Tour of Bahamas Recap

The tour of the Bahamas was good start to the season.  The racing was decent but not great as teams were working out the kinks and everyone trying to be opportunistic for the win.

This would not have been a typical cycling adventure without some uncertainty....

Up until the week before the Bahamas I did not have a hotel room, luckily, at a warm-up race in Clermont, FL, I found someone to share a room.  Room...check.  The airport bit, taxi, and getting into the room was all done on the fly and I made it through alright.  One other uncertainty...getting a room for Sunday night when most are leaving Sunday.  Thankfully, I came to that answer swimmingly within the first few hours of arrival and a free room to boot.  Fantastic start.

Evening Ride, Friday

The Time Trial the next morning was not so great.  The start is at least 45min bike ride from the hotel.  Not nearly as close as one would have been lead to believe.  I missed my start by 5min but was allowed to go off at the end of the start list. Unfortunately, about 10min later.  By then I began to warm-down and getting started was a jolt.  The short distance made things painful but fast-ish.  I did not place well but not bad considering it is my first TT of the year and the circumstances.

The circuit race was a bit of a flop.  Not much happening in this race.  The teams did not play a significant roll and no breaks were destined to survive.  I went out on a few attacks but decided to lay back after everything was being chased down.  Eventually the race rolled into the final few miles and I did well to place myself in the top 5-10 for the lead in.  Teams did not factor into this at all.  The race was not made fast enough by a few teams trying to vie for the head of the peleton.  I was able to cruise up to 4th wheel and hang out before all the havoc broke out.  The slow-er pace created a dangerous situation with young riders, guys that would normally not be at the front for a sprint, and the first race of the season for most.  This was one of the most chaotic sprints I have taken part.  I went off the road twice, then swerved to the other side of the road to avoid some guys who nearly wrecked themselves by half-wheeling, and then people doing things that are not typically expected.  No one hit the deck, and I was pleased with that, yet, with how I felt I was a little disappointed to come away with 14th.

The road race was a different race, altogether enjoyable and a good day out on the bike for myself.  My result was a top 25 but not indicative of how I raced.  My attentiveness and aggressiveness over the first few laps nearly put me into "the break" of the day.  About six guys, all, I thought, teams represented and no real General Classification (GC) threats.  We put up thirty seconds and more on the peleton really quick.  Which makes perfect sense.  But, for some odd reason, a team and other riders pulled us back.  My mistake was to hang at the back in frustration as well as recouping after the catch.  When the peleton split (about 25 guys off the front) for no-good reason about half a lap later I was not able to get to the front to attempt to bridge across the gap.  I worked for a while to bring it back together but nothing doing.  When the second place rider on GC rode up into my group, I realized that he crashed and now his team mates would be working to bring pull the group back into the race.  The race did come back together but not before two groups of four went from the leading pack.  That was the race.  I needed to be in the split and the rest was up to attentive racing.  However, my group caught the front group on the last lap and things were relatively calm until about seven miles to go.  There was an attack that I followed but it was given zero leash.  As immediately as we were caught I attacked again.  Head down and digging, I was committed to this move.   Two others bridged up to me, one working and the other along for the ride (because his team mate was up in the break), and we drove it.  Caught by a strung out and hurting peleton at about 700m to go, I stayed on the front to dish out whatever I had left and keep the legs screaming.  I raced my heart out and I am very pleased with that.

Relaxing after a weekend of racing

The hotel pool

Sunday evening I enjoyed watching the sun set and hanging around the hotel relaxing.  My one terrible experience, besides everything being WAY over-priced and close to second rate, my dinner from Domino's Pizza gave me food poisoning.  I have a pretty strong stomach, so, no real major ills became of me besides feeling so bad I could not sleep and then not eating all day Monday.  I did get to ride about an hour Monday morning before I headed to the airport.