Tour of Kansas City

First race of 2015 is in the books! I forgot how fun this is!!!

I drove down to Kauffman/Arrowhead to race in Sundays Crit in the Tour of Kansas City. I wanted to race Cliff Drive as that course suits me a little bit more, but had a wedding to attend, so that was that.

The course basically was around Kaffman Stadium Parking lot with a handful of corners, one small incline and a long sprint finish. I arrived early to watch the big boys in Cat 1/2. That seemed to be the only race of the day that a break actually stuck (but real close). They had a nasty looking crash 200m from the finish that could have helped the break, but I don't really know.

There is a couple videos out of some of the action on FB: Here,

After watching that excitement I really started to second guess getting there so early, the Cat 4 race was the last one so I about took a nap waiting for the next two races to finish. One thing was clear, does not look like a good day/course for a break to stick.

Just before the start Kent basically told me the same thing, so I took a front row start and we were off. A stiff headwind on the longest stretch of the course kept things in check and most of the race was actually fairly easy to manage. It was really easy to stay in the front minus our group apparently felt the need to bomb the last corner and sprint to the start/finish every single lap.

Thanks for the pick JDub!

I tired to chat up some guys and joke around a bit, but dude, some of these roadies take themselves way to seriously. There is definitely a multitude of personalities out there, some of whom need to chill out. Cool dudes, stay cool man and get a cross bike and come play. Anyway, I digress...

About 2 to go my ADHD started getting the better of me, in addition to getting frustrated with the dive bombers in the last corner I stretched my legs out a bit after the short incline to see what would happen. Well, nothing, I got a small gap with a Prolouge guy but we were not getting anywhere with a headwind so I choked my motor and sat back in to recover a little.

Now that I wasted that energy it was the bell lap and my main goal was not to get boxed in and try to get some good positioning into the last corner. All went well minus I was about 5 to 8 guys too far back and probably about 20 of us ended up in a group sprint. I was way too far back to have a shot at it, but for my first group sprint ever, it was some good experience. Still being new to the road race scene I still have a ton to learn.

Man I love racing bikes, this was so much fun! It was also great seeing some race buddies I haven't seen since cross season.

Results for the weekend here.