I lack self confidence. I had just won three out of the four races on a variety of tracks and was expecting that just because Queeny suits Devin so well, I was going to get smoked. My plan was to squeeze in one more hard week of training after the rest week and setup for a 2 week taper. I killed my workout on Wednesday and was barely functioning on Thursday. I did a short but high intensity workout on Friday and then a two hour ride on Saturday with some efforts. I wasn't feeling too bad Saturday afternoon but after the course review I was certain that Devin was going to smoke show me on the pavement section and, for whatever reason, I was feeling really out of breath. I was expecting a repeat of our last race here, where he put a good minute plus into me and I was in the hurt locker from the gun. I failed to give myself any credit for the fact that he had already done 4 of the SP races and had been racing on the road all summer and it was my first race of the year.
Switching to the rollers after course review has dramatically changed my performance and I'm getting the routine dialed. I got a good warm up in and lined up with a small field of the usual suspects.
For whatever reason I wasn't feeling like going for the hole shot and decided to ride defensively. Sitting on about 4th wheel I could tell that Devin was ready to go launch mode so I made the effort to jump on his wheel. We rode together until, like the tick of a clock, he took off when we hit the paved section. I was suffering but clung on. Once we went through the start finish I came off the bike in the first turn and racked myself when I went over the barriers shortly after that. Damage control. He had 8-10 seconds and I already was thinking I was about to get lit up. I settled in and convinced myself he wasn't too far away and to be patient, instead of feeling like I needed to kill myself to bridge back up.
Somehow on the 3rd lap I found myself back on his wheel and was reluctant to pass when he opened the door. I was riding smooth so I went through and almost immediately opened up a gap so I made an effort on the grassy hill back up to the pavement descent to see if I could get far enough ahead to hold him off once we hit the pavement straight again. In retrospect, that was the race. There was a long way to go but I dialed the course in and was riding really strong, able to make huge efforts on each hard section and recover just enough to hit it again.
I finished with a good lead that was growing slightly each lap. Devin told me he blew up trying to bury me on the pavement and never recovered. I can finally say that my fitness is at a level I didn't think I could reach at this age and am hoping that I can avoid getting sick and stay sharp over the next two weeks without overdoing it, which is hard to convince yourself to do when you feel so good training hard. The razors edge is a fine one. Looking forward to seeing what I can do.
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