Double Header this weekend

This is one of the few weekends I've been waiting for all summer. The Pottsville City Cycle 17 race on Saturday and the Allentown Sportsfest on Sunday. I can't wait. Huge Carb-loading starts Thursday Afternoon for this weekend, and then at least a day off from riding next Monday!

Saturday's race, Pottsville City Cycle 17, starts at 10:00. 17 miles total, with 5 three mile loops. Since the course is about a 15 minute drive from my house, I've been training on it for the last several weeks, as well as a few times earlier in the summer. I will go there one more time tomorrow before the race.

I plan to get there around 8:00 or 8:30 (it will get crowded since there is a kid's race before this race) so I can go around the course at least one time as warm up, and then get on the trainer or just ride around the parking lot and course until the race starts.

Last year I didn't do too well, on account that my bike was in the shop for a week up until the night before the race, so I had no time to practice that week. My legs were stiff and not ready that morning, and I felt it through the whole race. I did somewhere around a hour and 6 minutes, placing 48th out of atleast 60. This race is open to ANYONE, of any age and skill level, so there aren't categories as USAC races are.

My friend Kyle from Kutztown placed 2nd last year, and he plans to go for first this year. Another one of his teammates from Kutztown, Noah, will be joining, so I believe the two of us will help Kyle throughout the race to get first, while we'll place, hopefully, top 5. My only enemy is 18th street, a power climb that is pretty scary. If I can get up that with Kyle and Noah, I should be fine, however they're both Cat 3 while I'm cat 5 so they could very well get ahead of me easily. I'll just sprint on the downhill to catch up with them if I have to on each lap.

Then Sunday... Allentown. I remember this course from last year and liked it a lot. 12 laps of .8 mile each. This is the one that I mistakenly tried on the 3rd or 4th lap to push myself towards the front of the pack on the slight uphill at the start of each lap, and burnt out my energy. This time I will just try to get a good start and be close to the front of the pack during the race. At some point, if no one does yet, I will probably initiate an attack (I hope no one else doing the race is reading this!) to speed things up, and maybe have a few others leading the race that I could work with to keep away from the pack and finish together with a sprint. I have a lot of confident in myself for this one, because I did well last year in this one and could have done better if I didn't make that mistake on the 3rd or 4th lap. I was very comfortable sitting in the back half of the pack while waiting for something to happen. I just got impatience with myself and the rest of the pack that I wanted to partake in some of the actions up front. Anyways, I hope I can make the breakaway with another few riders to place top 5. If that doesn't happen, I will try to place top 10. My main objective is to finish with or ahead of the main pack and not get lapped!

Saturday afternoon I'll post about Pottsville, Sunday or Monday I will post about Allentown.