Ronde Van Brisbeen

Today was another chance to get some points towards becoming a category 2 and I learned last weekend that I am in good enough form to get some results in the elite races now. I feel that my sprinting has improved a lot since last year and this was a course that I could show it off in.
From the start I knew that position was going to be a key part of this race and right when I was headed to line up we had to do junior roll out. Luckily they brought us up to the very front of the group for the start, to the dissatisfaction of the older guys, and that helped a lot to not start in the back of a pack of 120. During my warm up it had been extremely windy so from the gun I let up and got into around 20th position so that I would be in good position, but not in the wind. For the better part of the race I stayed right around there. At some points of the race I dropped back a little too far and getting back into good position was not fun with the tough wind.
Even though it was tough work on the downhill’s with the junior gears I was able to move up in the pack with a good tuck. With about 20 minutes left in the race I got up into the top 15 with a good move along the right side of the uphill, this allowed me to stay protected while moving up and not get stuck in the wind. My legs felt good and my specialized bicycle was handling all the corners so smoothly I knew that I could do well if I got good position.
With one lap to go I pulled into fifth position for the downhill and I sat there. For the first half of the climb I stayed there behind a super tall Webcor rider. Then the field swarmed and I got jammed into the right side with no where to go. I knew that the winner would go at the last second because no one would be able to sprint for long in the nasty wind. As I attempted to find some room and move up the right side a guy who was also trying to move up yelled at me so I had no choice. In last 500 meters a few guys went down and I went with the room I had and I was able to pull out a decent 6th place. I was disappointed since I had felt good, I just did not have room to sprint, oh well I still got some points.