C'est la Vie.