Atomic

Fanatik was well represented on Saturday with 9 riders eager to tackle one of the best courses of the season... ATOMIC. 110 km of twisting turns and punchy climbs.  My Garmin showed over 4500 ft of climbing for the 11 lap circuit.  Lindsey and my folks came up to watch the race and Linds offered up some spectacular support in the feed zone.


This was the final training race before Cherry Blossom next weekend and I wanted to put in a good effort to really test the legs and get in a great workout.  From the start the flow was pretty smooth and I took quite a few pulls at the front.  It was a difficult course to form a break and the pack remained pretty tight throughout the race without anyone really trying to do much aside from ramping it up a few of the climbs.   Our team seemed to be riding well in the last few laps and I look forward to racing with these guys over the next few months.  Ian B was hammering a few of the climbs and after racing every Spring Race, there's little doubt he'll be a 3 by the end of the season.


The Escape Velocity riders started to wind it up down the stretch and after 11 laps, I think everyone had an idea of where they wanted to make a move.  I was hoping to make a decisive break at the first climb and have enough in the tank to carry the gap to the line.  At the last 90 degree turn, I moved to the front and put in a big surge to start our climb trying to break the cord between myself and the riders on my wheel.  No Go.  As we hit a small drop before the final climb, I was towing at least 5 riders behind me and I knew I went far too early and didn't put enough of a charge into my attack.  We all charged full speed into the final climb and I was committed to hitting it hard in the big ring all the way up.  This kept the pace high but about 2/3 up the climb a rider slid by my left with a lot of chatter from behind ("your done", "dq," "your out" type stuff).  I literally grinded out every last ounce of energy as we ascended to the finish line but I couldn't catch him and crossed the line 2nd.  About 5 minutes later the rider was DQ'd for advancing on the left hand side of the road which gave me the win on the day.  Apparently he received an distinct advantage by literally cutting a couple corners on the last climb to surge to the lead.  I didn't see any of it but was more then happy to head home with $30 in prize cash.  


It seemed like everyone on Fanatik was in good spirits after the race and I hope we can get a similar turnout (I'd be stoked about half the turn-out) to some of the Washington races this season.

Ian Baldwin leading the orange and black up a climb.

Lindsey took some more photos...