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Charles Hamilton
McLane Pacific Grand Prix
March 5, 2005
Finish: 25th
Category: Juniors
Field: 53
Teammates: Rajiv, Jullien, Tyler, Lars
I warmed up on the coarse because it was the first race of the day. Very
foggy and cold. Several minutes before we were supposed to start, there were
cars that still needed to be towed off the coarse. We were not allowed to
ride on the coarse while this was going on so almost everyone just sat and
waited for 20 or so minutes. The race started very fast still. I found
myself near the back during the first lap but was able to move up without any
problems. By then, Tyler and the Major Motion guy had gotten up the road and
Lombardy was chasing with Eric and Adam. Eventually the break got caught and
Eric and Adam started taking turns attacking. With only me and Tyler near the
front, I found it difficult to cover the constant pressure being put on by
Lombardy. After a while of that, Adam and Tyler got away and with only
myself and Eric at the front we started to block. It took a while for the
rest of the group to start chasing. Lombardy and Myself were blocking quite
effectively. Joe attacked very hard and only Eric, a swift guy and I covered
it. I thought that we had enough of a gap on the rest of the field and Blake
that I could participate in the break so that I would place ahead of Blake.
Coming into the last 3 or so laps of the race I did not realize that the main
group was only a few seconds behind us, so I kept putting pressure on the
front, wearing myself out for the finale. At the bell lap I found myself at
the front still and completely worn out from the rest of the race. I got
passed completely by the remains of the field and was lucky for several
reasons. First, with all the pressure I had been putting on the front of the
field, Adam and Tyler started to come back and in the end were only 2-3
seconds ahead of the field, I feel lucky that they didn't get caught despite
all of the incorrect work I did. Second, there were enough 17-18 riders that
finished ahead of Blake that he didn't gain any points on me in the junior
points series. He got 7th in junior 17-18 which is only 1 place away from
getting more than 1 point for finishing the race. In the end I was quite
disappointed that I couldn't have been stronger, although I couldn't have
expected much after racing hard for a solid 4 weekends before, and also the
tactical errors I made did not make it a very good race for me.
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