Poolesville Road Race 4/5

Poolesville is one of the few local Road Races in the DC area, that
uses real roads, and has 1 mile of gravel per lap. I had been
wanting to do this race for awhile, and I signed up in the first 15
minutes for the Men's 4/5 field and I was able to get in. I pre-road
the course, and I was a little worried about the steep hill into the
right hander to the gravel. OK fast forward to Race-Day I get to the
ride start (will finish soon, comeback)
(OK I'm Back!)
I wasn't able to get too good of a warm up, but I thought I should be fine.
I got to the start and Eric was in the front, and I was kinda forced to the back of the group since I got there late. As we are waiting they were fixing our numbers(which I thought was nice) and I was looking for MattyD I didn't see him anywhere, He finally got there and lined up with me near the back. First thing, I was used to blasting out of the gate like you do in Mt. bike racing, but people just clipped in and started up. So we are going down the road, and I am thinking how am I going to get up to the front with all these people. The course is flat to downhill to the gravel, so everyone was bunched up and people got settled in. I found it funny that I didn't have a problem riding, I was expecting to barely keep up, but I was doing fine with the group. I finally catch up to Eric in front and then we get to the gravel and people slammed on their brakes, but took the gravel corner pretty easy. I got messed up because of someone else's line and did a snow plow move with my front tire to get back on the dirt out of the gravel(messing up Eric behind me.) After the gravel section I see Matt going up the road, and I was OK look at that. Matt got reeled in and then I just worked on staying in the top 15 positions for the rest of the race. I was surprised that no team really took control of the race, I saw the coppi's try something early on, but nothing after that. I think that there could have been some cards to play if a team was able to mobilize. I think the 2nd or 3rd lap the big crash of the day happened. I was like 4 or 5 bike widths away, and I went into some gravel at the side of the road no biggy. I found out later my teammate Eric, was behind the guy who wrecked so he did some concrete gymnastics, he ended up being ok, but was out of the race. Around lap3 Matt came up to me so that was cool having a teammate by me. We talked and I said I might as well do something the next lap even if it fails.
After the first lap people were riding the gravel section single file with a few on the opposite side. I knew I could get some distance on the right had side not many were going over there, with this 3-4 foot puddle. When I came to the gravel corner, I stayed to the inside and got some speed bunny hopped the puddle(go mt. bikes) and then was riding solo, about 15 places down, I knew there was a downhill in there, so I gunned it in on that to see if maybe some of the pure roadies could get shelled I road more then half the gravel section on my own. After the gravel section, I didn't get too much distance on the group so I shut it off and easy peddled waiting for the group. Towards the end I was asking Matt if he had any sprint in his legs he didn't sound too positive(we needed Eric he has some kick). At the end I knew they wouldn't take the turn at full speed. So I decided I was going to do the David Miller flier and see what happens. I got a good jump everyone was yelling, and through the turn I knew someone was on my tail well it was Matt:-) I pushed as hard as I could I would have won if the finish line was 500meters sooner , Matt took off and he would have had it I think if the race ended 200m sooner. If we had Eric we might have done it, but once people started coming by I let up and coasted in with a 28 place.

A good race, I like road racing, but you need the team to really race. I found the people to be cool and relaxed for the most part, I liked that people would say they were on you inside so you wouldn't get spoked. Will I do another road race this year? I Don't know I think I will.