Summer Solstice - Gurneyville

Wet roads again. It drizzled the whole race, so I had the same sunglass issues. Things got confusing with the 1-2-3's mixed with the 4's. All attacks got chased down. I tried to position myself up front for the sprint points and ended up getting a 1st and a 2nd for the 4's in those. The race came down to a sprint at the end again. I glued myself to Katherine's wheel, since she always seems to know what's going on. Sure enough, she picked a great line - thanks Katherine.

No biggie. There were only 12 people in this race. Three guys got up the road in no time thanks to O'Brien Forbes and I missed it (as usual) for no good reason. So I sprinted (who woulda thunk it) from the remaining field and almost got the field sprint but got nipped out of nowhere. Thanks to the women (Sherrie et al) for the cheering-it helped.

Once more, nature played a nasty trick on us, and started the rain just as we were staging. Fortunately, I was in my amber lenses, and visibility wasn't a true issue. It was a day of more fast riding, one real breakaway that stuck for almost a lap, and some cat-mouse stuff. I didn't pull as much today, wary of another asthma attack. I did try for sprint points in the third lap, and I was inches away from being the last one to claim them. Crud! I paid for the mid- to back-of-the-field positioning by getting whiplash in the corners, but I never lost contact, and the legs felt surprisingly good. There were lots of violations of the double-yellow line rule; and I had to laugh when another rider tried to call me on it, and I pointed out it was the dotted yellow line.

I thought I was in the perfect position about 1 mile from the finish, on the wheel Anne, one of the GC contenders from Revolution. For some reason, I decided to be less aggressive, and let myself get pushed off it. Duh! Well before I thought we should have been crossing that double-yellow for the sprint to the finish, riders started moving over there. I quickly found myself at nearly the back of the field. When the sprint began in earnest, the woman in front of me made no effort to jump. That was a critical delay. I got around her, had no wheel to follow, and spent all my energy weaving through riders as I built steam. I was so proud of myself for the speed I maxed at, for me the best this year as I try to get my sprint back--35.9 without a wheel to lead me out. I almost got one more place at the line, but the rider was going on a diagonal, and I was going to run out of room at the line and decided I didn't like the odds which seemed 50/50 of either hitting her or riding off the road (I was all the way to the left). I eased up, then hoped no one else would edge me out across the road. I was 11th overall, but there were 3 cat 4s in front of me, including Kelly, and the series was scoring us separately. Kelly and Katherine did an awesome job!

Same old....big teams and some strong riders, but they love that sprint with 50 riders. Other than savage no other teams tried to get away or push the pace. I had good legs for the sprint but, was boxed in after riders in front blew up. So trying to save some skin I cautiously crossed the line. Great job to the work horse Rich, who pulled us around for 2 or 3 laps.

Nasty field sprint! Swarm left, Swarm right, boxed in, left ham string cramped up twiced on me, riders sit up during several sprint attemps. Ended up 14th, but had I lady luck with me I truely felt that I could crack the top 5. Will and Blair did an awesome job of working the front reeling in several breaks up the road. We just need to work on the sprint lead out.

I ride for Todd Lee.
brf

Another flat stage and Todd was confident he had the legs again today. Joe was gone celebrating his birthday (happy birthday Joe!). Blair took his place. Once again the plan was to keep things together for a field sprint. The field was pretty aggressive and there were quite a few serious breaks. Blair and I ended up doing a lot of chasing. (Maybe one of these times we should try covering breaks instead of chasing all of them!) Matt Davidson (bandwidth.com) and Zak Dieringer (Lake Effect) had the most impressive move of the day holding off the field for nearly 3 laps.

All the chasing took a toll on the field and none of the teams were willing to take leadership of the finish. I tried to help, but I had nothing left. Without a strong leadout, the sprint ended being a big mess with 50 guys all trying to fit in a space big enough for 5 riders. Todd got boxed in and was unable to sprint.

Hmm, what I learned today.
- Rich Lewis can pull like a fool for 40 odd miles and get away with it and I cannot.
- And once again I jumped into the sprint permaturely and got nuked in the last 30 meters.