Mashel Nisqually kermesse

First road win! Granted the field had 12 riders. Due to the big turnout for ASK there was a Cat 4/5 race at 9am and everyone else at 11am. I guess nobody wanted to show up at 9am to race. It worked out well for me though- being my daughters birthday I could do a race in the morning without being gone all day and being a deadbeat dad. Maybe everyone went skiing instead, which I was tempted to do too. But then I would have been a deadbeat dad and also maybe a dead dad given all the avalanches yesterday.
Anyway, even given the small field I was proud of myself because Todd, Nolan, and I formed the initial lead group and I couldn't keep up with either of them at ASK. They may be Cat 4 on the road but both of them are badass Cat 2 cyclocrossers and this is a 1 hour race that is half dirt. Todd started riding off ahead of us after a few laps. I thought that might be good, Nolan and I could let Todd dangle off the front and wear himself out. The distance got to be a bit much though so I bridged up to Todd and Nolan didn't come with me. Todd and I rode together the rest of the time. I tried to drop him on the Mur du Mashel on the last lap and it didn't work. Coming onto the road I was in front and forced him to lead out the sprint, tucked in behind him, and came around at the last minute.

Andy Salmon kermesse

Great day for a bike race. Mt Rainier stood as a proud sentinel over the course. I wish I had pictures but its hard to do when your pulse is 180. Or more. I saw some strong cyclocrossers at the start and figured those are the guys to watch- Todd Tucker, the OTB crew, Bill Booth. And I did watch them ride away from me with a few other people. Nothing much I could do about it. I fell in to a group with Hahn Rossman, a couple of Apex guys, and a Starbucks rider. I would usually pull on the road, Hahn would take over on the dirt and downhills. It worked well because Hahn is a good descender- there was no touching of the brakes down the rocky Mur du Mashel. He and I were both riding on wider 32mm tires which probably helped. We were never able to put too much time into the Apex riders on the dirt though, and they were not too eager to help pull on the paved section. There seemed to be a lot of flats/mechanicals- not very surprising given the bumpy dirt section. It must have taken a toll on the lead group too because at the end there were only 3 guys ahead of our group. On the last paved uphill leading to the finish I was able to drop everyone except one of the Apex guys, who of course pipped me on the line.

This was my first kermesse- style race and it was a blast. I used my cyclocross bike with 32mm Panaracer Paselas and didn't change out the gearing- I've got 46-36 chainrings and a 12-27 cassette. 45 psi in the front and 55 psi in the back. I wouldn't have changed anything with the setup and the other racers I talked to seemed to feel that cyclocross gearing was plenty adequate too.