This is true. So, as an avid lurker, I'll post up my report from this weekend:
Mississippi Gran Prix Stage Race Cat 3/4: 61 mile road race Saturday morning, 2.9 mile TT Saturday evening, 60 minute criterium Sunday morning
Field Size: ~45

Road Race: My power meter wouldn't respond on Saturday morning, so I was racing for the first time without power data. Starting out, everything was pretty calm with a couple of attacks and breakaways that got reeled back in. I told myself I would not go with any early moves, but if anything promising went with 10-15 miles to go, I would think about it. Well . . . I saw something go at about mile 26. There were 7 guys off the front. I decided it was time to go, so I attacked going into a turn, and bridged up with two other guys. I just BARELY made the connection, my heart rate got up to 199 during the four minute bridge. Once I made the break, I decided it was a promising breakaway of 10. We had representation from all teams with numbers and strength in the race. The problem was, there was absolutely no coordination when I made contact. It took us a mile or so, but another racer and I got the rotation organized, the break got coordinated and started doing work. Teams behind were blocking any chase, and by mile 40, we had a minute on the field. The next time check came at mile 45 where we found out we had a minute and a half. Knowing we still had 16 miles to go, I think everyone in the break realized we had to keep working.
I always suffer with cramps when it's hot. It was about 80F during the road race and the cramps hit me at mile 51. I was SO frustrated. I felt fine physically, it just seemed like nutrition was not there. So, I was stuck in no mans land, thinking I only had maybe a minute on the peleton as I watched the remaining 9 from the break ride away from me. I took a gamble, massaged the cramps out and kept the pressure on until the finish. I ended up losing 3 1/2 minutes to the break, but holding the peleton off by almost two minutes since apparently they had REALLY given up any thought of a chase. So that put me solidly in 10th place GC going into the TT.

Time Trial: Without my power meter to stare at, and nothing to gain or lose in the TT really with being solidly in 10th GC, I lacked a bit of motivation. My brother, racing his first race as a freshly upgraded Cat 4 was my 30-second man, so I used that as motivation to push hard and to push him. I just pushed the best I could, went off of RPE and hoped for a somewhat decent time. It felt really slow and awfully unsmooth (is that a word?). I finished the TT in 9th place, about 19 seconds off of the winning time. My brother held me off and placed a very solid 23rd (within a second of a top-20).


Criterium: The crit was basically an ELL shape with a little hill about 200 meters from the start/finish. Being a 60-minute crit and having a pretty decent cushion on 11th place in GC (and no real shot at moving up any in GC), I figured to sit in the whole race, then hope to help my teammate in the last few laps. A solo break went away about 25 mintues in, then another ride joined him several minutes later. They stayed away for the remainder of the race to take the top 2 places. Then, any plans I had went even further to hell when my teammate crashed about 50 minutes into the crit (broke his hip). I lost all motivation to do anything other than sit on the back and pack finish. So . . . that's what I did. Looking back, I may should have tried to bridge when that second rider went. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess . . .


Overall:
Road Race: 10th
Time Trial: 9th
Criterium: 24th
GC: 10th