Falcon Road Race

Well my race season is off and running now all starting with the Front Range Cycling Classic as part of the USAFA cycling races. The race consisted of 4 laps around the Air Force Academy in the Springs, for a total of 51 miles. I am very familiar with the course being that it is the Sunday group ride route here in the Springs, although we do go the other direction around the loop, so I was hoping for a bit of a home course advantage.
We started off and I sunk straight into the middle of the group for a nice draft until the important part of the course, the ride up Pine Drive, it is a steady hill but it is the place where you can inflict the most damage. As we neared the climb I moved toward the front and after we were a bit up the climb, I helped set the tempo and started the long toll of slowly taking it to the other racers. After cruising through the first lap we had only lost a couple people but most hung in. Once across the rolling top of the loop and through the finish line I settled back in pack again waited for the climb letting my legs recover. On the 2nd lap I moved toward the front and helped set a nice tempo and after the top of the climb the group had paired down nicely to a group of around 20 guys. The third time up the climb I continued to follow the same tactic and when we hit the bell lap, we were down to a group of 10. I kept it as easy as possible along the bottom downhill flat section of the loop and towards the end started to ramp up the pace with Lars, who I didn’t realize was in the race till that last 3/4 of the last lap, we tried to catch the other guys off guard and did manage to string out the group a bit but no one dropped till the bottom of the climb. This time I hit the front earlier and turned the screw on a bit more, I got a little help from one other guy but did most of the pace making. Towards the top of the climb I looked back and it was down to just 4 of us, I could really tell they were really hurting and I made a little mistake. I should have tried a hard attack but didn’t, I did push it and opened up a gap but made a mental error of thinking we are close to the top of the climb and they will just catch me when I should have just gone for it. So they were back on me and we went over the final rollers towards the finish and it was going to come down to a sprint, something I am not that great at. I do believe I positioned myself well going into the final hill but just didn’t have the legs for the sprint. I finished up in 4th not bad but definitely a race that I probably should have won. Just need to work on my cycling tactics a bit more. Next up is the real start, Xterra West Cup in Las Vegas in two weeks then the fun begins.