The chase has begun.

Saturday was the start of the 2009 racing season for me. I signed up for the cat 5 and the Masters 4/5 races at the Gregg Bednorski Memorial Crit in Madison. It was also Bryan's first crit ever so I gave him the little bit of advice I could and we came up with a plan of staying out of trouble and keeping the rubber on the road. After we finished warming up we started a warm up lap to get familiar with the course, as we came around to the start/finish line there was one person laying in the road unconscious and EMS on the way. I stopped by my family, who were sitting by the finish line, to give them my water bottle and I could tell by the look on Monica's face that she was not only worried about the guy laying there but about her Dad going out to race next. This is the one thing I hate about road racing, the pavement must really hurt when you hit the deck at 30+ mph. Luckily I have not had that experience but as the saying goes "there are those who have crashed and those who will crash". The cat 5 race was just as sketchy as in years past, people not holding there lines and lots of weaving in the pack. Bryan and I stayed with the pack the whole race, but with two laps to go and the whole group still together I decided to go for it. I broke free of the group as we crossed the start finish line, after making it stick for half a lap my legs were failing. Just then a rider appeared on my right and gave me a small pull. I pulled through again and then we were caught with one lap to go. After the peleton passed I sat up and rode around to the finish off the back. Two guys crashed in the sprint to the finish and that was the end of race one. The Masters race was a bit more relaxed in the accelerations, it was a faster race but more even in the pace. With four laps to go I did not think I was going to stay on but I found a nice spot in the middle of the group to recover for a lap. On the penultimate lap I tried to move to the front just like everyone else and with one lap to go I was able to get to the front third and sprint my way past about ten more people at the finish, I do not know my results from either race but I had a really good time. It was nice to finally start some competition after all the winter training. Next up is the Circut of Sauk Road Race in two weeks.