Grrr, I had my post almost finished

Then whammo! Blogger goes wacky and locks up. All the other windows were fine...

Anyway, I raced this weekend. Saturday was good, Sunday was not. Saturday I went to Coxsackie for the Johnny Cake Lane series opener. I kid you not, that's the name of the road...

It was cold and windy, but at least the sun was out somewhat. I saw a few friends as we rolled out for the start, and for the first few minutes we caught up with each other. Then I decided to bridge across a gap to a break. We got reeled back in, and I attacked again. And again. And again... Finally a counterattack to one of mine stuck, and two guys were up the road. Always happens that way...

Being it was about a 42 mile race, we let them go, thinking they'd come back. After a few laps we started chasing because those guys were not slowing down. I kept attacking, and eventually two other guys went with me and we started a mad chase. Eventually a chase group of 5 caught us, and I wasn't able to stick with them and was caught in no man's land between the chase and the pack.

Of course, the pack was totally shattered. What had started as over 80 was down to maybe 20, plus the guys up the road. The rest of the field was strung out all over the course, which was a 6 mile loop. So we set to work chasing, and I attacked more. Having no team to work for me or with , I decided the best defense was a good offense. Well, we got to within sight of the chase group, but the officials cut all the races by one lap, which kind of sucked. I'm sure the break would have been caught, and it would have been interesting to see how close we could have gotten to them.

But I digress. We ramped up the speed coming into the final kilometer, and with 300 meters to go we had to make a left turn, directly into a 20-30 mph headwind. Yuck. I tried to sprint, but had almost nothing, and got 7th in the field sprint, giving me 14th overall. Not too bad. I'm really happy with it, as I didn't expect to ride that well, and with working my ass off trying to make things happen, it's a damn good result.

In the locker room afterward (we used a school to register in) I was talking with some of the guys as we got dressed, and of course, no one knows who is who until you mention what bike you're on.

Me: "Yeah, I tried to be aggressive, but no one was biting today."
Some dude: "I don't know about you, but that guy on that green Paramount was just ripping the race to shreds."
Me: "Umm, that was me. Hopefully I'll be better next week."
Some other dude: "I remember you from the Payne Valley Omnium two years ago, I was checking out your bike and you said you hadn't raced in a few years, and then you won the fucking prologue! This guy decimated the field, you placed what, like 4th overall including the pros?"
Another some other dude: "Damn!! That was you? I was there, you beat me by 11 seconds, and the prologue was under amile long. I hated you."
Me: "Haha, that was a funny day, I thought I got last because my computer was going for an extra minute, well, gotta go, see you next week."
Dudes: "Later."

Sunday I went to Bethel again, and it was cold, snowing, and I had nothing. I got in an early break, but there were guys from the race Saturday who told me before the race I was going to pay for what I did. They kept their word. I went for an intermediate sprint and got 4th, then a bit later just didn't have it and dropped off the back of the field. The rest of the race became a fast training ride for me, and I was the second to last finisher. Go me. Can't always have good days. Just wish I could have stayed in the field, but there's always next week.

Time to go back to bed. Night everyone.