G3 Race 3 - Guthrie to "Luther" and back

It's G3R3 report time, catch up on race two here and race one here

This weeks race seemed to come around really quickly, I have been slowly ramping up my training for Landrun double, mileage tracking can be found here. This means I have had a pretty heavy tail end of the week for me.

Thursday was running intervals followed by two hours of zone 2 on the bike. Friday was an "Easy" long run though it didn't feel that way.

As we lined up at the start of the race I wasn't sure how my legs were going to respond. I was excited to try and ride with John Lynn who was down from Colorado to see his son. We rolled together through the neutral roll out then the pace increased and that was the last I saw of John :)

John is in that front group... Bye John :) 

My legs were feeling pretty good though and I settled into a tempo ride. Fortunately for me Jeremy Black was there with me and we rolled out a good pace. With a couple of ladies (Heather and Rhonda) and one other guy.

Love riding with Jeremy :)

Allowing others to lead :)

After a few miles in we caught up with a group whom had turned the wrong way? I have no idea to be honest but there were four guys and they pulled away from Jeremy and I along with the other three riders. I chose to maintain my pace rather than go into the red so early in the race. Then I had to stop to pee, Jeremy choose to stop and adjust layers and we rolled on together after being passed by multiple people.

The roads were great though, as we were flying down one of the many inclines we came to a corner, as we rounded the corner the road became really soft. There were a group of riders stopped aiding another rider. I later found out that it was a teammate Aaron who had gone down in the sand and unfortunately broken (smashed) his collar bone. I hope you recover quickly Aaron.

We continued cruising around and before we knew it we were at the aid station at the vineyard. We stopped to get some water, not that I really needed it. Then we were off riding through a loop of the vineyard before hitting the roads again.

Well I have never done this

Fun with friends

As we headed north there was very little wind and we were once again riding great. The roads were pretty and the company fun. Before to long we were crossing a walk section on the a bridge. I once again needed to pee, WTF body? I had hardly drunk anythink. Oh well Jeremy, soft pedalled and I caught up with him removing vegetation from his derailleur.  We continued on and then on one of the hills we caught up with Jackie Chastine. She had had an off earlier in the course and seemed frustrated and a little dazed. We rode with her for a few miles before she told us to go on.

A few more hills and a long headwind section and we turned back west.

I was having a blast! 

That lovely red dirt

More straight roads for a change

Cool b road

Always having fun

We were flying and catching and passing people. It was a lot of fun. Then on one of the descents which was particularly rough I heard a rim strike. I thought I had gotten away with it but a few miles on the front tyre was very soft. I waved Jeremy on and added some air. Around 1/2  a mile later is was soft again. I threw a lot more air in and continued on my way. Then I came across Jeremy and Corey who were fixing Corey's tyre. At this point I decided to put a tube in my tyre as it was soft again. I couldn't see any leaks and still had sealant in the tyre so am at a loss as to what is going on with it. Oh well that is to work out for another time. A huge thanks to Jeremy who loaned me a CO2 and inflater as I had failed to pack my CO2 inflator.

Flat fixing club

By now I had a tail wind and was enjoying the last few miles back to the finish, my legs felt fantastic and I'm sure without the flat I could have caught a few more people.

I passed Corey who had gone flat again, he had already called in a ride so refused to take my offer of another inner tube. 

I crossed the finish line and got to have a chat with teammates and friends who had also completed the race. Then I was off home to check on the beautiful Amanda who has unfortunately got Shingles. TLC is the order of the afternoon. 

Tomorrow I get to race CX again!

Results 

I will add later.

The Strava