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April 20th - Yankee Springs TT: What a beautiful day for a race. The sun was out and the course was dry which made for a big attendance. Yankee Springs is the third largest race in Michigan and it certainly looked like it by the time racing got under way. I was there with three other Team Venom/Healthy & Fit Magazine teamates and all of us would have a good day.
The race organizers would throw everyone for a loop by running the course in the opposite direction it's normally rode. I watched my friend Dennis take off in the Expert class and then started riding around for my warm up. Then it came time for myself and fellow teammate, Andy, to start in the Sport class and then Tim D. would have to wait a while to start in beginner class.
Andy was the last one to start in our age group and I would only be starting 15 seconds before him. I set my watch and got signal to leave the start house. I took off full of adrenaline looking to start catching up to people and yet keep in front of Andy, I did not want to get passed. About a mile or so into I started to catch up to some riders slowly picking them off and continuing on, I was really feeling good by the time I got settled into my race pace.
By running the course backwards, we were able to get all of the technical areas out of the way first. Most of the sand and climbs were right near the middle which would later open the course up to the faster areas. There was one hill that nearly everyone had to quickly clip out and run up due to the rooting of some trees making it too difficult to climb in the saddle. It was after that hill when I noticed that not too far behind me was Andy. So far I had not been passed and I was still planning on not letting that happen.
I noticed a mile marker with 7.3 on it and I thought to myself that there was only about four miles to go. At that point I was in the fastest part of the course so I continued to hammer my gears, I was still feeling really good. I had passed at least a dozen riders by the time I got to the 9.3 mile marker and I could see more in front of me, still keeping in mind that my teammate couldn't have been that far behind me. After passing the 10.3 mile marker, I really started hammering because I knew I was less than a mile from finishing. All of the sudden I noticed a big white tent through the trees, I was at the finish.
Andy's dad was right there with a camera to catch my finish and I told him to get ready because I knew he was right on my wheel, and I was right. I had finished the course in 55:32 with Andy only 41 seconds behind me. Nobody passed either of us, we both felt really good. I was a little over confident as I felt that my performance would get me a podium spot.
After cool down, I rode up to check the results and notice that I would place 4th out of the riders posted at that time. I was 32 seconds behind 3rd place and only 46 seconds behind 1st place. Still, I couldn't be disappointed. I had rode a really good race, nearly flawless. I had no complaints about how my bike handled or how I felt, everything went the way it should have for me. I got beat, plain and simple. By the end of the day Dennis had taken 5th in the Expert class. I had taken 4th and Andy had taken 6th in Sport class and Beginner teammate, Tim, had smoked his competition by taking 1st, nearly two minutes faster than his closest competitor.
Team Healthy & Fit Magazine had a great day. Only one of us brought home any hardware but we all had strong races. Yankee Springs had an attendance of 537 registered riders. It felt good to get the first race out of the way. I now know where I stand with competition and I know that I have to start training just a little bit harder. I think the next race on my schedule is Ft. Custer, a course I took a 2nd place at last Fall. If I can ride like I did over the weekend, a podium spot is very likely. Guess we'll have to wait and see, eh?
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