After a tough weekend of racing with some pros in Rochester, I figured that the Peterborough 107km race this past weekend would be a joke... well, it wasn't. The race started slowly which allowed the field to warm up a bit and get some words in. Then, a break went up the road with some good riders, but no Aquila Racing riders. I didn't really panic, as I was constantly reading the pack to see if they were motivated to chase or whether they were racing for 50th place. Not only that, but there were riders in my field that are strong, experienced, and wanted a victory. Sure enough I got into a chase group along with Justin, that made it clear of the peloton and was on its way to catch the leaders. Next thing I knew, Isaac had bridged up to us with another rider. Then out of nowhere, Mike joined us with another rider. We now had all our guys in the chase en route to catching and becoming the leaders. Sure enough, we caught them and with only a few kilometers to go, it was like a chess game; nobody wanted to work and guys were attacking. Three top riders managed to get away from us and so the race was on for fourth. We all finished quite well. I finished 11th, while Justin came 14th all same time. Isaac had done his job earlier in the race and sacrificed himself, yet still finished in the peloton, as well as Mike.
The day after the road race there was a 40km Time Trial. I was feeling a bit burnt out, but still in a positive race mode. I raced the Eddy Merckx style which is simply a time trial with no aero equipment...just a road bike. I chose that category because my TT bike was disassembled from swapping components, but it's also a good way to simulate breaking away on your own on a road bike in a road race or criterium. The TT had lots of rolling hills and a stiff headwind/tailwind. Well, I won the time trial with a time of 57:40 which was faster than some riders did with full TT equipment. Mike came in 5th in the Eddy Merckx, and Isaac finished 11th in the regular TT.
