Mike Godfrey's 2nd race report.

Well not quite sure what to make of today.

I did the course in 59:44 took 12 seconds off my previous best over the same distance, but I screwed up the turn around point, had to turn around again and go another couple hundred meters down the road. Totally my fault as a rider needs to know the course, but in fairness it was poorly marshalled, the guy was directing me to turn, not to go down to the turn around point, if that wasn't bad enough on the last big hill (about 8k from the end) I threw the chain so I had to get off, put it back on, get back on the bike and try to get back up to speed and into the tempo again, damn.

Bottomline I probably cost myself 30 - 45 second, which wouldn't, however, have made a huge difference in my placement, the guys are a lot stronger on the flats than the climbs! The winner broke the old record for the course by more than 3 minutes, did in just over 53 minutes (we're talking Copeland fast and these guys are all 50 - 54) the guy who was second also broke the old record by about 2 minutes, so a medal wasn't in the cards, even if I had ridden a minute faster, which would have been my absolute max.

Tomorrow in the crit and Friday is the RR, two big climbs (one of them is basically the Killer Kilometer, but 2 k long) and the final 5k is descending down the HC route, which features speed bumps and a huge off camber turn that has a history of sending riders into the sagebrush, cactus & rocks. Fortunately that part of the course is a closed road for the race!

Michael