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A. Freye's 05' Update #3 |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Thursday, 14 July 2005 |
July 10th I decided to go race down in Gorham at the Alden Hill race, stop #3 in the Maine Points Series. There was another race in NH I thought about going to, but seeing how my dorm room over looks the Alden Hill race course I opted for the home race.
Just before the race started my bike started to have some shifting problems that I couldn't fix. Then about 20 seconds into the race a hornet flew into my jersey and started to rapidly sting my lower abs! After these two incidents I thought to myself this is going to be a long and bad day. Turns out it was one of those days that you could just put it into a harder gear and push harder and harder. On lap two I had a stick get caught up into the gears which took a couple of minutes to remove, then on lap four I managed to get a flat tire. I thought for sure when I got the flat tire teammate Al Starrett would catch up to me. After a quick fix I was off and riding again. I finished the race in 1 hour and 47min. 2nd place was over nine minutes back. After the race I was able to get in a nice long road ride on some familiar roads down in Gorham.
This weekend was a double race weekend. Saturday was a short track and Sunday was a cross-country race. Both races were part of the Root66 New England series and were located just a couple miles west of Keene, NH. Saturday's race was a nice short fast lap. Like all short tracks it was your normal hammer fest for 20minutes plus 3 laps. I was able to take the lead from the start and held it for the rest of the race. Half way through the race they had a preim for a homemade pie baked by the orchard that put the race on! I was able to win the preim lap for a very delicious strawberry rhubarb pie! This was my first ever short track victory.
Sundays race was more of a running race then a bike race if I must say. The course was new this year and the trails were in bad shape. There were so many rocks and boulders you couldn't ride your bike let alone barely run. The course lacked flow and transition in the climbs. There were approximately 10 pros racing. I took off a little to hard leading the run for ¾ of the first lap before settling into 4th place where I would remain for the rest of the race. 3rd place was about 30 seconds ahead of me throughout the last two laps but I was unable to bridge the gap. I was able to drop Mike Patrick on the last lap to secure my 4th place finish.
Overall it was another fun filled weekend. I a getting ready to head up to Burlington, VT next weekend for what should be a big cross-country race. Then on the 31st I am racing in the Jay Peak Challenge, a 100km single lap race with over 10,500+ feet of climbing! Thank you everyone for your support.
Andrew Freye, Team Bikeman
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