Never before have I had such a good time having my arse handed to me on a platter!

Awesome humiliation.

Fell off the back a bit first time up the climb. Worked my butt off and quickly grabbed the pack again. I did the entire first lap at the back of the peloton, and the view, the sound in there through the canopy of trees on that course was wonderful.
I went through the st/fin line with the group at speed.

Second lap was real interesting.
Lost the group up the climb again, but this time could not catch them. That's the thing...the intensity of the group is over my head. They're just riding tempo...I'm blowing up and still can't keep up. Great respect.

A real nice moment came when the 4-5's, who started later, caught me. Suddenly I'm swallowed into the lead pack. No one yelled....I did just fine. In fact, two guys said things like, "Nice job man....Keep going, good job."

I really appreciated the kind words and the encouragement.

Third lap, Cylowe, who started in that group, caught me too.
All I heard was, "This is humiliating."

I knew my family was waiting for me to play boat captain at the lake house for a big family party...I had my taste of racing and was all alone and blown up anyway, so I pulled off after three laps.

Great time with CyLowe and his family afterward....recursive spent the evening dining/drinking/fireworks with us as well.

Congrats to him and teammate Randy King....You guys rock.

JDub -- thanks for getting a shot of me. I think that was you offering me water on the last climb of the day for me, wasn't it? My brother, I appreciated the words of encouragement soooo much...thank you...and thanks for taking all these pix at these races...awesome work.

Let me pull a couple of pix and post later....hang on...