PIR Bike Race

After last weeks race where I feel off the group at the Portland Raceway bike race, I wanted to try again this Tuesday. Thanks to some amazing assistance, I have redemption! Each week they reverse the route, so this week we went counter-clockwise with the s-curves in the beginning. As I lined up at the start I noticed a girl on a pink Trek, so I went over and introduced myself- it was Eryn from NoPoGirl. She did a stage race this weekend, so I was surprised to see her. She pointed to a fast guy and said "stay on his wheel". The whistle blew and we started and all of a sudden I'm in the back and pedaling like crazy just to stay connected, but I stayed with them. Eryn stopped after one lap and yelled for me to stay with the group. At the end of lap 3 I heard her yell "grab a wheel", so I did. Then my naturally careful tendencies took over and I backed off to get a comfortable distance. But during the 4th lap I heard two guys behind me talking about doing full ironmans and they would periodically tell me to close it up and grab a wheel. I think they were cat 1/2/3 guys doing the cat 4/5 race as a warm-up. As lap 5 started they got more serious about guiding me and pushed me to close the gap and grab a wheel and when the wheel I grabbed started to fade they said "go around and catch the group", so I did. As the 6th lap started the group accelerated and I was fading, but I heard "push it- they'll slow down- you can catch them- give it all you have- it's the last lap give even if it kills you". So I pushed and I did catch the group and as I did I heard "get on the inside and pass people as you catch them- you have big legs, use them!". So I did and started moving up the group and at the last turn I went a little wide because at 26 MPH it seemed extremely sharp and I heard "get to the inside", so I started to move in and heard "don't worry about it- GO!" So I stomped on it and went all out and finished 15th out of 26 and in the front finishing group! After the finish line it took me about a half a mile of coasting and slow pedaling to go from heaving to gasping to panting to normal breathing. I had been so focused on racing and doing what they said that I had no idea what the guys looked like so I couldn't thank them. Some things to work on, riding inches away, high speed curves, and really pushing it when it counts. Afterwards I talked to Eryn awhile, she's doing a half ironman in Victoria in a couple weeks and she gave me some tips on riding close and leg recovery. While I was warming up before the race in the infield, there was a yellow DHL race car out of it's truck and the crew were doing something to it with a buffet table set up for them. As I rolled by I wondered how many millions that car cost. It was cool seeing it close up though.