I was hoping to do well today and raced in the cat 3 race, but after a horrible week of training and a so-so day at Monson, my head was not in the game today. I was totally oblivious of what was going on and was simply going through the motions of riding 60 miles. Groups would attack early on and I never was paying attention if we reeled them back in or not. The cat 3's are definitely a bit more squirrelly than riding with the M35+ group. I was dangling mid to back of the pack most of the day. I got to the front on a climb once and there was a group up the road, so I decided to jump and get there. I made it alone, but they sort of sat up once I got there and the field rolled up shortly after. I was bored and tired with no teamates, so I pretty much went to hide in the field.
On the last lap, it did pick up a little, but nothing was going anywhere. I don't think cat 3's know how to bridge w/out taking the entire field with them. It's really odd. Why work to bring the whole field up to the break. A little more initial effort and you get there w/out giving everyone a free ride.
So, we make the final turn in town to go up the hill and I have decent position near the front and figure I'll move up as the road goes up. I'm on the yellow line and about 40 guys (no lie) go flying by me taking up the entire road into ONCOMING traffic. Totally ludicrous if you ask me. Sandy was in the follow car and I really expected her to DQ the whole field after the race. I wouldn't have blamed her one bit if she had. I didn't violate the rule cuz I have no desire to be a hood ornament for the chance to do well in a bike race. I have to go to work on Monday. Besides, if my wife found out about a yellow line violation, I'll be suspended for a heck of a long time. I'm not worried about USCF officials, just them telling on me. ;)
At any rate, I'm waaaay back when the sprint starts and passed quite a few guys without really giving it a 100% effort and ended up somewhere around 40th again. I hope I feel better next week at Jiminy or life is going to be a living hell on that course...
Al did the Master's race and had this to report:
I had a good day. There was a break that went early with Troy and Dave Ebeling in it, so Roger didn't have to do anything. Andy and John did some attacking and the break eventually came back after about 1.5 laps. Another break formed with Roger, John, Sam Morse, Brian Wirtz and a couple of Union Velo guys. Back in the pack, I tried to get across with Jonny Bold with no success. ONce we came back, Tobi and ateammate started covering everything. This went on for a while. Then, just as we got to that uphill drag near the overpass, the pace dropped. I rolled off the front and no one chased me. Subsequently, I got a good gap. At 5K to to, I started thinking, "Gee, this might actually work". It did and I got home about 8-10 seconds before the field. Roger won by (surprise) soloing away from the break. I guess John wasthe next to go and finished solo as well. I saw one of the Union Velo guys walking his bike towards the finish line. Somebody siad the two fo them had teken each other out (Ooops).