Whitewater Road Race

There are two things you should bring to the WISPORT Whitewater race, your sprinter legs and your health insurance card. Every year there seems to be a relatively substantial crash at the beginning of the race. Part of the problem is that it is an early race and not too many people are used to riding in large packs yet. The other reason is that WISPORT is a mass start so you have Cat.5 riders with Cat.1-2 riders. Either way it is best to stay in the front, even push some wind at the beginning of the race to let everyone figure things out behind you. Well this year I think about half the pack had that same plan. We turned out of town and before I could even shift up the pack ramped up to 35mph! Sure enough a few riders weren't used to going that fast got tangled up. The guy did a phenominal job of keeping his bike up as he shot across the road and in the opposing ditch. Then a few miles later one of our former teammates went down when someone swerved into him. He ended up with a broken arm, a concussion, and major road rash. I didn't see that one happen as it was ways back in the field. Cathy seen him though and said he didn't look good. After that things settled down a little, at least for crashes. The pack was still strong and pulling in attacks one after another. There is only one hill on the course and it happened to be right before turning into a tailwind. This is where I attached two years ago and broke away from the pack. The plan was same this for the race, attack then have tail wind to make it stick. I figured Josh Barret would have the same plan and we timed it perfect. We both attached opposite sides of the pack and quickly got a gap on the hill. We were only able to get a couple rotations before we got pulling in though. I sat in and planned the next try. Cory was itching to go so a few miles before turning into another tail wind section we went for it. Both of us just sprinted as hard as we could and quickly gapped the pack around curve. We were working perfect and stayed out for about a mile. Then I looked back and seen one of our teammates come off the front of the pack and tried to bridge up to us. He made it but brought the entire pack with him!! I don't think we could have lasted though, but we still gave him a hard time about it after the race.
So that is how the entire race went, someone would attack, then we would chase. The finish got sketchy also, people started jockeying for position and there were two sizable wrecks just 3 miles from the finish. I managed to avoid them and stay in position. On the last stretch I was pretty wiped out. We turned and sprinted up the small hill to the finish. I managed to get around about 4 people at the line so that felt good.
Meanwhile Cathy was having a good race also. She hooked up with Denny after the first crash and they got into a good group. I was surprised to see her as soon as I did, she finished in just over 1 hour with over a 20mph average!! She is starting her season really good and even brought home a 2nd place metal to prove it.