Stage 2 PG

Note to all, a cheese and tomato calzone is not an appropriate pre-race lunch. The afternoon stage featured New Hampshire's version of Disney; Story Land Park. This is a 35 acre amusement park full of kids rides and play areas. On a race bike, this is a super fast, tight turning, race along walkways. Prior to the beginner race, the course is open for pre-riding. Instead of checking out the course this is a great time to see where Old Mother Hubbard and Cinderella lived, to see an igloo, and check out mini train tracks. After 30 minutes of gawking, I retreated to the warmth of the car. With 10 minutes to race time, I rolled over and took a place on the front of the starting line. Some quick instructions and we take off to the bang of a canon. With a great start I took the hole shot and opened a small gap over the field. Sprinting hard towards the park, I was surprised when a Legal Seafood rider blazed by like I was standing still. Very quickly a group of seven riders (including Mike) formed up and we rotated around. After four laps it was obvious that some of these guys were cat 1 and 2 racers. The way they cornered through hairpins or accelerated in straight aways was amazing. I spent a third of the race with the front group, a third by myself in no mans land and a third with a chase group. In the final couple of laps I took measure of the guys in my group, increased the speed to drop one, then attacked on the sole hill to drop the other rider to take 7th in my field.



Final result this morning; 7th. Final result this afternoon; 7th. All in all a good result but an even better day to just have fun and ride!!!