Kings Valley Road Race: What better way to spend a sunny day

First  I must say Kings Valley Road Race is a super fun rollie course with an up hill finish and im so glad my roomate (ryan garner )talked me into going. I have been on a racing hiatis for a while and had been dreading my return to racing, but also could not wait to get back at it. I had originally planned to mountainbike on Saturday but when I was offered a ride to the race ,the gears in my head started turning. My nerves went crazy at this point and I began to question everything about myself ,what a wreck. Despite all the fear I knew inside the time had come to get out and get back at it. I had not done a proper road race in 3 and half years ,and last year only raced a few times between cross and crits.

I got maybe an hour of sleep and jumped out of bed excited and scared all at the same time. I knew my lack of sleep may not help the matter but I really had no choice other than to back out, but my pride wasnt going to allow that, so off we went. So I get to the race ,register ,change and warm up and all seems well other than my nerves, and I begin to metally prepare myself for what may be the longest tt of my life..lol.. The course was a three lap 56 mile rolling course. My plan was to try not to get dropped or crash, work as little as possible and use the race astraining for later races..So the race began .........I felt surprisingly comfortable and settled in.

I was in the rearend of the pack not the best place to be ,the slinky effect in a 4/5 race is very dangerous and the surging makes it hard for the the people in the back to stay in contact with the group. About 4 miles in a rider in the front swerved to miss a pothole and I had my first near crash having to cross the centerline to avoid crashing..whew that was close...I recomposed and settled  back  in ...about 18 miles in there  was a right hand turn with corner marshalls waiving us on but appearantly not everyone was paying attention and only about half of the group actually turned right. The guy to my right also did not see this and we nearly collided and I was forced not to make the turn. We blew the turn, turned  around and tried to get back into contact and I did but it was short lived.

 The effort to get back on took too much out me and by the end of the first lap, at the top of the climb I was off the back on a reverse breakaway...I watched my race slip away and had no answer...God knows I gave all I had to get back into the group. This is where my race truly began...I'm guessing 10 or so of us got dropped in the cornering malay and we were strung out pretty good...The thought of quiting and riding back to car started crossing my mind and I felt mentally broken but decided to use it as fuel to get back into the race. I thought even if I finish DFL its better than DNF and if I can catch a couple guys I may not even DFL.

 I reached for my big boy pants and went for it. The second lap was a tt for me as I rode most of it alone pushing  myself as hard as possible. I caught and passed two guys, this helped me regain confidence and hope. When I reached the corner that had set my fate I noticed 4 guys in front of me. They were close now if I could just catch them we could work together and who knows just maybe....maybe my race wasn't over.... I pushed hard, real hard. I had to catch these guys... and I did..... but once again I used a ton of gas to get there. I got on a wheel and announced to the guys if they break and reset I would help to pull us back into the fold. They seemed to agree and the paceline began.

The entire third lap we worked super hard to get back to the group. They became my teamates and we got going quite fast and consistent. I knew we had a chance, we hit the last hill and could see the back end of the group and saw some of the riders that couldnt hang on to the sprint at the front end. I reached one more time in hopes of catching as many of them as I could. I tried to get out of the saddle and felt a little crampy so I sat back down and tried to go hard from my seat...I caught 5 or 6 guys and ended up 43 out of 56. Usually I would be upset by this as a result but all things considered I felt damn good about it.......This was a perfect way to get back into racing. I plan to do KVRR next year and hope to continue racing hard this year, so next time I get a better result.

Next race for me will be the Eugene Roubaix, I cant wait!