Fitchburg! If yesterday I went out with a bang, today it was with a whimper. It was wet. Very wet. I don't even remember the last time I raced a crit in the rain. That wasn't a huge factor, but it didn't help. I had some major visibility problems in the first few laps and had to take off my glasses. Even eating wheel spray, I could see far better without them than with them. Go figure. Almost got myself dropped taking them off, though.
It was a nervous peloton and there were some crashes. I avoided them this time around. Never really felt strong, and that's not good because this is a hard course with lots of pedaling on the long uphill front stretch. Making matters worse, we had a pretty consistent tailwind up that stretch. To make a long story short, my goals shifted during the race from "get to the front and race," to "hang out and wait for the last few laps" to "just hang on until the end" to "don't get yourself pulled from the race." I finally got unhitched for good around three to go, managed to TT my way to the finish. It's been a tough three days. Good fun, for the most part, though I admit a lot of today was just gritting it out to finish. Literally, given all the sand in my teeth, blech. I wouldn't have forgiven myself for not starting this race after the way things finished in Worcester.