Bikes, Birds, and...Brrr, no wait it was actually warm!!!

Who would have thought that I would get to spend the last 4 rides in shorts and short sleeves including 1 race day?!?!? I mean come on...talk about spoiled, I've never been able to have race 1 sans the 8 layers of clothing we always had for collegiate season. Yeah it felt like hurricane season here, but I'll take 20-30mph winds if that means temps in the 60s any day!!!

So on to this race...it went well, I won't lie...kinda a surprise. Myself and my teammate Eric made the long drive to Columbus, OH. The course was nice minus the piles (yes piles...dudes ate it on the first corner...sketchy) of gravel on the corners and the people who had a freakin' farm on the climb. Hmm, you ask yourself, "Spencer, what's the big deal with a farm on the course?" Well, when you are in the red on a half mile climb that gets up to 18% and you have to dodge chickens, roosters, and strange unnamed birds in the middle of the road...it gets a little crazy. Not to mentioned the crowing of the roosters each time up the climb. I got some great laughs.

So the race was pretty standard. 2 teams present and we had 2 guys. I covered one of the first moves and spent 3/4s of a lap with a Trek Columbus guy. The group brought us back but some dudes were shelled. With 3 to go 2 guys got off of the front and one of the teams was represented. Legs were feeling good and I thought this might be THE moves of the race so I called Eric up to the front and had him set a great tempo up the climb. I attacked near the top and bridged up to the break. We dropped one of the guys and myself and a Trek Columbus guy named Pete rode to the finish together. Coming into the last climb he sat up and kinda gave me the win, said he was gassed. I shook his hand, thanked him for the effort in the breakaway and rode away to finish solo for the win.

The start


EJ and I post race


She did me well this weekend


The classic bikes on the rack photo...I know it is overdone


Can anyone say PRO...


I don't want to boast at all with this win since I didn't know what to expect with this being the first race. All I know is that I have trained harder and smarter than any year before so I guess it paid off. Anyone who knows the frustrating season I had last year knows that I had a little extra motivation to get back to where I think I can ride. Let's hope the rest of the year can follow suit.

P.S. I wanted to give a shout out to my coach Aaron Hubbell...great guy who really listens to me and has created a race winning training program!!!