jameskpolk

Congrats! To Janders, as well, and to the rest of you non-MA folks.

I never checked the board at the race, and the results aren't up online yet, but I figure top-20.

I rolled OTF at the start of the 3rd lap, and three others came up to join me. They were from three different well-represented teams, and we got reasonable separation, so I had some hope, but it wasn't to be. Three of us got swallowed at the bottom of the descent, and the fourth didn't hold out much longer. I wasn't spat out of the pack immediately, which means I didn't go hard enough in the break. It had felt plenty hard at the time, but my legs were OK coming up the first steps of the finishing hill, so I started to work my way to the front. And made my second mistake by not being aggressive enough in doing so. I think things would have gone OK - no podium contention, but a goodly shot at top-10 - if a guy to my inside and just ahead hadn't crashed out. I'm not sure what the cause was, but I had to grab a little shoulder to get around things. Passed a few of the guys just ahead, but couldn't close the gap with those who'd been on the smart side of the crash.

Lot of fun. I'll take a break over the pack any day.

In other news, the cat3 field caught the masters 40+ pack on the finishing climb. And the marshals didn't neutralize anyone. A break of two had won the masters, but their field was sprinting for 3rd at the same time the 3s were in a full field sprint. The cat3 winner was in a photo finish with a couple of masters. Not surprisingly, general carnage ensued. I'm not sure what the best way to handle the situation would have been, but that probably wasn't it. Too bad, considering everything else the race has going for it.