Spring Tuneup Road Race - Oxford, Ohio (Rescheduled from early March)

Cat 5 16th
TL;DR - Quit trying to be a hero and thinking you're invincible

Typical of my races lately. I decided to stay on the wheel of one of our series leaders, and not let him get away. That worked out great for the first half of the race. I covered every attack, but we couldn't get away - the group always came back to us. Probably at least 6-8 attacks in the first half. Kept things fun though.

Then, the one time I decided to let someone else do some work, a 4 man break went. By the time I realized what was happening it was too late. Blew up in amazing fashion trying to bridge and almost pulled the group to the leaders, but when I let someone pull through to finish the bridge I got shot off the back...bad...like 200 meters behind. Chase didn't work and the break stuck. I thought about quitting..seriously, it was that demoralizing to be right there for so long and then watch the group slowly pulling away. I decided to harden up and I basically solo time trialed for 7 miles back to the group. Then I just surfed wheels for about 5 miles. The guy in the break had about 6 teammates and they slowed the pace to a casual group-ride (Good for them, teamwork in a Cat5 race was nice to see). I pulled ahead and tried to get a pace-line going to catch the break, but it was a complete failure. I'd take my quick pull, go to rotate and then watch as the next guy just sat on the front and wouldn't get off. Oh well, that's why we're down here in the 5s. I got bored about 1.5 km out and attacked again. This race isn't in the series, and was more a training ride for me than anything - I figured I may as well try to get out in front before the final hill to the finish. That failed miserably, but at least I tried to mix it up a little.

I've absolutely got to get better at recovering after efforts and hiding in the pack. Every time I'd cover an attack, I'd stay near the front instead of dropping back to the middle and actually catch my breath. Next thing you know I'm shuffled back into the front.