Tour de Tykes

I'm happy. Not only did I have a good race both physically and luck, but it's been the first time that I've stood on top of the podium since what seems like forever. I knew I was gonna have a good race after Iron Hill, but I didn't expect to do nearly as well as I did. The race started off with a mass start, and I settled in behind the wheel of a senior 2. I followed him most of the way up the first long climb, where he gradually pulled away from me. But we went back and forth like that -- I'd catch up to him after the downhills and he'd drop me on the climbs. I eventually passed him, dropped him on a downhill, and then he was right back on my wheel at the top of the next climb. By this point I knew that if I rode steady and didn't have any mechanicals, I'd probably win senior 1. So that was kinda relaxing...until my wheel fell out of the dropouts. Go figure it was on a narrow bench cut where I couldn't get off the trail. So I had to move over a lot for some of the experts to pass me, but I got it back fairly fast, after 5 or 6 interuptions. Caught up to the people that passed and although I never saw the 1st place sport rider again, I was back to my position. Kept that steady to the finish. I think that if I had thought about falling on the downhills, I wouldn't have done nearly as well as I did, because that is where I thought I was able to stay away from everyone. I sprinted out the final paved road back to the finish and was really happy with 1st place senior 1, and only 19 seconds from being 1st overall. It was really nice to win this race, since I flatted here last year and I was born in Geisinger. I think the race will be good points for the overall. It always seems like no matter how well I do, there's always something I could have done to get back those extra seconds. I remember feeling really happy after some of my best preformances, but then kinda regretting some things and realizing that I could have rode a lot of sections faster. But then I forget about that and go on having a great day. Overall, everyone had a good day. My dad and I got firsts, and Bill Gardner ended up getting 2nd, so the MBR team had two spots on the master 2 podium.