TSB: 4
My arms are still sore from Leesville and the blisters on my hands haven't healed, this puts me in a little better shape than Xeno, who says his whole body is still sore!
The course is D shaped with the two 90 degree corners being the last two turns before the 260 meter dash to the finish line. The next to last corner as a big pot hole and this is patched just before the start of our race, leaving a bit of gravel there.
We have sixteen riders in the 4/5 race. Anything less than about thirty riders means the race is going to be super hard and this holds true to form as riders attack continuously trying to get away.
Sometimes I go with an attack and sometimes I let them go and let others bring them back. One time through the loose gravel a rider almost loses it by braking in the exit of the turn and locking up his wheels in front of me and he just saves it. This is enough to make one rider set out to determine his own fate. If I'd have known it was this guy, I would have gone with him but given the success of the prior moves I sat back. He got out of sight within a few laps but then when we closed the gap to about ten seconds people started attacking out of our diminished group. The rider off the front disappeared and we had two, Adam and Eric? slightly off the front. Now I started to work in earnest just to catch these two. I had a lot of help from the LGBRC rider and got to within about 100 meters, but then, the rider off the front lapped us! LGBRC didn't know we could draft off of the leader and gave up but I just kept following him. He was clearly the best rider in our group, confident in the turns and very steady.
He easily brought back the last two riders off the front and the four of us sprinted for the end, even the guy +1 laps, I got second in the field sprint for third overall, because I stopped pedaling before the finish line when I didn't realize Adam was on my wheel and he pipped me at the line!
T:47:00
S:39.1
C:84
H:173
Pavg:197
Pnorm:222
Twelve riders for this race. Temps started getting into the 90's. Adam said he was going to try and break away again, so I tried to keep an eye on him. Mid race there was a $10 prime and since I was second wheel I could not resist the temptation to sprint and unlike the first race, I sprinted to the finish line and won it. This took a lot out of me. Three laps later I was still panting when Adam attacked and got a nice gap, joining a couple of other riders. Two riders I thought I could bring back, three, that would take some cooperation and work, and it turned out we didn't do enough. We kept them in sight on every straight for the rest of the race, getting closer by the 3 lap to go mark but then we started jockeying for sprint position with 2 to go, so the first three positions were off the table and sprinted for fourth, I came in second again in the field sprint.
T: 39:41
S: 37.8
C: 89
H: 181
Pavg:196
Pnorm:229
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