River Falls is two days away. Maybe someday this will change, but each event so far this year has led me to think back to earlier adventures racing these roads. Saturday there will be one element I have never experienced – I will be the hunted rather than the hunter.

With two second place finishes in the third and fourth races of the Greenville Spring Training Series to go along with a fifth place finish in the second race, I now have 24 points toward the omnium. Jonathan Leifer, whom I knocked off that top spot, is only two points back in second place overall. Fellow Upstate racer, Wade Greene, is in third with eighteen points.

Two more races remain. I certainly don’t have this wrapped up, by any means. However, I have already pretty much assured that I’ll have reached my goals (or at least a variation of them) for this race series.

Goal number one is to finish top 5 in the omnium. By the way, in case you are one of my non-cycling relatives reading this blog, the omnium is basically standings based on points earned for finishes in all races of a series. Since I am currently first in those standings, I think I am well on my way to meeting this goal.

Goal number two is to podium at River Falls. However, even if I don’t manage this specific goal, I am pleased because I have already “stood on the podium” (we don’t actually have one) twice in the series. Frankly, I have already exceeded what I thought I could do. Everything from here on out is icing on one delicious cake!

Now I have the new experience of being the marked man. Last Sunday I knew Leifer was the only rider between me and the top spot. Knowing that had a huge bearing on how I approached the race. Without doing anything, he already dictated my actions.

What do I do? Will we end up like Sunday when we rode around slow as molasses in January because Leifer was sitting in patiently waiting for the field sprint? Will I be the one slowing us down? Are there other more team-oriented, tactical things that could happen in the race to make it more interesting?

If past experience is the guide, this race could end up simply being about who can climb the last kilometer fastest. I’m prepared for that, but hope it will be something better. Seems I know better how to hunt, than to be the hunted.

 

Tags: 2010 Greenville Spring Training Series, Racing, River Falls, Tactics

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 8:02 am and is filed under Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.