Originally Posted by mattm

Chico Stage race, pro/1: failure.

It was one of those weekends that made me doubt whether or not my training is good enough, whether or not I should continue with this sport, and if I should just sell my bike! Luckily my gf & team mates talked me off the ledge lol. Still, it was tough on the ego.

Stage 1, circuit race. 90 minutes on a race car track, no real climbing but exposed to the wind. Surfed wheels and tried to stay out of the wind. With 4 ~1-mile laps to go, I ended up on the back, got gapped in a headwind and couldn't close it. Got pulled but placed (not DFL, others had popped before me). I don't get dropped in races often, unless they're p/1 races.. But VoS was p/1 and I did fine, who knows.

Watched Justin Williams win the race from a late break. He's on another level, even from the pros there.

Stage 2, 90 mile RR. Was doing fine, then about 40 miles in my bike started making a high-pitched kind of squealing sound.. WTF. I filtered to the back to figure out what was going on, wondering if I should get a new wheel or what. I was racing on some really old Ksyriums bc the Zipps were in the shop.. turns out the rear hub is basically shot, and 60% of the time I coasted it would make that sound!

Hit the 4-mile gravel section on the back of the pack, got gapped, and never caught back up. Finished the rest of the race, but it sucked.

Anyway I blame it on inconsistent training, a hard race, and that blown hub wasn't helping me go any faster!!

DNS'd the TT & crit the next day, which was tough to do bc I love crits, I like the course too. I could have gotten another wheel and soldiered on, but didn't want to race a big crit like that on a borrowed wheel I didn't trust.

On top of all those excuses, my injured finger hasn't really healed up properly, so doing another crit with it didn't sound as appealing.

So, I'm not quitting the sport, but I will take a week or two off to finally let my finger heal, and get back in the game soon!