Good and bad...

I suited up for a stupid wet afternoon of racing at the Carl Dolan Memorial race. It was on a nice, but a bit boring, course about 20 mins from Baltimore. 2.1 miles per lap with only one real corner which was at the bottom of a hill. I was to line up for the masters 30+ and then the 1-2-3 race later in the day. It pissed on us in the 30+ with several inches of standing water on the lower parts of course, but it was pretty safe with no one falling down till the last kilometer. That said, I did have a close call whit some dude who though his spokes were tougher than my rear derailleur—my derailleur won. I felt bad for about 20 secnds and i got squeezed a bit and may have drifted towards this guy. Then in the next flurry of attacks this guy does his best "Moses parts the red sea" impression by screaming "MIDDLE!!!!" while trying to push through the center of the field about 20 guys back.

Anyhoo, as a team we were pretty aggressive either initiating or covering just about every move. WIth a few laps left we got to the top of the climb and i could feel the lull coming. Below is a picture of me taking the situation on to my own hands and throwing the attack.


This turned out to be the winning move as two big players in the field decided to join me. Here is a shot of the break a little later in the race. notice two things: It stopped raining, and I'm not there.


I was packing up pretty bad and still trying to work, but I guess the guys thought I was trying to be disruptive. I swung off a pull and the guy in the back let a gap open and then jumped me. I was pretty much pegged and couldn't close the gap, game over. I got back in the field and was pissed off and put that to use in the sprint nabbing 4th over all.

The 1-2-3 race was fast and furious. then the rain/hail/wind/thunder started. The wind took out the tent at the finish line and the officials called the races due to the large amount of lightning. Kind a bummer to not get to finish the race, but racing in that shit twice in one day was enough for me.

The fitness is coming along, and I think in a month I'll be rolling pretty well.

For more images of the race check out Jim Wilson's photos.