I have wanted for the last few years to ride an unreasonably long distance to a spring training race, do the race, then bum a ride home. Probably not the smartest idea in the world, but whatever. In past springs, my plans have always been foiled by either bad weather or lack of the aforementioned ride home, but things finally worked themselves out, and today I was able to ride the ~65 miles from East Lansing to the training series at Waterford raceway on the east side of the state. Of course I spent all of 3 minutes planning the route and something like 50% of it turned out to be on dirt roads; luckily they were fairly high quality ones so I did not get any flat tires.  Also, since I am not a member of a pro-tour team, and I also do not have a groupie or personal assistant who is willing to drive behind me when I train, the number of point-to-point rides that I have done is rather limited. As it turns out, riding is a bit harder/slower going when you have a strong headwind the entire time.

Anyway, on to the race.  It’s your standard racetrack course: lots of sweeping corners and a small hill somewhere in the middle. 90 min + 2 laps format and a field of around 50. Larger than I expected given that a competing event was going on in the same state on the same day. There were many breakaway attempts throughout the day, and I tried to join every one that looked promising.  However, the right combination never materialized and the finish was destined to be a sprint.  I was sitting in good position on the last lap when a junior rider from Mesa cycles attacked with two others on his wheel.  In retrospect I should have followed them immediately, but instead I slotted in behind another rider who led the chase. He pulled off just before the last corner and I was left to start my sprint from the front with too large of a gap to close before the finish.  Got passed by a few more people and ended up 7th or 8th I believe.

-Greg Christian