Kermis 40+. I have some kind of sinus infection and was this close >||< to skipping the race, but "compromised" by deciding to race just one field instead of two.

Interesting race, a 1.6 mile dead-flat, windy loop with a couple of turns, a chicane, and a 180. Part of the course is super wide and part is narrow (like bike path narrow). The 180 is wide-to-narrow and had a tailwind coming out of it, so, an obvious place for field separation.

Four ringers in the field, and a course that is made for a break, very likely all of those guys would be in the move that stuck. I stayed near the front and followed every early move that had one of the ringers in it, but nothing was going to stay away unless it had all of them.

The pace was high, coming out of the 180 was a 5 second full sprint on every lap, and the headwind was deadly on the front stretch, so staying in position to go with the eventual move was no sleigh ride. I was clipping pedals all over the place trying to keep speed through the 180 and the hard narrow-to-wide left hander. About 20 minutes in, 3rd wheel coming through the 180, I clipped a pedal hard enough to skip the rear and make a ruckus that sounded like a crash. The guys ahead of me instantly drilled it. Just out of the 180, tailwind, narrow course, both guys were ringers, this was definitely the move. 5 seconds at 1k to get on and whee, me and two ringers (both former national champs, I think). Three other guys joined us, including the other two ringers, and we had 10 seconds on the field within a lap.

Unfortunately I was at the end of my rope and my health was heading to zero fast, with no power-ups available on the course. It's been clear to me this year that racing successfully is about having enough of a physical buffer to be able to spend mental energy, if that makes any sense. I had no physical buffer left, so it became hard to concentrate on holding wheels and cornering efficiently. I got gapped by two guys on the super headwindy front stretch and dragged the other three back, a hard 15 second effort entirely caused by lack of mental focus. Made it through the rest of that lap, but the next time into the headwind I got gapped again, this time off the back of the break, and that was it, my body just said "done". I think we had 15 seconds on the field at that point, but I had absolutely nothing left. I rolled off the course and went and got a waffle. I remember thinking at the time, this is not a choice my brain is making, this is a decision my body has made.

Looking at the numbers post facto, they were high but not out of control. While in the break, average speed 27.5, average power 110% of FTP. The separation was made and there were 6 guys. In a healthy state I believe could have kept that up for another 15 minutes. I don't think there's any universe where I would have placed higher than 5th, though.

The takeaway is: positive that I read the race right and made the all-star break. Negative that I got dropped, obviously, but the positive lesson is not to be an idiot and race when sick.


The moment of surrender, photo by BF user "ketchup." Break is just offscreen right. Field visible in the distance.