After logging some more base miles and group rides after King’s Valley I was hitting the road again up to Walla Walla, Washington. This race weekend I was accompanied by my Dad and two younger Sister’s. It was a pretty smooth drive from Bend to the start of the Waitsburg road race on Friday. Four to five hour drive, check in/registration, and pinned numbers, I was ready to begin the race weekend in the afternoon.
The first stage was a 64 mile, 3 lap, course which included one major climb and some mild rollers. The beginning of the race was ridden under cloudy skies and mild temperatures. But each lap would see an evolution of decaying weather. Every time around the finish line my fingers grew colder, legs didn’t fire as well, and the pavement became increasingly damp. Unfortunately, it made it a bit difficult at the end to finish in the front group and I lost some time on the final two kilometer climb to the finish. Should have put on the hot embro!
The next day was a complete change of weather. The morning was a 9.3 mile time trial which saw partly cloudy skies and a decent swirling wind. There was a fairly flat run in to a short climb followed by more flat and rollers to the finish. Pretty straight forward and one of those races you just put the head down and GO. I saved a little in the tank before hitting the climb so I wouldn’t bog down on the climb and rolled through in 19th place with a time of 20 minutes 52 seconds. Just about a minute off the leader.
That evening was a 55 minute twilight crit in downtown Walla Walla. A pretty fun technical course. But my main focus was to chill in the pack and stay safe for the following day as I knew there would be much attrition involved in the road race. Things seemed to roll smooth and there were no crashes. I was able to move up to the front with a few laps to go but was chopped quite hard in some of the corners before the finish. I ended up 32nd on the day, safe and sound.
The last stage was where GC would be sorted out a bit. A rolling 91 mile course with a total of 5000 feet of climbing saw guys popping off the back quite quickly. Each lap the field was whittled down. Like wood shavings on the floor you saw remnants of the reduced field standing by as you passed around each lap. By the end there was only a group of about 35 guys to sprint to the line. I was boxed in a bit during the sprint and rolled in 22nd which put me in 17th on GC for the weekend.
Overall, it was another good weekend of racing in a great area and my fitness continues to grow as I approach the Tour of the Gila only a few days away.
