San Antonio Road Race

The San Antonio Road Race was my first race of the 2011 season. I was very excited for it as I would see the results of my winter training there. It was 4 laps of a 17 mile rolling circuit. In the first couple miles of the race Andy Crater got away with Sean Coleman. There were some other attacks later in the lap that bridged up to the duo. Near the end of the lap the pace got high and I bridged up to the lead group. This group had about ten or twelve riders in it, including Joey Roskopf and Dan Holt from Team Type 1, 3 riders from Floridavelo, John Durango and Alejandro Bello from Santo, and David Guttenplan and Shane Braley from Chemstar. The work was uneven in the group and it was apparent that some people were tired. At the start of the second lap Derek Bennett (Floridavelo) and I got a gap. I just said to him let's not kill ourselves because we have 51 miles still to race. Over the next two laps our gap stayed at about 1'. Derek was doing awesome and I did not feel so great so I wasn't pulling as much as him. On the last lap I got a Coca Cola and I felt great. Our gap was still at 1' with Team Type 1 Chasing. I pulled hard this lap and was sure we would not get caught. Then with about 5 miles to go I see a Team Type 1 rider blazing up to us. It was Ty Magner, probably the best sprinter in the race. After that I wasn't really sure what to do. With 1 k to go I gave Ty and Derek a gap and surged into the last hill. I looked back and Ty was immediately on my wheel but I dropped Derek. I just held a fast pace to the line knowing that Ty would come around me and I held on for second. Not so bad for the first race of the year.