recneps

Wow, probably the best orgranized race I have ever been to, everything started perfectly on time, free water and food everwhere, plenty of john, course officials were awesome. There is not one thing you could say bad about this race, except I did horribly.

Stage 1 TT: Had a mechanical on my way to the starting line (really loose rear hub) missed my start time by 7 minutes. Had a good TT though, by my watch I ran a 17:01, fast time was a 16:09 or something like that, I would have been sitting around 25th in gc and only a minute down.

State 2 circuit race: Feeling good, course suited me, got caught behind the second crash which took out more than half the field. I had one of those split moments where I see one guy laying in the road I look left and right no way to get out so I grab two big handfuls of brake and hold my bars. I think something like 25 guys hit the ground in the wreck. There were like 4 guys in a ditch, plenty with un-ridable wheels and a guy with a broken bike. I get up and my stem is facing the wrong way I pull out my tool and straighten it, I might be able to get back. I start to ride and realize ive got two flats, someone hates me. Sram did neutral support and had zipp 404s for us to ride, ehhh so it wasnt all bad. I do as much work with a few guys trying to get back but end up finishing something like 4 minutes behing the field.

Stage 3 Downtown crit: Legs feel ****ty but a long warm-up cures it, too long. I get to the start with 15 minutes to spare. but every single other cat 4 is already on the line, yeup I'm starting dead f#@king last. I decided to start about 20m back and get a running start through the field, It works well I pass about 30 guys before the first corner. I see some guy taking a drink of of his water bottle hit the curb hard and sprawl over the pavement, I think to my self I wonder if he hit that fire hydrant. I spend the next 15 minutes way above my limit trying to get up to the front. just passing guys on the climb and paying for it on the down hill. around 15 minutes in a gap keeps opening between the guys whos wheel im on and the guy in front of him. I close it but blow up doing so, and get gapped myself, then recover and close it, and blow up and recover and close it. After about 5 times of doing this I think to myself I dont really want to ride my bike anymore and conceed to sit on a chase group that got pulled.

Stage 4 Road race: This stage ended in a 3 mile 6% climb, I was pretty excited about it, it was my kind of race and the weather was nice. The roads and scenery were awesome. I decided well before I got to the race to sit-in until the climb. So I sat in ate and drank water. we get to the descent, and at the first corner a guy over cooks it and rides right into the side of a mountain st 25mph, dust and rock go flying everywhere, I dont think hes going to be racing the rest of the season. I descent is amazing, flowy corners, no traffic, not a spot of gravel pavement is perfect, everyone seemed comfortable doing 45+ close together. I brake a spoke with 10miles to go, ****, I think about a wheel change but decided agaisnt it since my spare wheels are alu and I had carbon pads and the braking sucks, so I open my caliper up and tough it out. We get to the climb and the selection starts. ~30 guys make it to the 5k mark together. 15 of us at 3k. by this point I'm already way past my limit, no attacks for me. at 1k I'm at a sprinting hr keeping in touch with everyone else. I see other people blowup and go backwards. at 500m we look around at each other a the guy wearing yellow starts to give it some more gas. I see myself start to go backwards and stand up to regain some ground, blow up and wave bye bye to the final 7 guys to go up ahead. I cross the line 9th and feel like ****.

I think I ended up in something like 60th on gc, but if I didnt have such bad luck I think I definatly had the form to be in top 10. But honestly there were guys there way too strong to race in the 4 field. anyways great race I encourage anyone here to go race it next year.