Westlake Worlds

or what it's like to race after a month plus off........damn Gary talked me into racing the A's, so along with Chris, Gary, Dr. John & David S we assembled for the start. I was going to try out my new SLR seat/position.
Ian, Matt & Dave K. rounded out the B's.
I had no clue how strong I was going to be and after being the sweeper for like 4 laps I figured that I was feeling OK , plus I didn't want a strong move dropping me off the back so I started to work my way up the field to the upper 1/2. It was a constant struggle for position....everyone wanted to be in the upper group. The attacks were constant and the speed fast (26.4 avg) the whole time. I did go up a couple of times; once with Chris (he was great the first time out) and once with Gary (see Dr. John's view).
I felt surprisingly good and should have worked more at the front than I did. At the bell lap I just wanted as safe as position as I could get; I had been run into by another rider a couple of laps earlier and wanted to avoid a crash. I ended up in good position and was able to watch and catch onto the RFG train as they were wanting to do a leadout past Paul and the others. As I was doing this I realized that I was at the 200 meter mark and sitting around 12-13th, so I hit what gas I had left and sprinted in for a 9th position finish.

Stats:
1:01:31
27.1 miles
156/178 avg/max HR
26.4/38.9 avg/max speed*
102/122 avg/max CAD
temp was around 79 at the start and 76'F at the finish
*the avg speed for the first 1/2 of the race was 26.2 and 26.7 for the second half.

Thanks for reading,
Rick