There were 7 of Portland Velo riders, so we have one of the bigger teams in our race. The first couple laps were pretty mellow. It's all about saving energy and letting other people work. One of our guys did a breakaway for about 1/2 a lap but was caught by the peleton. The pace picked up on the 3rd lap. I found myself leading the pack on the backside hills. We actually caught the race that started 5 minutes before us. I was proud that I "held on" and didn't get dropped after my long pull at the front. We probably put some hurt on some of the guys in back, but most of the pack regrouped when we crossed the dam.
It's only a couple miles to the finish after the dam. There are 3 hills and the 2nd is quite a "wall". However, our team was broken up at that point and we weren't leading the charge up the hill. So, the pack was bunched up and it was a big crazy sprint for the finish.
Results are posted, but there are quite a few errors at the moment - namely they have me at #1. I finished about 20th out of 50 I would estimate. I was very happy with my ride. I did some hard pulls and never got dropped. A big improvement from 5 years ago (the only other time I did the BB series).
Here's Luke getting in a few laps after my race......
I'm looking forward to next week - BB#2. We'll try some different tatics and see if our results improve.
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