TL
R
CCCX 2/3s - 4th of maybe 15 or 20
CCCX 3/4 - 1st of 25ish
----------
First was the 2/3 race. Only 20ish guys.
Small field => huge attacks right off the bat. Less hiding meant we were 8 guys after 1 4-mile lap. The pace was just brutal. At some point 1 specialized development team kid took off solo. He soloed for 2 or 3 laps while the guys in my group argued about who would pull.
I usually get irritated with that behavior and fall for it and do the pulling. After a lap of it today I was like, well, wtf, "that's racing", and shut it down. I dangled on the back of the group.
The game-players were right and we caught the poor solo kid on the final descent before the finish. Of the 8 I finished 4th, which is an improvement in my break-riding results. I actually passed 2 guys in the sprint. I was happy.
stats: 26 miles, 22.8mph, 2000ft climbed, AP 305 (!), NP 345 (!!) - both highs for a race hour that wasn't a pure hill.
2nd race of the day was 3/4s and started exactly 10min after my first race finished.
First lap uneventful. 2nd lap I jumped and started a 3-man break. All 3 of us had at least a teammate in the field and we stayed away for 20 of the 55 minutes. When we were caught there were 5 to make 8, down from 25 or so at the start.
The 8 of us rode a couple of laps with a few going-nowhere attacks.
The last lap my teammate and I were feeling antsy. The pace had been kind of slow so I jumped. After getting a 50m gap I felt all the miles from yesterday and the previous race and knew I wasn't going to solo for long. I sat down and made the group chase.
When I was caught, my teammate jumped to a 50m gap. I sat on and watched the guys look at each other until someone pulled him back in. When we caught him I flew up on the inside and did it again, getting maybe 100m this time. When I was caught, my teammate countered.
It was so much ****ing fun. Those 6 other guys ran themselves ragged covering our attacks, and aside from the 30s jumps, we sat in and coasted. We repeated that attack-counter game 3 solid times heading into the final climb. On the final climb I went to the front, hit the corner so hard I nearly crashed, then jumped and hammered it.
It's a stair-step climb, so at the top of the first step I looked at my gap. It was huge. No one wanted to chase me down, up a hill and into a stiff wind. I saw that and went for it. Buried it on the flat while I was out of sight, shifted to the little ring and threshold-climbed/TT'd up the steps, down the descent and through the finish.
I was clear by 30 seconds, at least.
Good times. They totally erase the nasty taste I had from yesterdays RR.