At the start of the race I managed to get in the very back, poor planning on my part. There was a small road section to get the racers spread out and I managed to get very close to the front. I stayed with the top expert for about the first half of the first lap. Then I just fell back and stayed with the other people in my category.
I was doing great with a much better time in the first lap than last years. Almost 7 minutes faster. The racers spread out greatly by the end of the second of three laps. I was pretty much all alone. Nearing the end of the last lap I was going with every bit of energy that I still had in me. Then I saw another member of my category. This was the person that had gotten all the publicity and had predicted a great season. I worked but in the end finished 16 seconds behind him. This was almost no time considering the race was 24 miles and I hadn't seen anyone in over an hour.
At the end of the race I saw that I had not been going for first and second but for third and fourth. The young man that won my category was second overall and had beaten all of the experts who did not compete for a living. This is just amazing in biking. After I had been done for 10 minutes the two winners of my class got picked up, taken to the airport, and flown to California for the national championship. This reall gets you down because you know that not only are you racing against some guy from you region but one of the national competitors.
This 4th place finish moved me to tie for 4th in the category. This really helps motovate me and makes me want to finish even better for later races.
